Drafting and Revising the Essay

Most professional writers would agree that writing and rewriting  DRAFTS is the basis for most successful authors. Academic writing is no different; student writers must be prepared to write a draft, revise it, and than write an other draft. This process may occur several times: drafting and revising, drafting and revising, until an essay for a technical report, or a research paper is ready for the audiences.

The strategies for drafting an essay for a first-year composition class, an argumentative paper for a speech class, or a master's thesis have the same general objectives:

1. an introduction that,
   a. appeals to the needs and interests of the audience.
   b. gives background information about the topic.
   c. has a strong, clear thesis statement (of opinion and/or intent) that gives the main idea of the essay

2. body paragraph that
   a. have topic sentences that relate to the thesis statement and that contain controlling ideas.
   b. contain supporting sentences that explain, define, and/or illustrate the controlling ideas by using facts, example. physical description, and/or personal experience.

   c. present material that uses appropriate methods of development.

3. a conclusion that
   A. summarizes the main idea (s) in the essay
   B. emphasizes the important points.
   C. offers a prediction, a solution, or recommendation.

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Exercise ( Drafting and Revising)

Choose one of the subjects below (or choose a topic of your own) for an essay that will explain something. The essay will be 500-700 words long.

Subjects
Transportation in My country
How to study for the TOEFL Examination
American Slang Words
Why I am Majoring in......

The Audience

Pada kesempatan kali ini saya akan menuliskan kelanjutan dari The Fundamental of Writing, yaitunya The Audience. Sebelumnya saya juga telah menulis tentang  Objectives of the course. 

Two essential rules for the course are.;
1. write about what you know
2. always write for an audience

The audience is an essential concept for all writers. Writers choose their subjects and their methods of presenting material (diction, sentence structure, organization) according to who will read the finished product.

In order to communicate successfully, to write essays that have interest and value, you must decide,

a. Who you are: a student? a son or daughter? an expert?
b. Who your audience is? classmates? parents? the admission officer?

Your decisions about who you are and who your audiences is will determine;

a. What you write: What does your audience KNOW? What are the interests, the needs, and the expectation of your audience? What does  your audience Not KNOW? What might your audience want to know? What do you know that you can communicate to your audience?

b. How you write: will you use short sentences and simple language? Will you use sophisticated concepts and terms? will you use charts or photographs?

Joy M. Reid
Colorado state university

The Fundamental of Writing

Objectives of the Course

This is a course in essay writing. That implies that you must master certain skills that will enable you to write competent university essays. You must understand and be able to produce the techniques by which academic writers communicate to academic audiences. At the end of the course, you will able to demonstrate a command of the following skills:

1.      Prewriting: Think before writing

a.       Understand the assignment

b.      Choose a subject that you are interested in.

c.       Narrow the subject so that it can be adequately covered within the limits of the assignment

d.      Collect ideas

e.       Consider the audience

2.      Organization: write straightforward prose

a.       Begin and end the paper clearly

b.      Write a thesis statement of opinion and/or intent

c.       Move smoothly from one paragraph to another

3.      Development: support ideas

a.       Use specific details to explain general ideas

b.      Use facts, example, phsycal description, and personal experience to develop ideas

4.      Revision: look again, change adn strengthen

a.       Reconsider the needs of the audience

b.      Reconsider the purpose(s) of the paper

5.      Grammar and mechanics

a.       Use language with precision

b.      Avoid common errors of grammar and sentence structure

c.       Strengthen writing trough editing

Joy M. Reid\ colorado state university