Writing a First Draft: When you write a first draft, be prepared to put in additional thoughts and details that did not emerge during prewriting. And don't worry about grammar, punctuation, or spelling. You don't want to take time correcting words or sentences that you may decide to remove later. Instead, make it your goal to state your main idea clearly and develop the content of you paper with plenty of specific details.
A Student Model: The apple plaint job was worst. Working in an apple plant was the worst job I ever had. The work was physical hard. For a long time ten hours a night, I stacked cartons that rolled down a metal track in a tracter trailer. Each carton had cans or bottles of apple juice, and they were heavy. At the same time, I had to keep a mental count of all the cartons I had loaded. The pay for the job was a bad feature. I was getting the minamum wage at that time plus a quarter extra for night shift. I had to work a lot to get a decent take-home pay. Working conditions were poor at the apple plant, we were limited to short breaks two ten-minute breaks. The truck-loading dock where I was most of the time was a cold and lonely place. Then by myself cleaning up...
Revising: Revising is as much a stage in the writing process as prewriting, outlining, and doing the first draft. Revising means that you rewrite a paper, building upon what has already been done, in order to make it stronger. One writer has said about revision, "It's like cleaning house-getting rid of all the junk and putting things in the right order." It is not just "straightening up"; instead, you must be read to roll up your sleeves and do whatever is needed to create an effective paper. Too many students think that a first draft is the paper. They start to become writers when they realize that revising a rough draft three or four times is often at the heart of the writing process.
Revising Content:
1. Is my paper unified?
Do I have a main idea that is clearly stated at the beginning of my paragraph?
Do all my supporting points truly support and back up my main idea?
2. Is my paper supported?
Are there separate supporting points for the main idea?
Do I have specific evidence for each supporting point?
Is there plenty of specific evidence for the supporting points?
3. Is my paper organized?
Do I have a clear method of organizing my paper?
Do I use transitions and other connecting words?
Revising: A Student Model
First of all
Working in an apple plant was the worst job I ever had. ^ The work was physicaly hard. For ten hours a
25 pounds of bottled
night, I stacked cartons that rolled down a metal track in a tracter trailer. Each carton contained bottles of apple
down the track
juice, and they came ^ nonstop. At the same time, I had to keep a mental count of all the cartons I had loaded.
The second bad feature that made the job a worst one was the pay. I was getting the minamum wage at that time,
just over sixty hours a week
$3.65 an hour. Plus ^a quarter extra for night shift. I had to work a lot of hours to get a decent take-home pay. I
Finally an unpaid half hour for lunch
^ hated the working conditions. We were limited to two ten-minute breaks and the half hour for lunch was not loading near-zero-degree
paidcold temperatures. And I was very lonely on the job\.
because I
^ I had nothing in common with the other workers. You felt this isolation especially when the production line shut
, and an ugly
down for the night ^ I had to clean the apple vats. The vats were a bad place to be on a cold morning and the
bitter
job was a bad on to have.
Editing: Checking a paper for mistakes in grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling.
Editing: A Student Model
My job in an Apple Plant
physically
Working in an apple plant was the worst job I ever had. First of all, the work was physical hard. For ten
tractor
hours a night, I stacked cartons that rolled down a metal track and stacked them onto wooden skids in a tracter
twenty-five
trailer. Each carton contained 25 pounds of bottled apple juice, and they came down the track almost nonstop.
minimum
The second bad feature of the job worst was the pay. I was getting the minamum wage at tha
,plus
hour\. Plus just a quarter extra for night shift. I had to work over sixty hours a week to get a decent take-home
pay. Finally, I hated the working conditions. We were limited to two ten-minute breaks and an unpaid half hour
for lunch. Most of my time was spent outside on the loading dock in near-zero-degree temperatures. And I
was very lonely on the job because I had no interests in common with the other workers. I felt this isolation
spent two hours by myself cleaning
especially when the production line shut down for the night, and I had to clean the apple vats. The vats were an
ugly place to be on a cold morning, and the job was a bitter on to have.
