Research Shortcuts

SHORTCUT 32. Zip Through Your First Draft

SHORTCUT 32 Zip Through Your First Draft Students who choose meaty topics, research brilliantly, and take enviable notes, sometimes get totally hung up on the simple task of beginning a paper. They ponder for hours, days, weeks, in front of that first blank page, wondering how to start. Here's a tip to cure writer's block before you catch it: start your paper by plunging in. If, after fifteen minutes of thought, you can't think of a better way, begin with that old grade-school standby, "In this paper I am going to tell about . . . The reason I chose this topic is that ..." Once under sail, the impetus will keep you going. When the paper's all written, it's a great deal easier to find the best first paragraph. That's because, once you're past the introduction, you're into the body of the paper-and the body is nearly completed . All you do, when you write it, is drape your outlined generalizations with the specifics that are there in your notes, and put it all into complete sentences. Write with thought and attention to your ideas, but not to the mechanics of spelling, punctuation, or grammar. At this stage, simply get it said-with as few starts and stops as possible. Don't hunt for the right word, either. If you feel you need reminders, you can type question marks near words that you'd like to improve on. In this draft, the emphasis should be on putting all your material on paper as logically and quickly as you can. Mull over ideas, not their best execution on paper. When you edit this draft, before you print your final paper, you can put spit and polish on your prose. 92 Copyrighted Material Zip Through Your First Draft 93 Don't bother to type precise, detailed references to your sources or bother with footnotes. Instead, key your manuscript to your citations using the author's last name, bibliography reference number, and page number information that heads up each reference. We sometimes put that data in parentheses right after what we're quoting or paraphrasing; sometimes we add it parenthetically at the end of the passage that relies on that research note. When we edit the draft, it's easy to substitute footnotes or end notes, when needed, right from our bibliography sheets. Even when there's no footnoting requirement, it's good to have these reference numbers right there in the first draft. We print the draft and save it in the folder for the project, and if a researcher at our publisher's office asks where we got our information, we can promptly cite the source right down to the page number. If an instructor questions your data, she'll be impressed if you, too, come up with a prompt, complete citation. We recommend that you type your first draft in a good word processing program. Some writers do well writing longhand , but we've found that students who learn to think of words at the computer learn to write well faster because they see a full page at a glance and change it fast if it's not what they meant to say. When you're done, print out the draft and edit it on the printed pages, where you can more easily move back and forth. If you type (or pen) your first draft double-spaced or even triple-spaced, you'll have room between the lines to make revisions. If you leave wide margins (a professional inch-and-a-half at the left and an inch each at the right side, top, and bottom) you'll be able to use the margins to insert notes to yourself and corrections that don't fit between the lines. (The page or two you save now by writing edge to edge will be lost later when you have to print again due to confusing insertions.) Copyrighted Material 94 RESEARCH SHORTCUTS If you come to a subtopic that needs the weight of more specific information than you have, don't stop; just add a reminder in bold type, put it in parentheses, and go on. If you keep up the momentum as you are writing, your paper will be much more cohesive than if it's done in stops and starts. For the same reason, if you suddenly think of a new argument or...