first draft of a essay

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Steps for Writing a First Draft of an Essay

• Take a closer look at your assignment and the topic if it was given to you by your instructor. Revise your outline as well. This is needed for your clearer understanding of the tasks you must accomplish within the draft, and to make sure you meet the requirements of the assignment.
• Sketch out the introduction of your essay. At this point, don’t get stalled on form; introductory part should inform readers about what the topic is, and state your point of view according to this topic. The introduction should also be interesting to read to capture readers’ attention, but this task has more to do with thoughtful and scrupulous writing, and thus should be left for later.
• Based on your outline, start transferring your ideas to paper. The main task here is to give them the initial form and set a general direction for their further development, and not to write a full paper.
• Chalk out the summarizing paragraph of your essay. It should not contain any new ideas, but briefly reintroduce those from the main body, and restate your thesis statement.
• Read through the draft to see if you have included the information you wanted to, but without making any further corrections, since this is a task for the second and final drafts.
• If you are not sure that you checked everything, send it out for proofreading. Searching through the best essay service reviews, you can get some recommendations of where to look.

Key Points to Consider

• While an outline is needed to decide on what to write, the first draft is more about answering a question: “How to write?” In the first draft, you shape your ideas out, and not simply name and list them, as you did in an outline.
• When you start writing your thoughts down, it may happen that one idea or concept sparks new connections, memories, or associations. Be attentive to such sidetracks; choose those of them that might be useful for your writing, and don’t delve in those that are undesirable in terms of the purpose of your paper (academic, showing opinion). A successful piece of writing is focused on its topic, and doesn’t include everything you have to say on a subject.
• Making notes for yourself in the margins or even in the middle of the text is a useful practice. This can save you time and keep you focused on the essence of your essay without being distracted by secondary details. For example, such notes could look like this: “As documented, the Vietnam War cost the United States about … (search for the exact sum of money and interpret it in terms of modern exchange rates) U. S. dollars.”
• When you finish crafting your first draft, it is useful to put it aside and completely quit thinking about writing for a certain period of time. Time away will allow you to have a fresh look at your draft when you decide to revise it.

Do and Don’t

Common Mistakes When Writing a First Draft of an Essay

– Editing and revising a draft in process of writing. If you stop after each sentence to think it over, you will most likely lose your flow; besides, many people have an internal editor  or critic  who can’t stand it if the material is written imperfectly. Therefore, first you should deal with the whole draft, and only after that proofread and edit it.

– Paying too much attention to secondary arguments, factual material, and other minor peculiarities. The main goal of the first draft is to sketch out your main ideas; you can fill it with details later. If you think you will forget about an important fact or remark, make brief notes in margins.

– Ignoring the role of a first draft in the essay writing process. Though it may seem you are wasting time working on a draft, you are working on the essay itself. You need to understand how your outline works in full written form.

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• A step-by-step guide to the writing process

The Writing Process | 5 Steps with Examples & Tips

Published on April 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on December 8, 2023.

Good academic writing requires effective planning, drafting, and revision.

The writing process looks different for everyone, but there are five basic steps that will help you structure your time when writing any kind of text.

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Table of contents

Step 1: prewriting, step 2: planning and outlining, step 3: writing a first draft, step 4: redrafting and revising, step 5: editing and proofreading, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the writing process.

Before you start writing, you need to decide exactly what you’ll write about and do the necessary research.

Coming up with a topic

If you have to come up with your own topic for an assignment, think of what you’ve covered in class— is there a particular area that intrigued, interested, or even confused you? Topics that left you with additional questions are perfect, as these are questions you can explore in your writing.

The scope depends on what type of text you’re writing—for example, an essay or a research paper will be less in-depth than a dissertation topic . Don’t pick anything too ambitious to cover within the word count, or too limited for you to find much to say.

Narrow down your idea to a specific argument or question. For example, an appropriate topic for an essay might be narrowed down like this:

Doing the research

Once you know your topic, it’s time to search for relevant sources and gather the information you need. This process varies according to your field of study and the scope of the assignment. It might involve:

• Searching for primary and secondary sources .
• Reading the relevant texts closely (e.g. for literary analysis ).
• Collecting data using relevant research methods (e.g. experiments , interviews or surveys )

From a writing perspective, the important thing is to take plenty of notes while you do the research. Keep track of the titles, authors, publication dates, and relevant quotations from your sources; the data you gathered; and your initial analysis or interpretation of the questions you’re addressing.

Especially in academic writing , it’s important to use a logical structure to convey information effectively. It’s far better to plan this out in advance than to try to work out your structure once you’ve already begun writing.

Creating an essay outline is a useful way to plan out your structure before you start writing. This should help you work out the main ideas you want to focus on and how you’ll organize them. The outline doesn’t have to be final—it’s okay if your structure changes throughout the writing process.

Use bullet points or numbering to make your structure clear at a glance. Even for a short text that won’t use headings, it’s useful to summarize what you’ll discuss in each paragraph.

An outline for a literary analysis essay might look something like this:

• Describe the theatricality of Austen’s works
• Outline the role theater plays in Mansfield Park
• Introduce the research question: How does Austen use theater to express the characters’ morality in Mansfield Park ?
• Discuss Austen’s depiction of the performance at the end of the first volume
• Discuss how Sir Bertram reacts to the acting scheme
• Introduce Austen’s use of stage direction–like details during dialogue
• Explore how these are deployed to show the characters’ self-absorption
• Discuss Austen’s description of Maria and Julia’s relationship as polite but affectionless
• Compare Mrs. Norris’s self-conceit as charitable despite her idleness
• Summarize the three themes: The acting scheme, stage directions, and the performance of morals
• Answer the research question
• Indicate areas for further study

Once you have a clear idea of your structure, it’s time to produce a full first draft.

This process can be quite non-linear. For example, it’s reasonable to begin writing with the main body of the text, saving the introduction for later once you have a clearer idea of the text you’re introducing.

To give structure to your writing, use your outline as a framework. Make sure that each paragraph has a clear central focus that relates to your overall argument.

Hover over the parts of the example, from a literary analysis essay on Mansfield Park , to see how a paragraph is constructed.

The character of Mrs. Norris provides another example of the performance of morals in Mansfield Park . Early in the novel, she is described in scathing terms as one who knows “how to dictate liberality to others: but her love of money was equal to her love of directing” (p. 7). This hypocrisy does not interfere with her self-conceit as “the most liberal-minded sister and aunt in the world” (p. 7). Mrs. Norris is strongly concerned with appearing charitable, but unwilling to make any personal sacrifices to accomplish this. Instead, she stage-manages the charitable actions of others, never acknowledging that her schemes do not put her own time or money on the line. In this way, Austen again shows us a character whose morally upright behavior is fundamentally a performance—for whom the goal of doing good is less important than the goal of seeming good.

When you move onto a different topic, start a new paragraph. Use appropriate transition words and phrases to show the connections between your ideas.

The goal at this stage is to get a draft completed, not to make everything perfect as you go along. Once you have a full draft in front of you, you’ll have a clearer idea of where improvement is needed.

Give yourself a first draft deadline that leaves you a reasonable length of time to revise, edit, and proofread before the final deadline. For a longer text like a dissertation, you and your supervisor might agree on deadlines for individual chapters.

Now it’s time to look critically at your first draft and find potential areas for improvement. Redrafting means substantially adding or removing content, while revising involves making changes to structure and reformulating arguments.

Evaluating the first draft

It can be difficult to look objectively at your own writing. Your perspective might be positively or negatively biased—especially if you try to assess your work shortly after finishing it.

It’s best to leave your work alone for at least a day or two after completing the first draft. Come back after a break to evaluate it with fresh eyes; you’ll spot things you wouldn’t have otherwise.

When evaluating your writing at this stage, you’re mainly looking for larger issues such as changes to your arguments or structure. Starting with bigger concerns saves you time—there’s no point perfecting the grammar of something you end up cutting out anyway.

Right now, you’re looking for:

• Arguments that are unclear or illogical.
• Areas where information would be better presented in a different order.
• Passages where additional information or explanation is needed.
• Passages that are irrelevant to your overall argument.

For example, in our paper on Mansfield Park , we might realize the argument would be stronger with more direct consideration of the protagonist Fanny Price, and decide to try to find space for this in paragraph IV.

For some assignments, you’ll receive feedback on your first draft from a supervisor or peer. Be sure to pay close attention to what they tell you, as their advice will usually give you a clearer sense of which aspects of your text need improvement.

Redrafting and revising

Once you’ve decided where changes are needed, make the big changes first, as these are likely to have knock-on effects on the rest. Depending on what your text needs, this step might involve:

• Making changes to your overall argument.
• Reordering the text.
• Cutting parts of the text.
• Adding new text.

You can go back and forth between writing, redrafting and revising several times until you have a final draft that you’re happy with.

Think about what changes you can realistically accomplish in the time you have. If you are running low on time, you don’t want to leave your text in a messy state halfway through redrafting, so make sure to prioritize the most important changes.

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Editing focuses on local concerns like clarity and sentence structure. Proofreading involves reading the text closely to remove typos and ensure stylistic consistency. You can check all your drafts and texts in minutes with an AI proofreader .

Editing for grammar and clarity

When editing, you want to ensure your text is clear, concise, and grammatically correct. You’re looking out for:

• Grammatical errors.
• Ambiguous phrasings.
• Redundancy and repetition .

In your initial draft, it’s common to end up with a lot of sentences that are poorly formulated. Look critically at where your meaning could be conveyed in a more effective way or in fewer words, and watch out for common sentence structure mistakes like run-on sentences and sentence fragments:

• Austen’s style is frequently humorous, her characters are often described as “witty.” Although this is less true of Mansfield Park .
• Austen’s style is frequently humorous. Her characters are often described as “witty,” although this is less true of Mansfield Park .

To make your sentences run smoothly, you can always use a paraphrasing tool to rewrite them in a clearer way.

Proofreading for small mistakes and typos

When proofreading, first look out for typos in your text:

• Spelling errors.
• Missing words.
• Confused word choices .
• Punctuation errors .
• Missing or excess spaces.

Use a grammar checker , but be sure to do another manual check after. Read through your text line by line, watching out for problem areas highlighted by the software but also for any other issues it might have missed.

For example, in the following phrase we notice several errors:

• Mary Crawfords character is a complicate one and her relationships with Fanny and Edmund undergoes several transformations through out the novel.
• Mary Crawford’s character is a complicated one, and her relationships with both Fanny and Edmund undergo several transformations throughout the novel.

Proofreading for stylistic consistency

There are several issues in academic writing where you can choose between multiple different standards. For example:

• Whether you use the serial comma .
• Whether you use American or British spellings and punctuation (you can use a punctuation checker for this).
• Where you use numerals vs. words for numbers.
• How you capitalize your titles and headings.

Unless you’re given specific guidance on these issues, it’s your choice which standards you follow. The important thing is to consistently follow one standard for each issue. For example, don’t use a mixture of American and British spellings in your paper.

Additionally, you will probably be provided with specific guidelines for issues related to format (how your text is presented on the page) and citations (how you acknowledge your sources). Always follow these instructions carefully.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy
• Deep learning
• Generative AI
• Machine learning
• Reinforcement learning
• Supervised vs. unsupervised learning

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• Text Summarizer
• AI Detector
• Plagiarism Checker
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Revising, proofreading, and editing are different stages of the writing process .

• Revising is making structural and logical changes to your text—reformulating arguments and reordering information.
• Editing refers to making more local changes to things like sentence structure and phrasing to make sure your meaning is conveyed clearly and concisely.
• Proofreading involves looking at the text closely, line by line, to spot any typos and issues with consistency and correct them.

Whether you’re publishing a blog, submitting a research paper , or even just writing an important email, there are a few techniques you can use to make sure it’s error-free:

• Take a break : Set your work aside for at least a few hours so that you can look at it with fresh eyes.
• Proofread a printout : Staring at a screen for too long can cause fatigue – sit down with a pen and paper to check the final version.
• Use digital shortcuts : Take note of any recurring mistakes (for example, misspelling a particular word, switching between US and UK English , or inconsistently capitalizing a term), and use Find and Replace to fix it throughout the document.

If you want to be confident that an important text is error-free, it might be worth choosing a professional proofreading service instead.

If you’ve gone over the word limit set for your assignment, shorten your sentences and cut repetition and redundancy during the editing process. If you use a lot of long quotes , consider shortening them to just the essentials.

If you need to remove a lot of words, you may have to cut certain passages. Remember that everything in the text should be there to support your argument; look for any information that’s not essential to your point and remove it.

To make this process easier and faster, you can use a paraphrasing tool . With this tool, you can rewrite your text to make it simpler and shorter. If that’s not enough, you can copy-paste your paraphrased text into the summarizer . This tool will distill your text to its core message.

