Drafting and Revising

Drafting and Revising•Introduction•Writing your first draft•Revising your draft•Proofreading and correcting your draft•Talk About It•Your Turn

•Tech Tools in this presentation• Wikis• Storyboards• Using Find to help in revision

A rough sketch provides an overall plan for the painting.

Introduction•Drafting your research paper is like creating a painting from an initial sketch.

Then, an artist uses paint to add color and detail.

Now you will add details and transitions to build your outline into a first draft.

Introduction•You have already sketched out your ideas in an early organizational plan, which you developed into a formal outline.

Writing your first draftYour introduction is your chance to capture your reader’s attention and state your thesis.

Transition smoothly to your thesis statement.

Provide necessary background information.

Pique your audience’s curiosity with a striking detail or quotation.

“Into the furnace let me go alone” (McKay 15). In this line, poet Claude McKay describes the anguish of facing discrimination. He wrote the line in response to the racial conflicts he witnessed after moving to New York City. McKay’s early poetry collections reflect how his life changed after he immigrated to the United States from Jamaica.

“Into the furnace let me go alone” (McKay 15). In this line, poet Claude McKay describes the anguish of facing discrimination. He wrote the line in response to the racial conflicts he witnessed after moving to New York City. McKay’s early poetry collections reflect how his life changed after he immigrated to the United States from Jamaica.

“Into the furnace let me go alone” (McKay 15). In this line, poet Claude McKay describes the anguish of facing discrimination. He wrote the line in response to the racial conflicts he witnessed after moving to New York City. McKay’s early poetry collections reflect how his life changed after he immigrated to the United States from Jamaica.

Writing your first draft•As you write the body of your paper, each main section (I, II, III level) will become the topic of one or more paragraphs.

Claude McKay was born and raised in Sunny Ville, Jamaica.

Writing your first draftEach subtopic in your outline (A, B, C level) will become the main idea of one or more paragraphs in your paper.

Claude McKay was born and raised in Sunny Ville, Jamaica. McKay’s education in Jamaica came from both formal and informal sources.

Writing your first draftEach supporting detail (1, 2, 3 level) in your outline will provide facts, reasons, and examples to support your main ideas.

Claude McKay was born and raised in Sunny Ville, Jamaica. McKay’s education in Jamaica came from both formal and informal sources. McKay had nine older siblings. One of his older brothers, a teacher, took on the responsibility of providing his early schooling.

Writing your first draftAs you develop your body paragraphs, you must elaborate on the material in your outline.

Clarify connections between concepts by synthesizing information and using transition words and phrases.

Support main points with facts, statistics, reasons, examples, or quotations from your notes.

McKay published the collection Songs of Jamaica in 1912. “McKay is able to capture the musical voices of his homeland” (Rashad 44).

McKay published the collection Songs of Jamaica in 1912. In these poems, McKay uses dialect to “capture the musical voices of his homeland” (Rashad 44).

The quotation in this example disrupts the flow of ideas by introducing a new idea without proper connection.

Adding a transition before the quotation clarifies the connection between the author’s ideas.

Writing your first draftUse transitions to integrate summaries, paraphrases, and quotations smoothly into your writing.

Writing your first draft

Your readers can refer to a citation to locate the appropriate entry in your Works Cited list.

Remember to cite the source of any quotation, fact, or idea from a source other than you. Use parenthetical citations to credit sources within your paper.

In these poems, McKay uses dialect to “capture the musical voices of his homeland” (Rashad 44).

A parenthetical citation lists the author’s last name and the page number that contains the information.

Rashad, Harim. Claude McKay’s Dialect Poems. New York: Literary Press, 2005.

Writing your first draftAn effective conclusion provides a final assessment of your ideas without repeating your introduction.

McKay’s early poems reflect his move from Jamaica to the United States.

Review the purpose of your research and draw final conclusions about your topic.

Leave a strong impression by restating the thesis.

Close your paper by leaving the reader with a new thought or insight.

