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

Introduction
Drafting your research paper is like
creating a painting from an initial sketch.
A rough sketch provides
an overall plan for the
painting.

Then, an artist uses

paint to add color and
detail.

Introduction
You have already sketched out your ideas
in an early organizational plan, which you
developed into a formal outline.
Now you will add
details and
transitions to build
your outline into a
first draft.

Writing your first draft

Your introduction is your chance to capture your readers attention and state
your thesis.
Pique your audiences
curiosity with a striking
detail or quotation.

Provide necessary
background information.

Transition smoothly to
your thesis statement.

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.
McKays 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 draft

Each 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. McKays
education in Jamaica came from
both formal and informal sources.

Writing your first draft

Each 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. McKays 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 draft

As you develop your body paragraphs, you must elaborate on the material in
your outline.

Support main points with facts,

statistics, reasons, examples, or
quotations from your notes.

Clarify connections between

concepts by synthesizing information
and using transition words and
phrases.

Writing your first draft

Use transitions to integrate summaries, paraphrases, and quotations smoothly
into your writing.

McKay published the collection Songs of Jamaica

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

Writing your first draft

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.

A parenthetical citation lists the authors last name and the page
number that contains the information.
In these poems, McKay uses dialect to capture the
musical voices of his homeland (Rashad 44).
Your readers can refer to a citation to locate the appropriate entry in
your Works Cited list.
Rashad, Harim. Claude McKays Dialect Poems. New
York: Literary Press, 2005.

Writing your first draft

An effective conclusion provides a final assessment of your ideas without
repeating your introduction.

McKays early poems reflect his

move from Jamaica to the United
States. By contrasting McKays
works created in Jamaica with
Review the purpose of your
those written in New York,
research and draw final
readers learn how facing
conclusions about your topic.
discrimination changed McKays
purpose for writing poetry.
Close your paper by leaving McKay inspired further
the reader with a new
generations to use poetry as a
thought or insight.
form of social protest.
Leave a strong impression
by restating the thesis.

Tech Tool: Wikis

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

Drafting your work in a wiki allows you to:

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
Use the toolbar at the
programs.
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.

Hyperlink text

Insert images

Some wikis also allow you to insert

plug-ins such as video clips,
calendars, or picture slideshows.

Attach files

Tech Tool: Storyboards

You may be drafting a multimodal
presentation, a format that combines text
can use a storyboard to
withYou
images
and sound.
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 students
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.

Revising your draft

Once your initial draft is complete, you are
ready to begin revising your draft. Ask
yourself the following questions about your
1. Does my introduction grab the readers attention, provide an
draft:
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

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

5. Have I credited sources when necessary?

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

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

8. Does my conclusion restate my thesis?

Tech Tool: Using Find to help in

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

To access this feature,

select Find from the Edit
menu.

You can search for

words you might
overuse.

Tech Tool: Using Find to help in

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

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

McKay portrayed the voices of the Jamaican people
in these poems, and he idealized their way of life.
Search for which or that to find complex sentences.
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
Even a single error can cause your audience
to
the credibility
of your
information.
bedoubt
legible
and
error-free.
During the Red Summer of
1919, McKay established a
2919,
new purpose for his poetry.

Proofreading and correcting your

draft
Ask yourself these questions to guide your
1. Have
I used conventions of punctuation correctly, including
proofreading:
italics, ellipses, and dashes?

2. Have I placed and punctuated my citations according to MLA

or APA format?
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
1.

Discuss these questions with your

In what order do you usually write the sections (introduction, body,
classmates.
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
At least six slides
following elements in your storyboard:
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