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Caulfield, J. (2023, December 08). The Writing Process | 5 Steps with Examples & Tips. Scribbr. Retrieved July 5, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-writing/writing-process/

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How to Write a First Draft: 10 Tips for Reaching “The End”

The first draft is the most important phase of your project. Here’s how to keep it fast and fun.

By Natasha Khullar Relph

Do you know why so many writers freeze up the moment they sit down to write? The reason that the fear, the anxiety, and the uncertainty bubbles up and causes an otherwise articulate person to resist putting a single word on the page?

It’s perfectionism.

It’s the idea that what you’re writing now will be what the reader will see later.

This is almost never the case. Which is why, when it comes to writing, it’s important to begin simply: by thinking of any piece of work you’re doing as a first draft.

JUMP TO SECTION

What qualifies as a first draft How to write a first draft

• Make time for your writing
• Know your story before you start writing
• Write out of order
• Allow for imperfection
• Keep yourself accountable with goals and deadlines
• Eliminate distractions
• Practice writing in sprints
• Use the TK placeholder
• Don’t go back and fix things you’re changing
• Know your next step

What qualifies as a first draft?

A first draft or rough draft is the initial version of a piece of writing, whether it’s an essay, article, short story, or chapter in a nonfiction book or novel. The first draft is the initial output you create, with no extensive editing, revision, or proofreading.

First drafts are essential because they serve as the foundation upon which you can build and refine your work. They allow you to get your ideas down on the page without getting bogged down by perfectionism or self-criticism. Once you’ve completed a rough draft , you can review, revise, or edit your work to improve clarity, coherence, style, and overall quality.

Generally, a piece of writing can be considered a first draft if:

• It captures the writer’s initial thoughts and ideas.
• It covers the main points or themes, but lacks completeness.
• It may be rough and unpolished, with errors in grammar and style.
• The organization and structure might be loose or imperfect.
• Annotations and comments for self-improvement may be present.
• It may contain inconsistencies, both in content and style.
• The primary focus is on getting ideas down rather than perfection.

How to write a first draft

“I believe the first draft of a book —even a long one—should take no more than three months,” says New York Times bestselling author Stephen King , and we tend to agree. A first draft is nothing but a way of taking the ideas in your head and putting them on the page. We’ll give them shape later. Right now, for the first draft, the goal is simply to have them exist as fast as possible .

Here are some strategies, techniques and writing tips that will make it easier to transform your ideas into words on the page.

1. Make time for your writing

No one—and I do mean no one—writes the first draft of anything without some serious arse in chair time . (Yes, that’s the technical term.)

Want to write more? Want to write faster? Put your arse in the chair as often as you can, for as long as you can.

Now, this might not always be possible. You might have a full-time job, kids, and other responsibilities that come in the way of your writing. Regardless, if you want to finish your first draft, you’re going to have to schedule writing time . Establish a routine that aligns with your goals and guard that time fiercely. Some ideas for how to do that:

• Set clear priorities: Recognize the importance of your writing and prioritize it in your daily life. Create a regular writing routine, whether it’s daily, weekly, or on specific days.
• Wake up early or stay up late: Consider waking up an hour earlier in the morning or, if you’re like me, staying up after everyone’s gone to bed, to get a few uninterrupted hours of writing time.
• Use your lunch breaks: If you have a full-time job, see if you can use part of your lunch break for writing. If you work from home , treat the time you may have spent commuting as “found time” and use it to put some words on the page.
• Weekend retreats: If time and budget allow, consider going on a weekend retreat for a solid block of writing time. If going away isn’t an option, perhaps you can have a makeshift retreat of your own at home.
• Plan ahead: Try to schedule writing time in advance to ensure it doesn’t get overshadowed by other commitments. If you have children , arrange childcare during your writing hours. The more you can delegate non-essential tasks or chores, the more writing time you can free up.

2. Know your story before you start writing

While it’s tempting to just open a blank page and start writing, this is the most difficult and inefficient way to write a first draft. That’s not to say that you can’t be a pantser—someone who writes without an outline and by the seat of their pants (hence the name)—but knowing what you want to say makes it infinitely easier for you to actually say it.

It’s crucial to have a clear understanding of your story , no matter whether you’re a novelist, a screenwriter, a short story writer, or journalist. And knowing your story, including your main characters, is essential for a successful drafting process , especially if this is your first book or first novel.

Here are some aspects of your work that are helpful to know before you begin writing:

• Purpose and message: Knowing your story’s purpose and central message provides you with a compass to navigate the writing process. Are you aiming to entertain, inform, persuade, or provoke thought? This clarity guides your decisions throughout the first draft stage.
• Characters: Understanding your characters’ backgrounds, motivations, and arcs allows you to breathe life into them on the page. It enables you to craft multidimensional characters with authentic reactions and growth.
• Plot structure: Knowing the overarching plot and its key events helps you maintain a cohesive and engaging narrative, whether you’re brainstorming or world building. You can create foreshadowing, build tension, and ensure that each scene contributes to the story’s progress when you know where you’re heading.
• Themes: Identifying the themes and vibes you want to explore allows you to weave them into your narrative seamlessly. Themes add depth to your story and provide readers with thought-provoking ideas.

3. Write out of order

The conventional approach to writing a first draft involves starting at the beginning and progressing sequentially to the end. While this method works well for many writers, it’s not the only path to a successful final product. In fact, you may find that it might work better for your writing process to write out of order.

Here’s why this unconventional approach works:

• Overcoming writer’s block: The frustration of staring at a blank page can be paralyzing. Writing out of order allows you to sidestep this roadblock. If you’re feeling stuck on an introduction or a particular chapter, don’t let it hinder your progress. Instead, jump to a body paragraph or different section of your work that excites you. By doing this, you keep your creative juices flowing and maintain momentum.
• Capturing ideas as they come: Inspiration often strikes at unpredictable moments. You might have a brilliant idea for the conclusion of your podcast episode, the climax of your novel, or the final argument in your thesis statement long before you reach that point in your rough draft. By writing out of order, you can capture these ideas while they’re fresh and vivid, ensuring you don’t forget them.
• Building the core of your work: Sometimes, you may have a clear vision of the central themes, arguments, or emotional arcs of your work before you have all the details in place. In such cases, writing these pivotal sections first can provide a strong foundation upon which you can build the rest of your narrative.
• Flexibility and experimentation: Writing out of order gives you the freedom to experiment with different writing styles, tones, or perspectives. Whether you’re a screenwriter exploring various character interactions or a novelist tackling non-linear storytelling, this approach allows you to explore diverse creative avenues without feeling confined by chronological constraints.
• Maintaining enthusiasm: The creative writing process can be a long and demanding journey. Writing out of order allows you to maintain enthusiasm by working on the parts of your work that excite you the most. This enthusiasm can get you through the messy middle when you’re in the thick of it and questions about why you’re even doing this begin to surface.

4. Allow for imperfection

Listen, you’re not going to get it right the first time. So stop expecting that of yourself.

The first draft, as I mentioned before, is the draft whose sole purpose is to take something out of your head and make it exist on the page. Typos are fine! Your word choices will change! There is no bad thing you can do in this draft that cannot be changed, revised, or edited out.

Your only goal when writing the first draft is to take those ideas from your head and turn them into words on the page. There will be other drafts—a second draft, a third draft, a final draft—that will start bringing order to this material and mould it into shape. But you can’t give shape to something that doesn’t exist.

So use this draft to get everything out of your head and on to the page. Then you can either self-edit or work with beta readers or professional editors to take it further.

5. Keep yourself accountable with goals and deadlines

I’m willing to bet my favorite writing pen that half the writing that exists in the world today wouldn’t have been committed to page if there wasn’t a frustrated editor breathing down a writer’s neck with a can’t-be-missed deadline. While it’s unlikely you’ll have an editor for your fiction writing, at least at first, you can keep yourself accountable by setting your own deadlines . Here’s what you need to keep in mind when doing so:

• Define clear goals: Set specific, measurable, and achievable writing goals . These could include word count targets, chapter outlines, research milestones, or deadlines for submitting work to editors or publishers.
• Break down larger goals: For larger projects, like novel writing or research papers, break them down into smaller chunks. Set deadlines for completing each section or chapter. This will prevent you from feeling overwhelmed and can help you make steady progress.
• Set and honor deadlines: Give yourself deadlines for completing specific writing tasks. These deadlines can be self-imposed or align with external submission requirements. However, it’s imperative that you treat these deadlines with the same seriousness that you would a deadline from an editor or publisher.
• Track progress: Regularly review your progress. Make sure to celebrate your achievements, even small ones, to stay motivated and keep writing.

6. Eliminate distractions

You can’t write if you can’t concentrate. And you can’t concentrate if you have notifications going off every two minutes, a child knocking on your door because they’re hungry and need a snack, or you can’t resist the urge to see what Taylor Swift’s been up to Instagram.

The very first thing you need to do once you’ve committed to finishing your first draft is to create space in your life for your writing to happen and minimize or eliminate any distractions. Here’s how:

• Turn off notifications: Silence your phone, mute social media notifications, and close irrelevant tabs or apps on your computer. These constant pings and alerts can pull you away from your writing flow.
• Set clear boundaries: If you share your writing space with others, communicate your need for uninterrupted time. Let family members, roommates, or colleagues know when you’ll be writing and request their cooperation.
• Use website blockers: If you find yourself succumbing to the temptation of browsing the Internet during writing sessions, consider using website blockers or productivity apps that restrict access to distracting websites for a set period.
• Declutter your workspace: A clutter-free environment can lead to a clutter-free mind. Organize your writing area and keep it tidy to minimize visual distractions.
• Use noise-cancelling headphones: If you’re in a noisy environment, invest in noise-cancelling headphones to block out external sounds and create a more serene writing atmosphere.

7. Practice writing in sprints

Writing sprints or word sprints are short, focused bursts of writing where you set a timer and write as much as you can during that specific timeframe. These sprints can vary in length, but common durations include 10, 15, or 20 minutes.

The key is to commit to uninterrupted writing during the sprint, without editing or revising as you go. Writing sprints are about getting words on the page, not perfecting them.

Writing sprints work for a few reasons:

• They create a sense of urgency, reducing the temptation to procrastinate or endlessly revise.
• The time constraint of a sprint encourages heightened concentration, leading to increased productivity.
• Sprints break writing tasks into manageable chunks, allowing for consistent and measurable progress.
• They make the process of writing more time-efficient by emphasizing output over perfection.
• Practicing writing in sprints provides a structured approach to improving writing skills and becoming a better writer.

8. Use the TK placeholder

Using the “TK” placeholder is a technique that English-language journalists often use to maintain their writing flow and avoid getting stuck when they can’t immediately recall a specific detail or need to insert additional information. TK, which stands for to come , is an acknowledgement that there’s a gap or missing content that requires attention.

Once your initial draft is complete, you can revisit these TK placeholders and add in all relevant or missing information.

9. Don’t go back and fix things you’re changing

Resist, I repeat, resist the temptation to go back and fix things as you write. This urge to rewrite is especially strong in new writers, who feel they must make what they’ve written perfect, or even legible, before they can move on to the next section.

Here’s the thing: What you’re writing will change. And if you’re making big changes, like renaming a character, changing the point of view, or expanding the time period, they will affect the parts of the book you’ve already written. However, by going back and making those changes now, you’re creating extra work for yourself for two reasons:

• You may implement the changes and write in a new point of view or a different period of time only to find that it doesn’t really work. If you decide to revert changes, you’ll have to go back and fix your entire novel again .
• There are still many decisions you’ll make as your story moves forward that will continue to impact the beginning. It’s far better to write the first draft all the way through and see how it ends before going back to implement any changes. There may be far more—or less—than what you expected.

That’s a job for the editing process. For the phase you’re in right now, the goal is simply to get to The End. So turn off track changes, focus on your own first draft, and keep writing and moving forward step by step until you get there.

10. Know your next step

You don’t—and can’t—know how the whole thing will end. The best you can do at any point during the writing of the first draft is to know the next step.

Much like a hiker navigating through dense woods, you can’t see the entire trail from the starting point, but you can identify the next marker or landmark. Similarly, in writing, you may not have the entire plot or structure of your story mapped out, but you can always figure out the next sentence, paragraph, or scene that needs to be written.

And when you’re writing the first draft? That’s all you need to know.

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8.3 Drafting

Learning objectives.

• Identify drafting strategies that improve writing.
• Use drafting strategies to prepare the first draft of an essay.

Drafting is the stage of the writing process in which you develop a complete first version of a piece of writing.

