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Creating a good essay draft.

When writing essays it is important for a student to break down the whole writing process into stages. Among the critical stages include the creation of the outline and writing of the first draft. The outline helps the student to structure and plan how the essay would look like. After creation of the outline, the student should start writing the draft essay. The following are basic guidelines that the student can use to create a good essay draft.

a. Write as rapidly as possible

The student should try and get as many ideas as possible on paper, without worrying so much about the spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors. Just write even if the sentences or paragraphs do not flow into each other. In case the writer changes an idea, they should not cross-out what they had written, but rather they should just write an improved version. If the writer forgets a point mid sentence, he or she could underline the incomplete section for revision later on.

b. Don’t worry about the introduction

Since the introduction of an essay should be interesting and captivating, many students waste a lot of time trying to get the right one. However, it is prudent and easier to write the introduction of the essay after writing the body of the essay. An appropriate time would be during the writing of the second draft. The writer should jump right into writing the second paragraph and then the third and so on. This way the writer will realize that it is much easy to progress.

c. Write using brackets as reminders

When writing the draft one should use brackets to identify the sections or sentences that they are unable to complete. For instance, in case the sentences need examples or illustrations to be included and the writer cannot think of any at that particular time, they should put a reminder note in bracket. This might be for example; (to look for relevant examples). This way, the writer would be able to continue writing the draft and still recall what they needed to include in the essay.

d. Write a trial thesis statement.

The writer should then try rewriting the essay to make it flow and structured. The writer should use the thesis statement to ensure that it is a better yardstick for guiding the essay writing. The statement should be related to the content of the essay and should provide the direction for the essay. This means therefore that after writing the first draft one should ask how the thesis statement compares to the essay. The statement should reflect what the writer is saying in the essay.