The Drafting Process

Drafting:
When writing a paper, there are many helpful steps to accomplish. One is selecting a topic; another is putting your thoughts down on paper. Each time you think of something to put in the paper, you are drafting the paper. One of the many definitions of “drafting” is “writing a first version to be filled out and polished later”. That is exactly what you have to do. When you draft a paper, you are expanding on your thoughts, outlining what you want to say with the paper. You are trying to fill all the requirements for the paper, while trying to tell a story. If you are drafting a paper, you are writing several versions of a paper, each draft being better than the first.

You would not, for example, just turn in a major paper with only your first thoughts as the completed paper. You make the paper better by finishing what you began to say, by filling in details. When you write an essay in class, like the response essays, you are writing without having all the details about what you could write. You are writing it without drafting because you have only one chance to write your thoughts. You don’t have the option of coming back to finish what you say. A paper is going to be left hanging or unfinished if it is written without the writer having the chance to complete the drafting process. This is why completed papers have the potential of greatness; the drafting process allows you to say something, and have it be exactly what needs to be said.
--Simmons

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Writing should be done as a process. It takes time and working through mistakes really have a "finished product." I really like writing in drafts and being able to revise them. Having input from others helps to make you a better writer and realize what your strengths and weaknesses are. It also helps you to grow as a writer and realize what strategies you should use to approach writing a paper, and which ones you should try to stay away from. I feel that writing in drafts is much more effective than having to write just a "cold" essay. I know that I personally feel pressured and mess up my writing much more when I know there is a time limit or that it is my only shot at writing the essay. I don't feel that writing done in time limits or at one sit down is a good reflection of what that writer really might be capable of. I prefer writing in drafts and getting to critique my own work as well as having others give me their input about my work. This is really benificial in the long run and helps me to grow as a writer much more efficiently than sitting down and writing multiple papers and essays and only having one shot at them. -- Kave