Even professional writers admit that an empty page scares them because they feel they need to come up with something fresh and original every time they open a blank document on their computers. Because you have completed the first two steps in the writing process, you have already recovered from empty page syndrome. You have hours of prewriting and planning already done. You know what will go on that blank page: what you wrote in your outline.

Getting Started: Strategies For Drafting

Your objective for this portion of Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” is to draft the body paragraphs of a standard five-paragraph essay. A five-paragraph essay contains an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. If you are more comfortable starting on paper than on the computer, you can start on paper and then type it before you revise. You can also use a voice recorder to get yourself started, dictating a paragraph or two to get you thinking. In this lesson, Mariah does all her work on the computer, but you may use pen and paper or the computer to write a rough draft.

Making the Writing Process Work for You

What makes the writing process so beneficial to writers is that it encourages alternatives to standard practices while motivating you to develop your best ideas. For instance, the following approaches, done alone or in combination with others, may improve your writing and help you move forward in the writing process:

• Begin writing with the part you know the most about. You can start with the third paragraph in your outline if ideas come easily to mind. You can start with the second paragraph or the first paragraph, too. Although paragraphs may vary in length, keep in mind that short paragraphs may contain insufficient support. Readers may also think the writing is abrupt. Long paragraphs may be wordy and may lose your reader’s interest. As a guideline, try to write paragraphs longer than one sentence but shorter than the length of an entire double-spaced page.
• Write one paragraph at a time and then stop. As long as you complete the assignment on time, you may choose how many paragraphs you complete in one sitting. Pace yourself. On the other hand, try not to procrastinate. Writers should always meet their deadlines.
• Take short breaks to refresh your mind. This tip might be most useful if you are writing a multipage report or essay. Still, if you are antsy or cannot concentrate, take a break to let your mind rest. But do not let breaks extend too long. If you spend too much time away from your essay, you may have trouble starting again. You may forget key points or lose momentum. Try setting an alarm to limit your break, and when the time is up, return to your desk to write.
• Be reasonable with your goals. If you decide to take ten-minute breaks, try to stick to that goal. If you told yourself that you need more facts, then commit to finding them. Holding yourself to your own goals will create successful writing assignments.
• Keep your audience and purpose in mind as you write. These aspects of writing are just as important when you are writing a single paragraph for your essay as when you are considering the direction of the entire essay.

Of all of these considerations, keeping your purpose and your audience at the front of your mind is the most important key to writing success. If your purpose is to persuade, for example, you will present your facts and details in the most logical and convincing way you can.

Your purpose will guide your mind as you compose your sentences. Your audience will guide word choice. Are you writing for experts, for a general audience, for other college students, or for people who know very little about your topic? Keep asking yourself what your readers, with their background and experience, need to be told in order to understand your ideas. How can you best express your ideas so they are totally clear and your communication is effective?

You may want to identify your purpose and audience on an index card that you clip to your paper (or keep next to your computer). On that card, you may want to write notes to yourself—perhaps about what that audience might not know or what it needs to know—so that you will be sure to address those issues when you write. It may be a good idea to also state exactly what you want to explain to that audience, or to inform them of, or to persuade them about.

Writing at Work

Many of the documents you produce at work target a particular audience for a particular purpose. You may find that it is highly advantageous to know as much as you can about your target audience and to prepare your message to reach that audience, even if the audience is a coworker or your boss. Menu language is a common example. Descriptions like “organic romaine” and “free-range chicken” are intended to appeal to a certain type of customer though perhaps not to the same customer who craves a thick steak. Similarly, mail-order companies research the demographics of the people who buy their merchandise. Successful vendors customize product descriptions in catalogs to appeal to their buyers’ tastes. For example, the product descriptions in a skateboarder catalog will differ from the descriptions in a clothing catalog for mature adults.

Using the topic for the essay that you outlined in Section 8.2 “Outlining” , describe your purpose and your audience as specifically as you can. Use your own sheet of paper to record your responses. Then keep these responses near you during future stages of the writing process.

My purpose: ____________________________________________

____________________________________________

My audience: ____________________________________________

Setting Goals for Your First Draft

A draft is a complete version of a piece of writing, but it is not the final version. The step in the writing process after drafting, as you may remember, is revising. During revising, you will have the opportunity to make changes to your first draft before you put the finishing touches on it during the editing and proofreading stage. A first draft gives you a working version that you can later improve.

Workplace writing in certain environments is done by teams of writers who collaborate on the planning, writing, and revising of documents, such as long reports, technical manuals, and the results of scientific research. Collaborators do not need to be in the same room, the same building, or even the same city. Many collaborations are conducted over the Internet.

In a perfect collaboration, each contributor has the right to add, edit, and delete text. Strong communication skills, in addition to strong writing skills, are important in this kind of writing situation because disagreements over style, content, process, emphasis, and other issues may arise.

The collaborative software, or document management systems, that groups use to work on common projects is sometimes called groupware or workgroup support systems.

The reviewing tool on some word-processing programs also gives you access to a collaborative tool that many smaller workgroups use when they exchange documents. You can also use it to leave comments to yourself.

If you invest some time now to investigate how the reviewing tool in your word processor works, you will be able to use it with confidence during the revision stage of the writing process. Then, when you start to revise, set your reviewing tool to track any changes you make, so you will be able to tinker with text and commit only those final changes you want to keep.

Discovering the Basic Elements of a First Draft

If you have been using the information in this chapter step by step to help you develop an assignment, you already have both a formal topic outline and a formal sentence outline to direct your writing. Knowing what a first draft looks like will help you make the creative leap from the outline to the first draft. A first draft should include the following elements:

• An introduction that piques the audience’s interest, tells what the essay is about, and motivates readers to keep reading.
• A thesis statement that presents the main point, or controlling idea, of the entire piece of writing.
• A topic sentence in each paragraph that states the main idea of the paragraph and implies how that main idea connects to the thesis statement.
• Supporting sentences in each paragraph that develop or explain the topic sentence. These can be specific facts, examples, anecdotes, or other details that elaborate on the topic sentence.
• A conclusion that reinforces the thesis statement and leaves the audience with a feeling of completion.

These elements follow the standard five-paragraph essay format, which you probably first encountered in high school. This basic format is valid for most essays you will write in college, even much longer ones. For now, however, Mariah focuses on writing the three body paragraphs from her outline. Chapter 9 “Writing Essays: From Start to Finish” covers writing introductions and conclusions, and you will read Mariah’s introduction and conclusion in Chapter 9 “Writing Essays: From Start to Finish” .

The Role of Topic Sentences

Topic sentences make the structure of a text and the writer’s basic arguments easy to locate and comprehend. In college writing, using a topic sentence in each paragraph of the essay is the standard rule. However, the topic sentence does not always have to be the first sentence in your paragraph even if it the first item in your formal outline.

When you begin to draft your paragraphs, you should follow your outline fairly closely. After all, you spent valuable time developing those ideas. However, as you begin to express your ideas in complete sentences, it might strike you that the topic sentence might work better at the end of the paragraph or in the middle. Try it. Writing a draft, by its nature, is a good time for experimentation.

The topic sentence can be the first, middle, or final sentence in a paragraph. The assignment’s audience and purpose will often determine where a topic sentence belongs. When the purpose of the assignment is to persuade, for example, the topic sentence should be the first sentence in a paragraph. In a persuasive essay, the writer’s point of view should be clearly expressed at the beginning of each paragraph.

Choosing where to position the topic sentence depends not only on your audience and purpose but also on the essay’s arrangement, or order. When you organize information according to order of importance, the topic sentence may be the final sentence in a paragraph. All the supporting sentences build up to the topic sentence. Chronological order may also position the topic sentence as the final sentence because the controlling idea of the paragraph may make the most sense at the end of a sequence.

When you organize information according to spatial order, a topic sentence may appear as the middle sentence in a paragraph. An essay arranged by spatial order often contains paragraphs that begin with descriptions. A reader may first need a visual in his or her mind before understanding the development of the paragraph. When the topic sentence is in the middle, it unites the details that come before it with the ones that come after it.

As you read critically throughout the writing process, keep topic sentences in mind. You may discover topic sentences that are not always located at the beginning of a paragraph. For example, fiction writers customarily use topic ideas, either expressed or implied, to move readers through their texts. In nonfiction writing, such as popular magazines, topic sentences are often used when the author thinks it is appropriate (based on the audience and the purpose, of course). A single topic sentence might even control the development of a number of paragraphs. For more information on topic sentences, please see Chapter 6 “Writing Paragraphs: Separating Ideas and Shaping Content” .

Developing topic sentences and thinking about their placement in a paragraph will prepare you to write the rest of the paragraph.

The paragraph is the main structural component of an essay as well as other forms of writing. Each paragraph of an essay adds another related main idea to support the writer’s thesis, or controlling idea. Each related main idea is supported and developed with facts, examples, and other details that explain it. By exploring and refining one main idea at a time, writers build a strong case for their thesis.

Paragraph Length

How long should a paragraph be?

One answer to this important question may be “long enough”—long enough for you to address your points and explain your main idea. To grab attention or to present succinct supporting ideas, a paragraph can be fairly short and consist of two to three sentences. A paragraph in a complex essay about some abstract point in philosophy or archaeology can be three-quarters of a page or more in length. As long as the writer maintains close focus on the topic and does not ramble, a long paragraph is acceptable in college-level writing. In general, try to keep the paragraphs longer than one sentence but shorter than one full page of double-spaced text.

Journalistic style often calls for brief two- or three-sentence paragraphs because of how people read the news, both online and in print. Blogs and other online information sources often adopt this paragraphing style, too. Readers often skim the first paragraphs of a great many articles before settling on the handful of stories they want to read in detail.

You may find that a particular paragraph you write may be longer than one that will hold your audience’s interest. In such cases, you should divide the paragraph into two or more shorter paragraphs, adding a topic statement or some kind of transitional word or phrase at the start of the new paragraph. Transition words or phrases show the connection between the two ideas.

In all cases, however, be guided by what you instructor wants and expects to find in your draft. Many instructors will expect you to develop a mature college-level style as you progress through the semester’s assignments.

To build your sense of appropriate paragraph length, use the Internet to find examples of the following items. Copy them into a file, identify your sources, and present them to your instructor with your annotations, or notes.

• A news article written in short paragraphs. Take notes on, or annotate, your selection with your observations about the effect of combining paragraphs that develop the same topic idea. Explain how effective those paragraphs would be.
• A long paragraph from a scholarly work that you identify through an academic search engine. Annotate it with your observations about the author’s paragraphing style.

Starting Your First Draft

Now we are finally ready to look over Mariah’s shoulder as she begins to write her essay about digital technology and the confusing choices that consumers face. As she does, you should have in front of you your outline, with its thesis statement and topic sentences, and the notes you wrote earlier in this lesson on your purpose and audience. Reviewing these will put both you and Mariah in the proper mind-set to start.

The following is Mariah’s thesis statement.

Here are the notes that Mariah wrote to herself to characterize her purpose and audience.

Mariah chose to begin by writing a quick introduction based on her thesis statement. She knew that she would want to improve her introduction significantly when she revised. Right now, she just wanted to give herself a starting point. You will read her introduction again in Section 8.4 “Revising and Editing” when she revises it.

Remember Mariah’s other options. She could have started directly with any of the body paragraphs.

You will learn more about writing attention-getting introductions and effective conclusions in Chapter 9 “Writing Essays: From Start to Finish” .

With her thesis statement and her purpose and audience notes in front of her, Mariah then looked at her sentence outline. She chose to use that outline because it includes the topic sentences. The following is the portion of her outline for the first body paragraph. The roman numeral II identifies the topic sentence for the paragraph, capital letters indicate supporting details, and arabic numerals label subpoints.

Mariah then began to expand the ideas in her outline into a paragraph. Notice how the outline helped her guarantee that all her sentences in the body of the paragraph develop the topic sentence.

If you write your first draft on the computer, consider creating a new file folder for each course with a set of subfolders inside the course folders for each assignment you are given. Label the folders clearly with the course names, and label each assignment folder and word processing document with a title that you will easily recognize. The assignment name is a good choice for the document. Then use that subfolder to store all the drafts you create. When you start each new draft, do not just write over the last one. Instead, save the draft with a new tag after the title—draft 1, draft 2, and so on—so that you will have a complete history of drafts in case your instructor wishes you to submit them.

In your documents, observe any formatting requirements—for margins, headers, placement of page numbers, and other layout matters—that your instructor requires.

Study how Mariah made the transition from her sentence outline to her first draft. First, copy her outline onto your own sheet of paper. Leave a few spaces between each part of the outline. Then copy sentences from Mariah’s paragraph to align each sentence with its corresponding entry in her outline.