McKay’s early poems reflect his move from Jamaica to the United States. By contrasting McKay’s works created in Jamaica with those written in New York, readers learn how facing discrimination changed McKay’s purpose for writing poetry.

McKay’s early poems reflect his move from Jamaica to the United States. By contrasting McKay’s works created in Jamaica with those written in New York, readers learn how facing discrimination changed McKay’s purpose for writing poetry. McKay inspired further generations to use poetry as a form of social protest.

Tech Tool: Wikis

Drafting your work in a wiki allows you to:

If you have access to a wiki for your research project, consider using it to compose drafts of your paper.

save and review all versions of your paper easily

receive feedback on your work throughout the process

access your work from any Internet-ready computer

Tech Tool: Wikis•The Edit page mode of a wiki offers the same features as most word-processing programs.

Use the toolbar at the top of the screen to format your text.

Remember to save your work often!

Tech Tool: Wikis•The wiki toolbar also includes buttons to add multimedia components to your draft.

Insert images

Some wikis also allow you to insert plug-ins such as video clips, calendars, or picture slideshows.

Attach filesHyperlink text

Tech Tool: Storyboards•You may be drafting a multimodal presentation, a format that combines text with images and sound.

You can use a storyboard to describe how text, images, and sound go together in your multimodal presentation.

Your storyboard can be accompanied by a script that presents any narration that you will use.

Tech Tool: Storyboards•Here is an example of a student’s storyboard for a multimodal presentation about the poetry of Claude McKay.

The simple sketches on the left represent images used in the project.

The notations on the right explain audio, video, and animation components.

•Once your initial draft is complete, you are ready to begin revising your draft. Ask yourself the following questions about your draft:

Revising your draft

1. Does my introduction grab the reader’s attention, provide an overview of the topic, and state my thesis?

2. Does my thesis include a clear controlling idea?

3. Have I supported my ideas with factual information?

Revising your draft

6. Have I used correct MLA or APA format in my citations?

7. Have I presented my ideas in a logical order?

4. Have I used paraphrases, summaries, and direct quotations effectively?

5. Have I credited sources when necessary?

8. Does my conclusion restate my thesis?

You can use the Find feature of your word-processing program to help you proofread your research paper.

Tech Tool: Using Find to help in revision

To access this feature, select Find from the Edit menu.

You can search for words you might overuse.

The Find feature can also show you if you have overused a certain type of sentence construction in your writing.

Tech Tool: Using Find to help in revision

Search for and, but, or, for, so to locate compound sentences.

Search for which or that to find complex sentences.

McKay portrayed the voices of the Jamaican people in these poems, and he idealized their way of life.

McKay became an editor for The Liberator, which allowed him to reach a wider literary audience.

Proofreading and correcting your draft

•Proofread and correct your work to polish it for your audience. Regardless of your final publishing format, your final product should be legible and error-free.

Even a single error can cause your audience to doubt the credibility of your information.

During the “Red Summer” of 1919, McKay established a new purpose for his poetry.

During the “Red Summer” of 2919, McKay established a new purpose for his poetry.

Proofreading and correcting your draft

• Ask yourself these questions to guide your proofreading:

2. Have I placed and punctuated my citations according to MLA or APA format?

1. Have I used conventions of punctuation correctly, including italics, ellipses, and dashes?

3. Have I spelled all words correctly?

Online dictionaries such as YourDictionary.com and Dictionary.com can help you check your spelling.

Talk About It• Discuss these questions with your classmates.

1. In what order do you usually write the sections (introduction, body, conclusion) of a research paper? Why? What does this tell you about your writing?

2. Have you ever used a wiki to draft a paper? Would you try it in the future? Why or why not?

3. For what types of projects might you draft your work in a wiki? in a storyboard?

4. How could you use the Find feature in a word-processing program to edit your work? Think about words that you overuse or frequently misspell.

Your Turn•Brainstorm a topic with which you are familiar. Then, storyboard a multimodal presentation about the topic. Include the following elements in your storyboard:

• At least six slides

• Descriptions or sketches of the content of each slide

• Notations about audio and video components

• Notes that show the audio narration that will accompany each slide

The End