8 Chapter 8: Beyond the First Draft
The first seven chapters of this book deal with how to adapt to college writing and how to construct the first draft of a solid academic argument. However, as Chapter 4 points out, very few “good” writing projects go through only a single draft. After the first draft is written, students need to remember that their writing project is a dynamic thing–it’s not finished yet, and it likely will not be finished until the student and the teacher both agree that the work is complete.
After the first draft, there are common problems and challenges that writers face.
STALLING OUT
“Writer’s Block” is basically a convenient excuse that comes up whenever someone is struggling to make a desirable amount of progress on a written project. Writer’s Block is, in an academic sense, a fiction. It is a meaningless excuse that ignores the reality of academic writing.
Overview: It is likely that during the course of a writing project, a writer will get frustrated or tired. This happens with almost any job or task. However, professional cab drivers don’t get to complain about ‘navigation block’ and lawyers rarely talk about ‘cross-examination’ block. The reason is obvious—because the requirements of a job are requirements. This is why few professional writers actually talk about writer’s block as a real thing.
Typically, stalling out happens in one part of the process. For example, someone working on a feasibility study might struggle to explain the technical aspects of a project. Likewise, a lawyer might struggle to think up the perfect phrasing for a particular argument. However, in such cases the professional simply works around this difficulty.
Academic writing has the same potential for ‘working around’ the supposed inability to write.
Application: College students are prone to accept writer’s block as a reality because it is convenient and because they do not know any better. However, academic writing is way too complex of a task for the entirety of it to suffer at one time.
Consider when a student complains that ‘I don’t know what else to write.’ Even if this is true, so what? The student could still revise or edit what is already written. The student could work on formatting or constructing the works cited page. Finally, the student could actually go out and read more about the subject, thereby learning more about the topic and finding ‘what else’ there is to write!
What to Avoid: Don’t believe in writer’s block. On a pragmatic level, it is almost always possible to work on some part of the paper (getting closer to one of the writer’s goals, namely being done with the project). On an educational level, student writers need to develop the ability to focus on a problem and overcome it. Finally, professional workplaces to not accept the notion of ‘worker’s block,’ and students need to develop more real-world attitudes.
SERIAL QUESTIONING
Once a writer has a reasonable idea of his or topic, then the next step is typically to try to understand that topic better. One method of gaining better understanding is to ask questions about the topic and then to find answers to those questions.
Overview: One of the difficult things about writing for others is trying to understand what those others need to know. As a consequence, many writers find themselves developing tricks to get outside of their own perspective. Serial questioning, or asking a series of questions about the topic at each stage of the drafting process, can sometimes help writers to shake loose new ideas.
Sometimes, the questions are set—for example, journalists used to be encouraged to look for the who, what, where, when, why, and how of a story. Sometimes, the questions need to vary from topic to topic. However, the important thing is that the writer develops the habit of stepping back from a draft and evaluating what is missing from the work as it is presented.
Application: For college writers, serial questioning can be an effective means of content generation. When writing a paper to a minimum word count (or page length), student writers frequently struggle to add content. However, serial questioning can give students ideas about new information to add or new places to look for ideas.
If you are fortunate enough to have someone around (a classmate, a roommate, or a family member), you might want to ask your companion for questions about the topic—“what do you still want or need to know after reading my paper?” Remember that most of the people who are going to be working with you are going to be inclined to be gentle with your paper and with your feelings, so use outside questions as a place to get started, not as an excuse to believe that you have now thought of everything.
What to Avoid: Don’t assume that all questions are created equal, and don’t leave the answers to questions unchanged when incorporating them into the text of the essay. Serial questioning generates ideas, but the writer still has to make the effort to integrate these ideas into the whole. Avoid thinking of questions as something bad. Curiosity is a powerful force, and curiosity about an academic subject almost always provides the opportunity to learn something (see writing to learn).
REVISION
Few writers get everything right on the first try. As a result, most writers find themselves needing to make changes and adjustments as they write. Once a project is ‘finished,’ it frequently needs to be looked at for oversights, mistakes, or even unnecessary additions. This process, known as revision, is essential to academic writing.
Overview: Revision is not the same thing as editing. With editing, the goal is to fix minor mistakes while preserving the form, tone, structure, and style of the original piece of writing. Revision, on the other hand, is about reconsidering the form, tone, structure, style, and even content of a project.
Too often, novice writers get stuck assuming that just because they have gone through the effort of reading something that they should keep it. One problem is that very few people are able to write well without a little effort and warm-up. Another problem is that sometimes ideas occur to a writer that, while good, just don’t fit into the whole.
Revision is, really, about “re-” visualizing a project and working on it with as much of a willingness to change it as the writer can muster.
Application: Student writers need to be willing to embrace revision. Too often, ‘revision’ for student writers means that they ask someone to look over it for typos (that’s editing) or that they simply add or subtract a couple of sentences. Real revision is hard work, and it should represent a significant portion of the time the writer spends on the paper.
When revising a paper, student writers should consider whether or not each section is necessary, whether or not it adds to the paper’s argument, and whether or not it makes sense. When looking to add content, students should consider elaborating upon ideas or clarifying any confusing passages. Most importantly, students should make sure to adapt each paper to its specific audience.
What to Avoid: Try not to think of a project as “only” the first draft. Remember that a 5-page paper really isn’t done once five pages are written. A 5-page draft is done. The next step involves being willing to change the work. Student writers need to try not to get too attached to parts of an essay just because they wrote them. Ultimately, it will be the final product that receives a grade, and not the ‘effort’ that the student put in.
EDITING
Whether the problem is a typo, a sentence that got deleted while leaving behind an extra period, or simply a misspelled word, the need for editing is just part of writing. Just as details of personal appearance (a stained shirt, unkempt hair, or the like) can leave a negative impression, so too can details of personal communication.
Overview: Editing involves actively looking for and mistakes. Computer programs are fairly adept at catching major errors, but they are not infallible. Frequently, they will ‘correct’ something only to replace one mistake with another. Additionally, sometimes the programs are just wrong. Most importantly, neither the grade nor the job of the computer program is at stake. Therefore, writers need to be responsible for their own editing.
Frequently, one problem inexperienced writers have with editing is that they do not know what to look for when examining a piece of writing. After all, mistakes sometimes happen not by accident but because the writer is unaware that the mistake is wrong. Therefore, writers need to pay careful attention to the feedback they receive so that they can look for similar issues in the future.
For example, writers who know that they struggle with proper comma usage can make it a point to look at how they use commas. Even if they do not know, specifically, what they are looking for, they can still note places that seem awkward.
Application: When student writers find themselves at a pausing point in their work, reviewing the material should be a simple habit. Reading a work from front-to-back and back-to-front can help reveal mistakes. Additionally, when using computer systems, student writers should try to understand why a correction is being suggested and not just that a suggestion is being made.
Understanding the mechanical rules of academic writing is a difficult task. If students do not make an active effort to study and apply the advice given by others, they will not get better at it.
What to Avoid: Student writers need to make sure that they do not confuse editing with revision. Additionally, students should avoid thinking that having access to ‘the writing center’ or ‘a tutor’ is the same thing as understanding the rules themselves. Student writers need to work on internalizing the rules so that they can improve the overall quality of their writing for future application.