Continuing the First Draft

Mariah continued writing her essay, moving to the second and third body paragraphs. She had supporting details but no numbered subpoints in her outline, so she had to consult her prewriting notes for specific information to include.

If you decide to take a break between finishing your first body paragraph and starting the next one, do not start writing immediately when you return to your work. Put yourself back in context and in the mood by rereading what you have already written. This is what Mariah did. If she had stopped writing in the middle of writing the paragraph, she could have jotted down some quick notes to herself about what she would write next.

Preceding each body paragraph that Mariah wrote is the appropriate section of her sentence outline. Notice how she expanded roman numeral III from her outline into a first draft of the second body paragraph. As you read, ask yourself how closely she stayed on purpose and how well she paid attention to the needs of her audience.

Mariah then began her third and final body paragraph using roman numeral IV from her outline.

Reread body paragraphs two and three of the essay that Mariah is writing. Then answer the questions on your own sheet of paper.

• In body paragraph two, Mariah decided to develop her paragraph as a nonfiction narrative. Do you agree with her decision? Explain. How else could she have chosen to develop the paragraph? Why is that better?
• Compare the writing styles of paragraphs two and three. What evidence do you have that Mariah was getting tired or running out of steam? What advice would you give her? Why?
• Choose one of these two body paragraphs. Write a version of your own that you think better fits Mariah’s audience and purpose.

Writing a Title

A writer’s best choice for a title is one that alludes to the main point of the entire essay. Like the headline in a newspaper or the big, bold title in a magazine, an essay’s title gives the audience a first peek at the content. If readers like the title, they are likely to keep reading.

Following her outline carefully, Mariah crafted each paragraph of her essay. Moving step by step in the writing process, Mariah finished the draft and even included a brief concluding paragraph (you will read her conclusion in Chapter 9 “Writing Essays: From Start to Finish” ). She then decided, as the final touch for her writing session, to add an engaging title.

Writing Your Own First Draft

Now you may begin your own first draft, if you have not already done so. Follow the suggestions and the guidelines presented in this section.

Key Takeaways

• Make the writing process work for you. Use any and all of the strategies that help you move forward in the writing process.
• Always be aware of your purpose for writing and the needs of your audience. Cater to those needs in every sensible way.
• Remember to include all the key structural parts of an essay: a thesis statement that is part of your introductory paragraph, three or more body paragraphs as described in your outline, and a concluding paragraph. Then add an engaging title to draw in readers.
• Write paragraphs of an appropriate length for your writing assignment. Paragraphs in college-level writing can be a page long, as long as they cover the main topics in your outline.
• Use your topic outline or your sentence outline to guide the development of your paragraphs and the elaboration of your ideas. Each main idea, indicated by a roman numeral in your outline, becomes the topic of a new paragraph. Develop it with the supporting details and the subpoints of those details that you included in your outline.
• Generally speaking, write your introduction and conclusion last, after you have fleshed out the body paragraphs.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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First draft

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After writing an outline , the next stage of the writing process is to write the first draft. This page explains what a first draft is and how to write one . There is also a checklist at the end of the page that you can use to check your own first draft.

What is a first draft?

A draft is a version of your writing in paragraph form. The first draft is when you move from the outline stage and write a complete version of your paper for the first time. A first draft is often called a 'rough draft', and as this suggests, it will be very 'rough' and far from perfect. The first draft will lead on to a second draft, third draft, fourth draft and so on as you refine your ideas and perhaps conduct more research . The paper you submit at the end is often called the 'final draft', and emphasises the fact that writing is a process without a definite end (as even the final draft will not be perfect). It should be stressed that a first draft is only suitable for writing where you have some time to complete it, such as longer, researched essays, rather than an exam essay where there will only be a single draft.

How to write a first draft?

As you write your initial draft, you should try to follow your outline as closely as possible. Writing, however, is a continuous, creative process and as you are writing you may think of new ideas which are not in your outline or brainstorm list, and these can be added if they are relevant. Your outline will probably contain a thesis , which is essentially a plan for the whole paper, and you should keep this in mind to decide whether ideas are relevant. It is possible to begin the drafting process at any stage, and some people recommend writing the main body first and the introduction and conclusion later. This makes sense as it can be difficult to introduce something you have not yet finished, though if your outline is detailed enough it is possible to begin at the beginning. When writing the first draft, the main focus will be the ideas and content, meaning you should not worry about grammar, punctuation or spelling. You may end up abandoning whole sections before the final draft, and slowing down to check grammar or spelling at this stage would be a waste of time. It is useful for the first draft to use double-spacing and wide margins on both sides of the paper so that you can add more details and information when you redraft your work.

In short, when writing a first draft, you should do the following:

• try to follow your outline as closely as possible;
• add new ideas if they are relevant;
• keep your thesis in mind while writing;
• begin where you think is best (e.g. main body before introduction);
• focus on ideas and content;
• do not worry about grammar, punctuation or spelling;
• use double-spacing and wide margins for easier redrafting.

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Below is a checklist for your first draft.

Oshima, A. and Hogue, A. (1999) Writing Academic English . New York: Addison Wesley Longman.

University of Arizona (n.d.) The Structure of an Essay Draft . Available at: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~atinkham/Essay_Structure.htm (Access date 1/4/18).

Next section

Read more about checking your work in the next section.

Previous section

Read the previous article about writing an outline .

Author: Sheldon Smith    ‖    Last modified: 02 March 2020.

Sheldon Smith is the founder and editor of EAPFoundation.com. He has been teaching English for Academic Purposes since 2004. Find out more about him in the about section and connect with him on Twitter , Facebook and LinkedIn .

Compare & contrast essays examine the similarities of two or more objects, and the differences.

Cause & effect essays consider the reasons (or causes) for something, then discuss the results (or effects).

Discussion essays require you to examine both sides of a situation and to conclude by saying which side you favour.

Problem-solution essays are a sub-type of SPSE essays (Situation, Problem, Solution, Evaluation).

Transition signals are useful in achieving good cohesion and coherence in your writing.

Reporting verbs are used to link your in-text citations to the information cited.

Writing a First Draft

Now that you have a topic and/or a working thesis, you have several options for how to begin writing a more complete draft.

Just write. You already have at least one focusing idea. Start there. What do you want to say about it? What connections can you make with it? If you have a working thesis, what points might you make that support that thesis?

Make an outline. Write your topic or thesis down and then jot down what points you might make that will flesh out that topic or support that thesis. These don’t have to be detailed. In fact, they don’t even have to be complete sentences (yet)!

Begin with research. If this is an assignment that asks you to do research to support your points or to learn more about your topic, doing that research is an important early step (see the section on “ Finding Quality Texts ” in the “Information Literacy” section). This might include a range of things, such as conducting an interview, creating and administering a survey, or locating articles on the Internet and in library databases.

Research is a great early step because learning what information is available from credible sources about your topic can sometimes lead to shifting your thesis. Saving the research for a later step in the drafting process can mean making this change after already committing sometimes significant amounts of work to a thesis that existing credible research doesn’t support. Research is also useful because learning what information is available about your topic can help you flesh out what you might want to say about it.

Essay Structure

You might already be familiar with the five-paragraph essay structure, in which you spend the first paragraph introducing your topic, culminating in a thesis that has three distinct parts. That introduction paragraph is followed by three body paragraphs, each one of those going into some detail about one of the parts of the thesis. Finally, the conclusion paragraph summarizes the main ideas discussed in the essay and states the thesis (or a slightly re-worded version of the thesis) again.

This structure is commonly taught in high schools, and it has some pros and some cons.

• It helps get your thoughts organized.
• It is a good introduction to a simple way of structuring an essay that lets students focus on content rather than wrestling with a more complex structure.
• It familiarizes students with the general shape and components of many essays—a broader introductory conversation giving readers context for this discussion, followed by a more detailed supporting discussion in the body of the essay, and ending with a sense of wrapping up the discussion and refocusing on the main idea.
• It is an effective structure for in-class essays or timed written exams.
• It can be formulaic—essays structured this way sound a lot alike.
• It isn’t very flexible—often, topics don’t lend themselves easily to this structure.
• It doesn’t encourage research and discussion at the depth college-level work tends to ask for. Quite often, a paragraph is simply not enough space to have a conversation on paper that is thorough enough to support a stance presented in your thesis.

So, if the five-paragraph essay isn’t the golden ticket in college work, what is?

That is a trickier question! There isn’t really one prescribed structure that written college-level work adheres to—audience, purpose, length, and other considerations all help dictate what that structure will be for any given piece of writing you are doing. Instead, this text offers you some guidelines and best practices.

Things to Keep in Mind about Structure in College-Level Writing

Avoid the three-point structure.

Aim for a thesis that addresses a single issue rather than the three-point structure. Take a look at our example from the previous section, “ Finding the Thesis ”:

“Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of The Hunger Games, creates as much danger for herself as she faces from others over the course of the film.”

This thesis allows you to cover your single, narrow topic in greater depth, so you can examine multiple sides of a single angle of the topic rather than having to quickly and briefly address a broader main idea.

There’s No “Right” Number of Supporting Points

There is no prescribed number of supporting points. You don’t have to have three! Maybe you have two in great depth, or maybe four that explore that one element from the most salient angles. Depending on the length of your paper, you may even have more than that.

There’s More than One Good Spot for a Thesis

Depending on the goals of the assignment, your thesis may no longer sit at the end of the first paragraph, so let’s discuss a few places it can commonly be found in college writing.

It may end up at the end of your introductory information—once you’ve introduced your topic, given readers some reasonable context around it, and narrowed your focus to one area of that topic. This might put your thesis in the predictable end-of-the-first-paragraph spot, but it might also put that thesis several paragraphs into the paper

Some college work, particularly work that asks you to consider multiple sides of an issue fully, lends itself well to an end-of-paper thesis (sometimes called a “delayed thesis”). This thesis often appears a paragraph or so before the conclusion, which allows you to have a thorough discussion about multiple sides of a question and let that discussion guide you to your stance rather than having to spend the paper defending a stance you’ve already stated.

These are some common places you may find your thesis landing in your paper, but a thesis truly can be anywhere in a text.

Writing Beginnings

Beginnings have a few jobs. These will depend somewhat on the purpose of the writing, but here are some of the things the first couple of paragraphs do for your text:

• They establish the tone and primary audience of your text—is it casual? Academic? Geared toward a professional audience already versed in the topic? An interested audience that doesn’t know much about this topic yet?
• They introduce your audience to your topic.
• They give you an opportunity to provide context around that topic—what current conversations are happening around it? Why is it important? If it’s a topic your audience isn’t likely to know much about, you may find you need to define what the topic itself is.
• They let you show your audience what piece of that bigger topic you are going to be working with in this text and how you will be working with it.
• They might introduce a narrative, if appropriate, or a related story that provides an example of the topic being discussed.

Take a look at the thesis about Katniss once more. There are a number of discussions that you could have about this film, and almost as many that you could have about this film and its intersections with the concept of danger (such as corruption in government, the hazards of power, risks of love or other personal attachments, etc.). Your introduction moving toward this thesis will shift our attention to the prevalence of self-imposed danger in this film, which will narrow your reader’s focus in a way that prepares us for your thesis.

The most important thing at this point in the drafting process is to just get started, but when you’re ready, if you want to learn more about formulas and methods for writing introductions, see “ Writing Introductions ,” presented later in this section of the text.

Writing Middles

Middles tend to have a clearer job—they provide the meat of the discussion! Here are some ways that might happen:

• If you state a thesis early in the paper, the middle of the paper will likely provide support for that thesis.
• The middle might explore multiple sides of an issue.
• It might look at opposing views—ones other than the one you are supporting—and discuss why those don’t address the issue as well as the view you are supporting does.

Let’s think about the “multiple sides of the issue” approach to building support with our Hunger Games example. Perhaps Katniss may not see a particular dangerous situation she ends up in as being one she’s created, but another character or the viewers may disagree. It might be worth exploring both versions of this specific danger to give the most complete, balanced discussion to support your thesis.

Writing Endings

Endings, like beginnings, tend to have more than one job. Here are some things they often need to do for a text to feel complete:

• Reconnect to the main idea/thesis. However, note that this is different than a simple copy/paste of the thesis from earlier in the text. We’ve likely had a whole conversation in the text since we first encountered that thesis. Simply repeating it, or even replacing a few key words with synonyms, doesn’t acknowledge that bigger conversation. Instead, try pointing us back to the main idea in a new way.
• Tie up loose ends. If you opened the text with the beginning of a story to demonstrate how the topic applies to average daily life, the end of your text is a good time to share the end of that story with readers. If several ideas in the text tie together in a relevant way that didn’t fit neatly into the original discussion of those ideas, the end may be the place to do that.
• Keep the focus clear—this is your last chance to leave an impression on the reader. What do you want them to leave this text thinking about? What action do you want them to take? It’s often a good idea to be direct about this in the ending paragraph(s).

