Composing / Drafting

“In the composing stage of the writing process, your concern shifts from experimenting with ideas and gathering information to expanding on your ideas and structuring them into effective, coherent prose.”

"The stage in the writing process wherein you put down your ideas in the form of connected sentences and paragraphs."

From the Research:

A.) Review

• Reviewing your prewriting
• Reviewing your thesis and outline
• Using multiple windows (on the computer)

B.) Draft

• Using writing rituals
• Avoiding writer’s block
• Return to prewriting if necessary -- for review, for more idea generation
• Using the top-down method
  • Using your preliminary thesis statement
  • Using your preliminary outline
  • Push through from beginning to end
• Using the building-block technique
  • Create a group of building blocks (paragraphs) one at a time
  • Create the skeleton, then flesh it out
  • Write the central blocks first
  • Add introduction and conclusion later
  • Work from easiest to hardest
  • Return to blocks later to develop
• Using the bottom-up method
  • First draft is tentative / exploratory
  • Beginning without a thesis statement
  • Finding the thesis statement as you write, or at the end, then taking it back up to the top for the second draft

C.) When to Paragraph

• Each time you move to a new idea to support the thesis
• If the point is too long
• If the point needs emphasis
• For an extended example

D.) Ordering Supporting Detail into Body Paragraphs

• Each body paragraph focuses on one aspect of the thesis and develops that aspect with adequate and relevant details and other support
• Each body paragraph has a topic sentence
• Each body paragraph will use one or more patterns (or "modes") of development

E.) Supporting Details

• The points made to prove or explain the topic sentence which, in turn, proves or explains the thesis statement
• An essay's success or failure depends upon them
• ADEQUATE DETAIL
  • Back up every generalization to prove or explain it to your reader's satisfaction
  • You cannot expect a reader to accept what you say
  • You must explain and/or prove what you say
  • "Show" and not just "tell"
  • Move from the general to the specific
• RELEVANT DETAIL
  • Must be clearly related to the thesis
• TYPES OF DETAIL
  • Facts
  • Statistics
  • Expert opinions
  • Examples
  • Case Studies
  • Etc.

F.) Collaborate

• Working with a group
• Writing collaboratively
• Collaborating via network

G.) Be flexible about your writing process

• Plan ahead
• Leave enough time for problems that may crop up