How might we reconnect with the main idea in our  Hunger Games example? We might say something like, “In many ways, Katniss Everdeen is her own greatest obstacle to the safe and peaceful life she seems to wish for.” It echoes, strongly, the original thesis, but also takes into account the more robust exploration that has happened in the middle parts of the paper.

As mentioned about writing introductions above, the most important thing at this point in the drafting process is to just get started (or in this case, to get started concluding), but when you’re ready, if you want to learn more about formulas and methods for writing conclusions, see “ Writing Conclusions ,” presented later in this section of the text.

The Word on College Reading and Writing Copyright © by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How to Write the First Draft

Part 4: How to Write the First Draft

Introduction

By this stage, you will have a final essay plan and a research document that presents your findings from the research stage in an organised and easy-to-use way. Together, these documents provide a clear map and all the information you need to write a well-structured essay , in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take. 

This timesaving comes from the fact that you have already made all the big decisions about your essay during the research phase: 

• You have a clear idea of your answer to the essay question.
• You know the main topics you will discuss to support your answer.
• You know the best order in which to discuss these topics. 
• You know how many words should be spent on these topics, based on their importance to supporting your answer.
• You know what points you will make under each topic and will discuss each of these in a new paragraph. 
• You know exactly what information each paragraph of your essay should contain. 

You have already compiled your list of references or bibliography, and have easy access to all the details you need to correctly cite and reference your work. 

Formal academic language

Before starting to write your essay, you must understand that using formal academic language is essential when writing at university. Formal academic language is clear and concise. You should never use 20 words when 10 will do; and your writing should leave no room for misunderstanding or confusion.

First person should almost always be avoided when writing an essay; however, it is recommended that you check with your tutor or lecturer about their attitude towards the first person and when it should be used, if ever. Conversely, contractions (e.g. shouldn’t, could’ve, he’s and hasn’t) are always inappropriate in academic writing. The only time you should see a contraction in academic text is in a direct quotation, usually taken from informal or spoken text. 

Care should be taken to craft grammatically correct sentences, with no errors of spelling or punctuation. Colloquialisms and idiomatic language should be avoided. (These are characteristics of informal or spoken language.) It is also important to avoid racist, sexist and gender-specific language in your writing. Instead, use inclusive and gender-neutral vocabulary. For more information, please see our blog article ‘ Simplicity in Academic Writing ’.

Introductions

As you already have a clear idea of what your essay will include, you can write your introduction first. Of course, you should always come back to your introduction at the end of writing your essay to make sure that it definitely introduces all the topics you discussed. (You should not discuss any topics in the body of your essay that you have not mentioned in the introduction.) 

Some other points to remember when writing your introduction are that you need to clearly state your answer to the essay question (your thesis statement), not just introduce the question. Also, your introduction should include no information that is not directly relevant to your topic. Including irrelevant background information in the introduction is a common mistake made by novice academic writers. 

See the following example of a poor introduction. Then, compare it with the example of a good introduction below that. These example introductions are for the same 1,000-word essay used for the examples given in earlier stages of this guide, ‘How to Begin’ and ‘How to Organise Your Research’.

This is an example of a poor introduction: In 1492, Columbus set sail from Spain on a quest to find a new trade route to Asia. Despite the fact that he believed he had landed in the East Indies, Columbus had found another continent entirely. This essay will examine the issue of whether or not indigenous culture was completely decimated in the Americas as a result of Spain’s colonisation in the 16th century. It will look at the areas of family, religion and language.

This is an example of a good introduction:  Beginning in the sixteenth century, Spanish colonisation of the Americas had a significantly negative effect on the cultural practices of the indigenous population. In particular, the introduction of new diseases and the consequent demographic collapse dramatically weakened indigenous culture and their ability to resist Spanish domination. However, aspects of the culture of some indigenous groups survived and even thrived—it was not completely decimated. Through an examination of the evidence related to religion, family and language, including the effects of colonisation on these areas of society, this essay will demonstrate aspects of indigenous beliefs, customs and practices that managed to endure.

In the example of a poor introduction, background information is included that is not directly relevant to the topic. Also, it does not answer the question, it only introduces it. Finally, it does not introduce all the topics to be discussed (as outlined in the final essay plan), and for those it does introduce, it does not mention them in the order they will be discussed in the essay (as outlined in the final essay plan). 

By contrast, the good introduction provides a clear thesis statement; introduces, in order, all the topics to be discussed; and only includes information that is directly relevant to the essay question. 

Topic sentences

As explained in ‘How to Begin’, every paragraph needs a topic sentence. The topic sentence introduces the new topic about to be discussed. It also links the topic back to the essay question, to make it clear why it is relevant and how it advances your argument. 

The following are examples of topic sentences for Topic 1 ‘Disease and demographic impact’, Topic 2 ‘Religion’ and Topic 4 ‘Language’, as outlined in the final essay plan in ‘How to Finalise Your Essay Plan’. Notice how they link back to the thesis statement: ‘Spain’s colonisation had a significantly negative effect on the indigenous population of the Americas but some aspects of the culture of some indigenous groups survived and even thrived—it was not completely decimated’.

Topic 1: One of the most obvious negative effects of colonisation was the introduction of diseases that caused rapid demographic collapse among the indigenous population. Topic 2: Missionaries arrived to preach Catholicism to the Native Americans, but they allowed the Native Americans to keep parts of their culture and religion that did not clash with Catholic value and traditions.   Topic 4: The Spanish did not force their language on the Native Americans, but there were nonetheless cases of indigenous languages fading out of use and being replaced with Spanish.

A common misconception is that your paragraphs need a concluding sentence for each topic. This is not true, and in fact results in unnecessary repetition, especially in a short essay. 

If you have carefully followed the steps outlined in the articles on organising your research and finalising your essay plan, your final essay plan should clearly indicate what information will go in each paragraph of your essay. Each paragraph should contain only one main idea. Care should also be taken to only spend as many words as planned on each paragraph. If you decided in your research and planning stages that 150 words were enough to discuss a certain topic, then stick as closely to that plan as possible. Likewise, unless you have a very good reason for doing otherwise, follow your planned order of paragraphs, as that order should reflect the most logical arrangement and help your essay to flow well.

When writing your paragraphs, you want to choose the best supporting evidence and examples from your research to use. You must also ensure that you are inserting the necessary in-text citations and compiling your final reference list as you are writing, rather than leaving this until the end. This should be easy to do, as all these details are readily available in your research document (see ‘How to Organise Your Research’). 

Conclusions

As explained in ‘How to Begin’, a conclusion should restate the thesis statement and summarise the points that were made in the body of the essay in the order in which they were made. The conclusion offers an important opportunity to synthesise the points you have made to support your argument and to reinforce how these points prove that your argument is correct. In many ways, the conclusion is a reflection of the introduction, but it is important that it is not an exact repeat of it. A key point of difference is that you have already provided ample evidence and support for your answer to the essay question, so the purpose of your conclusion is not to introduce what you will say, but rather to reiterate what you have said. Further, your conclusion absolutely must not contain any new material not already discussed in detail in the body of your text.  

Referencing

It is important that you acknowledge your sources of information in your academic writing. This allows you to clearly show how the ideas of others have influenced your own work. You should provide a citation (and matching reference) in your essay every time you use words, ideas or information from other sources. In this way, you can avoid accidental plagiarism. 

Referencing also serves other purposes. It allows you to demonstrate the depth and breadth of your research, to show that you have read and engaged with the ideas of experts in your field. It also allows you to give credit to the writers from whom you have borrowed words or ideas. For your reader, referencing allows them to trace the sources of information you have used, to verify the validity of your work. Your referencing must be accurate and provide all necessary details to allow your reader to locate the source.

Whether you have been provided referencing guidelines to follow, or have selected guidelines that you consider appropriate for your field, these must be followed closely, correctly and consistently. All work that is not 100% your own should be referenced, including page numbers where necessary (see ‘How, When and Why to Reference’). Your referencing should be checked carefully at the end of writing to ensure that everything that should have been referenced has been referenced, all in-text citations have corresponding reference list entries and the reference list or bibliography is correctly ordered.

Your document should be neatly and consistently formatted, following any guidelines provided by your tutor or lecturer. Neat formatting shows that you have taken pride in your work and that you understand the importance of following convention. 

If no guidelines have been provided to you, we recommend you use the following formatting guidelines: 

• normal page margins
• 12 pt Times New Roman or Arial font for the body (10 pt for footnotes)
• bold for headings
• 1.5 or double line spacing for the body (single spacing for footnotes)
• a line between each paragraph (or a first line indent of 1.27 cm for each paragraph).

These are the guidelines most commonly preferred by Australian and New Zealand universities. 

Learning how to write your first draft can feel overwhelming. To solidify your knowledge, you might like to watch Dr Lisa Lines' video on the topic on our YouTube channel . If you need any further assistance, you can read more about our professional editing service . Capstone Editing is always here to help.

Related Guides

Essay writing: everything you need to know and nothing you don’t—part 1: how to begin.

This guide will explain everything you need to know about how to organise, research and write an argumentative essay.

Essay Writing Part 2: How to Organise Your Research

Organising your research effectively is a crucial and often overlooked step to successful essay writing.

Essay Writing Part 3: How to Finalise Your Essay Plan

The key to successful essay writing is to finalise a detailed essay plan, carefully refined during the research stage, before beginning to write your essay.

Part 5: How to Finalise and Polish Your Essay

Before handing in any assignment, you must take the time to carefully edit and proofread it. This article explains exactly how to do so effectively.

We’re reviewing our resources this spring (May-August 2024). We will do our best to minimize disruption, but you might notice changes over the next few months as we correct errors & delete redundant resources. 

Writing a First Draft

A first draft is a preliminary attempt to get ideas down on paper. It’s okay if your ideas aren’t completely formed yet. Writing can shape your thoughts and guide you to your conclusion.

Strategies For Writing a First Draft

Try these tips for writing a first draft. They will help you stay focused on your topic and provide a rough sketch of what your paper will look like.

• Write your research question or thesis and post it above your work space so you can see it.
• Print out your outline and refer to it as you write.
• Start wherever you want. Write the part that comes most easily. Many people recommend leaving the introduction until the end.
• Some people recommend writing as much as you can in one sitting. In the time you’ve given yourself to write, you should be producing sentences and paragraphs, even bad ones.
• Get your main points down, but leave out quotations and specific evidence if you don’t have them yet.
• Leave gaps in the writing where you know you want to add more, and write yourself a quick note about what you should eventually include there.
• Let go of perfection! Try to write complete sentences but don’t worry too much about grammar, word choice, or punctuation. These elements can be fine-tuned in revision.

To better understand disciplinary requirements for your research, talk to your professors and look for resources in your discipline. 

Once you have a first draft, your writing will need revising and polishing. See our resources on   Revision   and   Proofreading Strategies .

Writing Center: The First Draft

• How to Set Up an Appointment Online
• Documentation Styles
• Parts of Speech
• Types of Clauses
• Punctuation
• Spelling & Mechanics
• Usage & Styles
• Resources for ESL Students
• How to Set up an APA Paper
• How to Set up an MLA Paper
• Adapt to Academic Learning
• Audience Awareness
• Learn Touch Typing
• Getting Started
• Thesis Statement
• The First Draft
• Proofreading
• Writing Introductions
• Writing Conclusions
• Chicago / Turabian Style
• CSE / CBE Style
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Cross-Cultural Understanding
• Writing Resources
• Research Paper - General Guidelines
• Annotated Bibliographies
• History Papers
• Science Papers
• Experimental Research Papers
• Exegetical Papers
• FAQs About Creative Writing
• Tips For Creative Writing
• Exercises To Develop Creative Writing Skills
• Checklist For Creative Writing
• Additional Resources For Creative Writing
• FAQs About Creating PowerPoints
• Tips For Creating PowerPoints
• Exercises to Improve PowerPoint Skills
• Checklist For PowerPoints
• Structure For GRE Essay
• Additional Resources For PowerPoints
• Additional Resources For GRE Essay Writing
• FAQs About Multimodal Assignments
• Tips For Creating Multimodal Assignments
• Checklist For Multimodal Assignments
• Additional Resources For Multimodal Assignments
• GRE Essay Writing FAQ
• Tips for GRE Essay Writing
• Sample GRE Essay Prompts
• Checklist For GRE Essays
• Cover Letter
• Personal Statements
• Resources for Tutors
• Chapter 2: Theoretical Perspectives on Learning a Second Language
• Chapter 4: Reading an ESL Writer's Text
• Chapter 5: Avoiding Appropriation
• Chapter 6: 'Earth Aches by Midnight': Helping ESL Writers Clarify Their Intended Meaning
• Chapter 7: Looking at the Whole Text
• Chapter 8: Meeting in the Middle: Bridging the Construction of Meaning with Generation 1.5 Learners
• Chapter 9: A(n)/The/Ø Article About Articles
• Chapter 10: Editing Line by Line
• Chapter 14: Writing Activities for ESL Writers
• Resources for Faculty
• Writing Center Newsletter
• Writing Center Survey

First Draft

T he importance of the first draft is to test your outline and structure to see if they work. As you start your first draft, do not get caught up on the details just yet. Do not worry about having the most creative Introduction or a fully developed argument. It is very rare that a writer will write the perfect draft on the first try. The importance of the first draft is to try to get your ideas out based on the outline you have created. It serves as a reference point to build off of for your later drafts.

The Introduction

For most writers, the Introduction is the most difficult part of the whole essay. For the first draft, it is perfectly acceptable to only have a two sentence long Introduction and to dive more immediately into the argument. It is simply difficult to know how to set up your argument if you have not started it. So, in the first draft, do not give the Introduction priority. After the first draft, you will have a feel for your argument and can start to develop the Introduction. The Introduction should included:

• An grabbing first sentence (a quote, statistic, or shocking revelation)
• An explanation of what your paper is about
• An introduction to your argument
• A Thesis Statement

Body Paragraphs

Body paragraphs are the meat of your argument. Body paragraphs are the explanations behind your thesis statement. It is important that your body paragraphs support your main idea and thesis. Each paragraph should argue one main idea and have supporting details to back the main idea. A body paragraph's structure may look like this.

Topic Sectence (a main idea of your argument)

• Supporting detail

Another example:

I like dogs (topic sentence)

• I like the fact that they are so loyal.
• They make great companions for people of all ages.

    In the pargraph, one main idea will be discussed, and the topic sentence will introduce the main idea of that paragraph. After the topic sentence, the supporting details will reinforce the main idea of the paragraph.

The Conclusion has to serve many purposes for your essay. A conclusion restates your introduction and thesis, but it does not repeat it explicitly. The Conclusion also serves to put your argument into a big picture. At the beginning of the essay, in your introduction, you tell the reader what to expect in your paper. Then, in your body paragraphs, you provide your argument and the supporting details. In the Conclusion, you are putting the final touch on the overall argument by summing up the entirety of your argument. This is not the time to introduce any new material. It is a time to restate your argument and thesis.

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• Last Updated: Sep 14, 2023 10:30 AM
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The Savvy Scientist

Experiences of a London PhD student and beyond

How to Write the First Draft of an Academic Research Paper

Actually making a start and putting together a first draft can certainly be the biggest stumbling block to getting a paper submitted. Unless you make a start, it’ll never progress! Drafting your first paper is even more difficult when you don’t yet have experience writing papers and submitting them to journals.

I know from experience how daunting the prospect can be and just how easy it is to unnecessarily procrastinate for months. But it doesn’t have to be difficult and the main thing is making a start. I’m here to try and help making the process less daunting for you!

This guide to drafting your first academic paper forms part of the publishing series . I suggest reading these associated posts in particular:

• What to publish
• When to publish
• Where to publish

What to include in your first draft of an academic research paper

Let me start by saying that no one should be expecting for your first draft to be perfect! I wasted months of time on my first paper because I wanted to perfect everything, down to the wording, before sharing it with my supervisor. This is completely the wrong approach!

Instead of perfecting your first draft, just work to form the rough structure of your paper around whatever you want your key message to be. We discussed this further in the separate post: Deciding what to publish from your PhD work . Simply try to ensure your first draft roughly tells the story of what you want your main message to be.

It is absolutely fine for your first draft to be a rough cut, it should simply serve as a starting point. Therefore for example you can include extra figures you’re not sure about to be able to discuss with your co-authors whether or not they should be included. Throughout the drafting process you want to aiming to make your key message as clear and robust as possible but for now it’s fine to not be sure on the finer details. It may help to look at your favourite papers from the literature to get an idea what papers in your field typically include.

For now, don’t worry the quality of the written text, or finalising your figures. You want to use the first draft to form the rough structure and be a starting point for discussion with co-authors.

Let’s now discuss how to structure your first draft.

Structuring your first draft

If you already have a certain journal in mind to submit your paper to, how you structure your draft may slightly depend upon the format that the journal asks for. It’s a good idea to check their Author Instructions page which should include a “Guide for Authors”: a walkthrough of each section of the paper. Oftentimes there may even be a template you can download including section titles and advice for structuring your text.

If you don’t yet have a journal in mind, don’t worry. For the most part all journals follow the same format. For an original research paper, usually you’ll include sections as follows:

• Abstract – typically around 200-250 words or less.
• Introduction
• Conclusions – sometimes appears as the final paragraph of the discussion section.

Then followed by Author Contributions, Funding sources, Acknowledgments, Conflicts of Interest, any Supplementary files or Appendix and finally the list of References. None of these sections you really have to worry about at this stage.

Let’s go through roughly what to include in each section:

Introduction:

• A brief review of previous literature to set the scene;
• The motivation for the study;
• The aims of your study;
• Sometimes you may include a very brief overview of your main findings. See what other papers in the journal do.

Always include enough detail for someone else to be able to repeat your experiments, including:

• How many samples did you test? How did you process them? Were there inclusion/exclusion criteria?
• If you synthesised or processed physical samples, what materials have you used? Include processing temperatures, durations of each step etc.
• What equipment and consumables did you use? Include the item code, model number and manufacturer.
• How did you process the data? Name the software package, version and operations you performed.
• Details of any statistical analysis: software packages, models, methods, inclusion/exclusion criteria and so forth.

In all instances where you followed a method developed in another paper, include a reference to that paper. Not only is it good practice to give credit where it is due but you’ll have an easier time with peer review demonstrating you’re following the convention.

Remember, you shouldn’t be discussing findings in your results section, simply presenting them. Therefore there shouldn’t really be any suggesting why the results are a certain way. The exception is where the journal specifically allows results and discussion sections to be combined. Further on in this post is a section about choosing figures and results to include in your paper, and most of these will appear in your results section.

• Your results should aim to convince the reader of your key message.
• Be conscious that when first looking at your paper, most readers will go straight to looking at your figures.
• Cite every figure you include, in the order you include them. Clearly explain what is being presented.

Discussion:

The way I was taught to write a discussion was to simply use four paragraphs/sections covering:

• Your key finding . You can even start it with the sentence “The most important finding of this work was”
• Comparison to previous literature . How do your findings compare to other papers? What was the same? What was different? How do your findings progress the field? What would you recommend next?
• Limitations . Every study has limitations, don’t try and hide them. Be honest with what wasn’t ideal during your study. Examples may be: small sample size, imperfect analysis, impractical sample processing. If you can, cite other papers which relate to these limitations: either in regards to why it’s not such a big problem, how it is common problem, or potential solutions or improvements for future studies. In any case, be honest. You can recommend future work to overcome these limitations if appropriate.
• Conclusions . Give a brief set of conclusions with reference to the potential impact of your work for future studies.

You can see how I used exactly this format for a recent paper available here .

Eager to learn more about the steps involved in publishing your first paper? My academic publishing series is now available as a free eBook which you can read offline. Click the button below for access.

In which order should you write the sections of the first draft?

Everyone writes papers differently, so what works for me may not work well for you. Personally once I start a document for a new paper, I typically write notes for each section as I think of them but go with the following strategy to get the text written.

Generally it is acknowledged that the methods section is an easy section to write, so I would suggest starting there. Even if you’ve got writer’s block, writing your methods is pretty robotic and shouldn’t require much thought. It simply involves writing down the process you went through to collect all your data. Writing the methods is an easy starting point which should give you confidence to dive into the other sections. In the above graphic I’ve separated the conclusions from the discussion but often the conclusions will simply be the final paragraph of the discussion section.

After the methods you can start drafting your key results and your discussion will naturally follow from there. If you follow the structure for the discussion as outlined in the section above, it should also be formulaic and pretty easy to write if you’ve got a clear message.

By all means crack on with the introduction whenever you fancy. If you’re in the mood to write it, don’t stop yourself! I personally like to write notes for it and include key references as I’m going along, but write the bulk of it after the methods, results and the bulk of the discussion.

Usually it is recommended to write the abstract last once everything else is finalised.

Choosing which figures to present

Remember you’re creating a story around your key message. As such all your figures should be helping to convince your reader of your key message.

• Be aware that there are sometimes limits on the maximum number of figures you’re allowed to include (around 8) in the main text of your paper. Usually you can move figures to a supplementary section if necessary. Prioritise the most impactful figures to illustrate your main point.
• Each figure should aim to address a certain point around your key message to convince readers. You can combine figures as panels within a larger figure but only do so if they address the same overall point. Don’t confuse readers by combining loads of unrelated things just because you’re running out of space!
• Always make sure the caption fully describes what the figure is showing. The figure and caption should explain what is going on without the reader having to read any of the main text. What type of equipment generated the data? How many samples were tested? What do the error bars show? What is the scale? For stats: what is the p-value?

You may need a figure to describe your methods but after that usually you’ll try to include figures in an order which tells a story. Importantly: this order may not be the one in which experiments actually took place. You’re trying to tell a story to get a message across, not write a diary! It’s no problem to move sections of results around if it makes for a more convincing message, especially for readers who may only have a quick glance through your paper.

For example you may wish to start with your key finding, then follow with any validation work, then finally include more details to convince the reader. It will really depend on what suits the work you’re doing, but remember that you have full control and your aim should be to make a clear story.

My top tips for putting together your first draft of the paper

Iterate quickly.

My main bit of advice is to get a first draft put together pretty quickly otherwise you risking wasting lots of time like I did! I wish I had sent the initial drafts of my first paper to my supervisor sooner. I spent far too long trying to perfect it down to the exact phrasing of sentences. There is no point getting to this level of detail if there is potentially an improved completely different direction to take the paper in!

What I’ve found to work really well is to set deadlines with your supervisor to ensure you are making progress to submission. You don’t have to have the full paper available all at once. I have had calendar invites set up saying by a certain date I’d have sections of the paper sent across, and to limit procrastination no date was more than four weeks away.

After your supervisor(s) has had a look, send it across to any co-authors. It may take a few iterations until everyone is happy. Once you have the backing of your coauthors, don’t be scared to submit your manuscript slightly sooner than you feel comfortable.

A reviewer is pretty unlikely to outright reject your paper if they want more experiments to be carried out: they’ll ask for what they want in the review process.

Always think about the next publication

Once you start writing, you may struggle deciding what to include and what not to. Remember though that this doesn’t mean you need to delay publishing if you already have a clear story. Unless all your work sits together very neatly, please resist the urge to include everything in a single paper.

If you’ve got results you’d like to publish but they don’t sit nicely with the main message of this paper, you can always consider publishing them separately later. It is much more important to create a clear message with a coherent story than to include extra work just because you did it!

Although some academics shun the “salami slice” connotations of having many smaller papers, it doesn’t always make sense to force different experiments together in to one paper. I recently published two different papers in the same special issue of a journal, both were related but had very different messages:

• Quantifying 3D Strain in Scaffold Implants for Regenerative Medicine
• Exploratory Full-Field Mechanical Analysis across the Osteochondral Tissue—Biomaterial Interface in an Ovine Model

It wouldn’t have made for a stronger paper to combine them because in essence they were telling separate stories.

It’s fine for your first draft if you’re not exactly sure what to include. Once you’ve got the rough form of the paper sorted, you can add or reduce bits as necessary. The key thing is to get a first draft done to get the framework for the paper. No one is expecting it to be perfect!

Word vs LaTex

I know some people enjoy using LaTex for their documents, but I’ve never used it. Everyone I’ve always worked with uses Word, so even if I was keen to use LaTex I’m not sure that it would be that easy to collaborate on documents to track changes etc. Journals will often request the paper to be submitted as a Word document so probably save using LaTex for your own internal reports or theses.

Keep your data, files and figures organised

This point extends far beyond your first draft of a paper! Once you start iterating on papers, it becomes more important than ever to know where all your key files are. Ensure you keep different version of documents clearly labelled.

Be prepared for reviewers to ask for modifications to figures or data to be reanalysed.

What I do is keep a folder for the paper and include the main working draft plus other relevant documents like notes or draft of the cover letter. I then have subfolders for data, figures and old drafts.

Aim to present figures with a clear message which are easy to “get”

Making figures is the focus of a whole other post which will follow this one. In short:

A lot of readers will initially flick through your paper and skip straight to your figures. It’s really important that the figures tell the story clearly and can be understood by just looking at the figure and caption. Also, if the readers don’t like the look of your figures, or can’t understand them, they’re less likely to bother reading the rest of the paper. Again, have a look at how published papers present their work to get some ideas.

You’ll want to make your figures in such a way that they can be amended easily to account for any adjustments suggested by co-authors or reviewers. I use a combination of Excel and Photoshop for most of my figures. There are lots of alternatives depending on what you’re presenting, GIMP is a free alternative to Photoshop.

If you make them in Paint and someone suggests making some alterations, it could take you ages. Instead if you make them in a non-binding software like Photoshop you can easily make non-destructive changes element by element.

It is worth spending time creating nice figures. Having polished figures makes your submission look more professional, ensuring the underlying science is easy to understand is critical too. Plus you can use them elsewhere, such as in presentations or other documents.

Got a draft? What happens next

The hard work is far from over once you have your first draft but you’ve overcome a really big hurdle in the journey to getting your work published. Now it’s time to discuss your draft with co-authors, incorporating feedback and changes into subsequent drafts.

There is no certain number of drafts you should expect to go through before submission, just know that you could endlessly spend time finding things to add (discussed here ) and you should be very conscious to avoid doing! For my papers I think it took around four drafts until we felt happy enough to submit. Not all of your co-authors have to give feedback for every draft, I’d suggest the main people you’ll be liaising with will be your supervisor(s) though it’s certainly important that everyone has an opportunity to help.

Once all of the authors, including yourself, are happy with the paper, speak to your supervisor for how to proceed with submission. Some supervisors like to lead the submission whereas others prefer for the student to do so, and then to transfer “corresponding authorship” at the final stages before publication.

In any case, be prepared to feel vulnerable when you do eventually submit the research paper to a journal. This can be completely normal, your work is going to get critiqued! But remember that you’ve done great and rather than leave the data on a computer you’re motivated to pursue publication in turn helping progress your field. Well done!

I hope this post has helped with your first draft of a paper! Remember that you can find the other posts in the series here: Writing an academic journal paper series. Next we’ll be covering creating figures and dealing with reviewers.

Please let me know what you thought of it or if there are any other details of publishing which you’d like help with .

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Creating the First Draft of Your College Application Essay

←6 Personal Essay Brainstorming Exercises

Essential Grammar Rules for Your College Apps →

By the time senior year rolls around, you have already done most of what it takes to get into college. Years of grades, extracurricular activities, and test scores have already stacked up to give admissions officers a sense of your interests and talents. So then why should essays be a big deal, if all of this information about you already exists?

Essays are extremely important because they tie the whole application together. You aren’t just a list of accomplishments—you’re a person. Your essay is one of the few places in the application where you get to show your values and personality to the selection committee. And that takes a lot of careful planning. In this post, we’ll talk about how to write the first draft of a winning college application essay.

How Long Should the College Essay Drafting Process Take?

We recommend giving yourself at least a month to craft your personal statement . For most students, this is the main essay on the Common Application. To get advice on those specific prompts, see CollegeVine’s post on How to Write the Common Application Essays 2018-19 (With Examples) . Students using a different application portal can still follow these general drafting guidelines.

For school-specific essays, we recommend starting at least two weeks before the deadline. The drafting process requires a little less soul-searching and a bit more research. If you’re at the point where you’re writing “Why This School” essays, you can find drafting tips at CollegeVine’s Why This College’ Essays: Should You Focus on Yourself or the College?

We have students start essays early so that they have time to marinate. You will come up with great ideas between drafts, and words that sounded great at first will stick out if you read the essay several days or weeks later.

These timeline suggestions are on the low end. Starting even earlier never hurt a student.

I’m Smart. Can’t I Just Start the Essay the Night Before It’s Due?

Sure, it’s your essay. However, it’s our professional opinion that students who put this off are leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table.

How can that be? A lot of undergraduate scholarships are based on your college application only. These are “automatic consideration merit awards.” So even if you gain acceptance using a last-minute essay (which is not a guarantee), you could be missing out on serious financial aid.

In the rest of this article, we recommend one approach to building a first draft. This is not necessarily how you have to start. If you use this method, then you can be sure no important step is falling through the cracks.

CollegeVine’s 5 Steps to a First Draft

1. analyze the prompt.

First, read the prompt. In some cases, you have only one choice. In others, you will be given multiple questions from which to choose. If you have options, read them all before narrowing in on one prompt over another.

Once you have identified a prompt that speaks to you, annotate it. First, underline key words or phrases. Here you can see an example annotated prompt from this year’s Common Application prompt choices.

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success . Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure . How did it affect you , and what did you learn from the experience?

By underlining the key parts of the passage, you get a sense of what kinds of answers go well with this essay prompt. For instance, students who annotated this prompt would know that they should be looking for obstacles, challenges, setbacks, or failures in their past.

Next, number the specific requests that the prompt makes. This avoids the common mistake of responding to some but not all of the questions posed. You can see how we break down the same example prompt below:

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later su ccess. (1) Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. (2) How did it affect you, and (3) what did you learn from the experience?

Student who annotated this prompt would know that the essay should accomplish three things:

• Let the reader know when they faced a challenge, setback, or failure.
• Describe how it affected them.
• Share what they learned from the experience.

This whole process only takes a few minutes, but it will help you stay on-topic when it actually comes time to write.

2. Free Write

Next, write without stopping for 30-60 minutes. This gets your creative juices flowing and helps you to uncover ideas you would not have considered otherwise. There are only two rules for a free write:

First, stay on topic.

Second, don’t stop writing!

3. Analyze Your Free Write

As soon as you’re done, read your free write over again. There will probably be something that surprises you. Put a star next to it. If you find a part that really resonates with you, star that as well. Eye-catching details and stories that grab your attention usually make for good essay material.

Next, look for a “growth” moment in the free write. Most successful essays follow this story arch:

• At first I was [A: trait].
• Then something important happened: [B: event].
• Because of [B: event], I am no longer [A: trait]. Now, I am [C: trait].

If you can fill in [A], [B], and [C] with your own story of how you grew, then you probably have a good essay topic on your hands. Whenever you find one of these growth moments, star it.

4. Pen Your First Draft

By now, you should have an annotated prompt and a free write with a bunch of stars on it. Does anything jump out at you? Is there one essay idea that is more appealing than the others? If no, try the same process with a different prompt.  If yes, then it’s time to write your first draft.

This draft doesn’t have to be pretty. All you have to do is tell a story that answers the questions you numbered in the prompt. Whenever possible, try to answer these questions with stories from your life. Give examples. Be specific.

5. Review Your First Draft

Once you’ve written your draft, read it over. All you have to do is answer one question: Are you the hero of your story?

Some essays show the author as the hero, but just as often a friend or family member actually winds up becoming the main focus of a student’s essay. At the end of the day, you need to be the main character. Otherwise, colleges and universities will not have enough information about you to make an informed admissions decision.

Read this draft a second time. This time, answer this question: Did you respond to all parts of the prompt?

Make sure you answer each question presented. For the example, this looks like:

(1) Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure.

(2) how did it affect you, (3) what did you learn from the experience.

If your essay addresses every question in the prompt, then you just completed a great first draft essay.

I’m Done with My First Draft. What Should I Do Next?

Congratulations! You have now officially completed a first draft of your essay. Rest assured that you are on your way to an application that lets your values and personality shine.

After getting to this point, set the essay aside for a few days or weeks. We recommend reading this over at least two more times before you declare that it is finished. Each time you read, you will likely catch something that needs improving.

Your next step will be to edit and proofread. For tips on how to perfect your essay, see our post of 11 Tips for Proofreading and Editing Your College Essay . Good luck!

You can find additional help by reading these related articles:

• How to Craft the Perfect College Application Essay
• Find Your College’s Application Essay Prompts for 2018-19
• Essay Prompt Breakdowns
• What Is a Personal Statement?
• College Essay Structures & How to Approach Them
• ‘Why This College’ Essays: Should You Focus on Yourself or the College?

Want help with your college essays to improve your admissions chances? Sign up for your free CollegeVine account and get access to our essay guides and courses. You can also get your essay peer-reviewed and improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

Need help with your college applications?

We’ve helped thousands of students write amazing college essays and successfully apply to college! Learn more about how our Applications Program can help your chances of admission.

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

Writing the Essay Draft

In this section you will explore the process of writing a first draft of an essay. You’ll read about outlining, ordering and supporting your ideas, as well as creating effective transitions, introductions, conclusions, and titles.

Topics in this section:

• General Drafting Process
• Drafting from an Outline
• Ordering Topic Sentences & Units of Support
• Transitions
• Conclusions
• Introductions
• Drafting Summary

Supporting writers since 1790

Essay Guide

Our comprehensive guide to the stages of the essay development process. Back to Student Resources

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The first draft

• The second draft
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• Getting it down on paper
• Drafting and rewriting
• Planning your dissertation
• Planning for length
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• Abstracts, tone, unity of style
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Two things first

Before you can start writing your first draft you should have done two things: (i) done all the necessary reading and made notes; and (ii) made an essay plan. You should have a pretty good idea of what you need and want to say. Now you are going to say it in the most effective way possible.

What should it look like?

The first draft is where you begin to express your ideas and organise your materials, putting them together under different section headings. It is where you sketch out the main points of your argument and illustrate them with examples. The writing is rough because you need to work through what you think, what your argument is, and what theoretical writing you are going to use at what stage.

You don’t have to start at the beginning

You don’t have to sit staring at a blank page or a white screen waiting for inspiration to strike so you can write the first line of your introduction. Why not start with part of the main body first? You need to write about Professor Bloggs’s theory of organizations in detail anyway so why not get on with it right away?

The important thing is to keep writing. Remember: this is only the first draft so it does not have to be perfect. The important thing is to produce a chunk or chunks of text you can work with and start to shape into the piece of work you will eventually hand in. Thinking about your first draft in these terms will help to make the writing process less stressful.

Don’t struggle 1: how to unblock yourself

If you really are struggling to get started try some of the following techniques.

Write a short letter to yourself outlining what you want to say in the essay.

Write for 15 minutes about any aspect of the subject you need to write about. You could do several of these 15 minutes sections and paste them together into something longer. You will have the beginnings of a good first draft.

Try a relaxation and visualisation exercise. Sit in an upright position. Both your feet should be on the floor and your hands should be resting, palms down, on your legs. Breathe calmly and evenly. Close your eyes and imagine you are walking down the corridor to the room where you are going to write your essay. You open the door. Then imagine that all the superfluous objects are magically leaving the room until nothing is left but your chair, table, books and computer or writing pad. Then open your eyes and begin.

Don’t struggle 2: break it up & don’t get stuck

Writing is hard work. Don’t tell yourself you are not going to get up until you’ve written ten pages. Take regular breaks, perhaps every 30 or 45 minutes. If you find yourself getting stuck in the middle of a particular section stop writing. Make a brief note about what needs to go next e.g. “examples of how Hardy uses imagery”. Then start another part of the essay. You can always come back to the earlier section later.

First Draft Definition: Key Differences Between First and Second Drafts

by Callie Sutcliffe | 0 comments

Have you ever wondered which draft you are working on? Do you wonder what the difference is between your first draft, your second draft, and editing your book? Let's break down the first draft definition and the differences between drafts.

When writing multiple drafts of a book, you may be halfway through your rough draft and decide to start over. Or you may have written the entire manuscript, but then wish to scrap it and start fresh.

And when considering this, you question: “Am I writing a first draft? Am I editing my novel?”

What does “first draft” mean —or “second draft,” for that matter?

Knowing the differences between first drafts, second drafts, and editing your book will elevate your ability to tackle the writing and editing process. It will help you understand what to focus on when you're writing—and have fun while you do it!

If you've been having trouble finishing your own first draft and want help and encouragement in the process, consider joining our 100 Day Book program and join thousands of writers who finally finished their dream books! Check out 100 Day Book here.

What Does “First Draft” Mean?

The first draft is a completed manuscript that has NOT been edited; in other words, a rough initial draft of your piece of writing. In most cases, a first draft requires further work to be publication-ready.

To put it simply, the first draft is a pile of words thrown together.

If you have written most of your story, but never finished it, and you decide to start over, is that a first draft?

Until that amazing, miraculous, hard-earned moment where you type the words “The End,” you have not completed your manuscript. It is still in the first draft stage.

What if you’re starting from the first page and rewriting a story that is already over halfway finished?

It is still the first draft because you are reworking a story that you have not finished. Completing your entire manuscript is an essential step to achieve before you begin the editing process.

Writing a first draft provides you as the writer with a chance to meld your thoughts together and to further develop your ideas. It is the preliminary stage in the writing process.

Without a first draft, there’s nothing to edit. There’s no way to skip this essential step in the writing process!

From Mess to Masterpiece

It's exciting to go from a blank page to typing those hard-earned words: THE END. But what happens next? Do you just begin a new project, or start over?

Answer: you edit .

Your first draft is complete when you are ready to move on to your second draft, the next phase of writing your book.

You might have met your word count goal, or written way more than you expected to. Or maybe you didn't hit your goal word count, but you did reach the end of the story (or, for a nonfiction book, the end of the content you want to include).

Regardless of how your first version of your story turned out, your second draft is the unskippable next step .

It's arguably even harder than writing the rough sketch of your book, which is what you created in your first draft.

But that doesn't mean you can't succeed.

What Does “Second Draft” Mean?

The second draft of a piece of writing is the result of one round of editing. A writer “working on a second draft” is working on a first round of revision and edits, generally focused on structural concerns like major plot points and the flow of ideas.

A completed second draft may be a finished, publishable manuscript, but it will usually require further editing.

Editing is complex. And editing the second draft is different from writing the first draft because you already know where you are going with the story and how the story ends.

You probably already have the main three-act structure written. You’ve decided on the conflict and resolution. You have created your hero’s journey , your main characters, and the hard choices your protagonist needs to face.

You wrote your first draft.

Sure, it might be messy, and you might change some of those major elements along the way when writing the second draft. But the core of your story is already on the page.

As you edit your second draft, you will take that story and make it better.

To do this, you will read your book from start to finish and look at your book as a whole. You will consider the structure of your book and discover loopholes that need to be fixed.

It can be as simple as adding missing scenes, cutting unnecessary ones, or rewriting scenes that are not moving the story forward the way you intended.

You may even find you need to rewrite parts of your book entirely!

The Genius of Feedback

Part of the editing process is the need for another pair of eyes to read your work. As writers we are often blinded by our own thoughts. We tend to see what we mean to say, but we do not always see what our readers will be thinking when they read our works.

Getting feedback from other writers shines light on how our readers will receive what we are writing.

Here at The Write Practice, we believe in community-driven feedback and critiques. As you work on your second draft, you might find suggestions critical in fostering creative growth and stimulating ideas. It is also a great way to get into the minds of your readers.

Critique isn’t always easy to hear. It can be painful at its best, deeply wounding at its worst, and can sometimes cause lasting impact to our writing and our self-confidence. Whether you call in beta-readers or hire an editor, getting and using feedback will make your writing stronger. 

That being said, criticism is also incredibly useful for creativity and far more effective for generating ideas than brainstorming alone .

Here’s how Berkeley psychologist Charlan Nemeth puts it:

“While the instruction ‘Do not criticize’ is often cited as the important instruction in brainstorming, this appears to be a counterproductive strategy. Our findings show that debate and criticism do not inhibit ideas but, rather, stimulate them relative to every other condition. . . . Authentic dissent can be difficult, but it’s always invigorating. It wakes us right up.”

Being critiqued by fellow writers prepares you for the world of literary criticism, sparks ideas that will help you make your book the best it can be, and it helps you grow as a writer.

Check out our Book Editing Checklist to see where you are in the editing process and how to get your story ready for publishing.

Want feedback from a supportive community of writers? Join us in The Write Practice Pro and share your writing for insightful critique! Join the community »

Should You Hire an Editor?

A lot of people wonder if they should invest in an editor. It costs money, it feels vulnerable, and you fear they may want to change your story. Does this sound about right?

There are several reasons why someone would hire an editor. Here are three important ones:

• A professional editor can offer distance and objectivity. As valuable as having peer-driven feedback is to you as a writer, it can often lead to uncertainty and confusion due to conflicting opinions.
• A professional editor will point out your weaknesses as well as your strengths. They remain objective and offer advice on how to take your story to the next level. They help improve and draw out the storyline(s).
• A professional editor will offer insight and understanding into your genre. They’ll provide feedback about the obligatory scenes and conventions in your genre to ensure your story is moving forward. This is often something that is difficult to achieve on your own.

It can be scary sending your work to an editor. Fear of judgement and rejection often worms its way through you at first.

However, a professional editor knows this and will be both honest and kind. Over time, you’ll establish a relationship with them, one that will often last through your entire writing career.

To put it in simplest terms, a professional editor is essential in helping you shape your manuscript into a story that works and is ready for publication.

Ready to hire an editor? Our team of editors will help you tackle your second draft and take your manuscript to the next level. Hire your editor »

How Many Drafts Does it Take to Write a Book?

The number of drafts from idea to publication looks different for every writer. However, the majority of writers will need at least three drafts to complete their story. Here’s how this can look:

• First Draft: This is also known as the discovery draft , where all writers write with the objective of getting their ideas on the page.
• Second Draft: The beginning of the editing phase. Also known as the structural edit , where you work on the global story arc, fill in the plot holes, omit and/or rewrite where needed.
• Third Draft: The proofreading phase. This is a final polish where you’ll correct things like typos and errors in grammar and spelling.

For most writers, four or even five drafts work better for developing the story and getting it ready for publication. Proofreading should always be the last stage of your editing process.

A five-draft process looks this:

• First Draft: Your discovery draft.
• Second Draft: The beginning of the editing phase. A structural edit to ensure all the essential elements are in the story.
• Third Draft: This might be a second structural edit, where you’ll refine the changes you made in the second draft.
• Fourth Draft: This line edit will focus on the line-by-line writing, cleaning up paragraphs and sentences so your ideas are as clear as possible.
• Fifth Draft: The final proofread, one last polish to fix any remaining typos or errors.

A lot of new writers don’t always have the patience to sit down and write multiple drafts. Practice makes perfect (well, maybe not perfect in this sense, but definitely better). The more you practice your craft and create a daily habit of writing , the more experienced you will become, and the easier it will be to know your writing and how to structure your story along the way.

Experienced writers might need only three or even two drafts, but that is because they’ve written so many books that story fundamentals are baked into their first draft process, almost on an unconscious level. You can get to that point by wading through the editing process and practicing your art every day.

Ready to write or edit your book? The 100 Day Book program will take you from idea to finished draft. It’s designed for you, whether you’re working on your first or second draft. Write your book »

Do you prefer writing your first draft or editing your second draft? Let us know in the comments .

Your practice for today is to spend fifteen minutes revising a piece of your writing. It might be a short story you’ve written, an excerpt of your work in progress, or even a practice you’ve shared on another Write Practice article.

Bonus points if you are revising a piece that has already been critiqued by an editor or other writers!

When you are finished, share your work in the Pro Practice Workshop here . And don’t forget to comment on other writers’ revisions!

Callie Sutcliffe

Author of Women's Fiction and Contemporary Romance. TWP moderator and customer service manager. I build relationships and write things.

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10 Things To Do After You Write Your First Draft

Remember : no one can write a great essay in one draft; a good paper requires revision, revision and more revision!

• Revisit the Prompt: After focusing so much on completing a draft, sometimes it’s easy to skip over the most basic purpose of your paper— answering the prompt. Read over the assignment and make sure that your paper addresses every single question your professor asks.
• Revisit the Thesis: Reread your thesis, and ask yourself: does your whole paper prove/support/pertain to your thesis? Make sure you’ve stuck to your thesis throughout each part of your essay, and remember that you should rewrite your thesis whenever you can make it a better guide for your essay. Sometimes the best theses are written after you’re done with everything else.
• Look at each paragraph by itself: Try to edit each paragraph by itself before looking at all the paragraphs together. Take a look at the “claim” of each paragraph, and determine whether each distinct chunk of your essay is fully developed. Does each paragraph have its own point? Have you supported the claim of each paragraph with evidence? Have you analyzed the evidence you used in each paragraph? Avoid super long and super short paragraphs.
• Look at the sequence of your argument: After you’ve determined what each paragraph argues, try to examine the sequence of your argument. Does the order of your paragraphs make sense? Could you reorder them to make the paper more logical? Do the transitions between paragraphs flow smoothly?
• Revisit the Conclusion and Introduction: Make sure that your conclusion and introduction do not contradict each other and that they do not just simply repeat the same ideas. The introduction should be a brief introduction into the question/ problem you’re answering, while the conclusion should go beyond just the main point you’ve stated (such as: the significance of your conclusion, further questions, etc.).
• Read your paper aloud: Reading the paper aloud will allow you to reexamine the flow and progression of your paper. It will also allow you to catch the grammatical mistakes, inconsistent tones, or awkward sentence structures that you might miss by simply reading the paper quickly to yourself. Pay close attention to active/passive voice and consistency of verb tense.
• Read and re-read your paper for different problems: Each time you read through your paper, try to tackle one thing at a time by having an important question in the back of your mind as you revise. Focus on issues such as: Have you addressed your target audience? Have you eliminated unnecessary or redundant sentences/ ideas? Have you analyzed, and not merely summarized?
• Talk about your paper with your friends: Try to have conversations about your ideas—sometimes talking can help you a lot with writing. Discussing the issues or each main ideas of a paper can help you discover for yourself what you really want to write about. Your friends can also help be a critical listener, and give you a chance to practice presenting your ideas to an audience.
• Think about your professor and class: Many professors have their own preferences for writing, and it can be useful to either speak with them about what they are looking for, or to pay attention to how they have marked your papers in the past. It is also a good idea to consider how your paper fits it with the rest of your class material and to try to draw connections with what you have learned in class and what you’re writing.
• Just Keep Swimming!: Remember that no paper is ever perfect, and that a good paper requires revising, revisiting and re-thinking. Writing is a never-ending process!

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Current Issue

The President Can Now Assassinate You, Officially

Under this new standard, a president can go on a four-to-eight-year crime spree and then retire from public life, never to be held accountable.

United States Supreme Court justices pose for their official portrait on October 7, 2022, in Washington, DC.

Welp, Donald Trump won. The Supreme Court today ruled that presidents are entitled to “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for official acts, then contended that pressuring the vice president and the Department of Justice to overthrow the government was an “official act,” then said that talking to advisers or making public statements are “official acts” as well, and then determined that evidence of what presidents say and do cannot be used against them to establish that their acts are “unofficial.”

The ruling from the Supreme Court was 6-3, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, on a straight party-line vote, with all the Republican-appointed justices joining to give the president the power of a king. While some parts of the federal indictment against Trump will be remanded back down to the district-court trial judge to determine whether any of Trump’s actions were “unofficial” (“unofficial” acts, the court says, are not entitled to immunity), Trump’s victory in front of the Supreme Court is total. Essentially, all he has to do is claim that everything he did to plot a coup was part of his “official” duties, and the Supreme Court provided no clear method or evidentiary standard that can be used to challenge that presumption.

Legally, there are two critical things to understand about the totality of the court’s ruling here:

• The immunity is absolute
• There is no legislative way to get rid of what the court has given

On the first point, the immunity granted to Trump in this case far exceeds the immunity granted to, say, police officers or other government officials, when they act in their official capacities. Those officials are granted “qualified” immunity from civil penalties. Because the immunity is “qualified,” it can be taken away (“pierced” is the legal jargon for taking away an official’s qualified immunity). People can bring evidence against officials and argue that they shouldn’t be given immunity because of the gravity or depravity of their acts.

Not so with Trump. Presidents are now entitled to “absolute” immunity, which means that no matter what they do, the immunity cannot be lost. They are always and forever immune, no matter what evidence is brought to bear.

Moreover, unlike other officials, presidents are now entitled to absolute immunity from criminal charges. Even a cop can be charged with, say, murder , even if they argue that killing people is part of their jobs. But not presidents. Presidents can murder, rape, steal, and pretty much do whatever they want, so long as they argue that murdering, raping, or stealing is part of the official job of the president of the United States. There is no crime that pierces the veil of absolute immunity.

And there is essentially nothing we can do to change it. The courts created qualified immunity for public officials, but it can be undone by state or federal legislatures if they pass a law removing that protection. Not so with absolute presidential immunity. The court here says that absolute immunity is required by the separation of powers inherent in the Constitution, meaning that Congress cannot take it away. Congress, according to the Supreme Court, does not have the power to pass legislation saying “the president can be prosecuted for crimes.” Impeachment, and only impeachment, is the only way to punish presidents, and, somewhat obviously, impeachment does nothing to a president who is already no longer in office.

The Nation Weekly

Under this new standard, a president can go on a four-to-eight-year crime spree, steal all the money and murder all the people they can get their hands on, all under guise of presumptive “official” behavior, and then retire from public life, never to be held accountable for their crimes while in office. That, according to the court, is what the Constitution requires. 

There will be Republicans and legal academics and whatever the hell job Jonathan Turley has who will go into overdrive arguing that the decision isn’t as bad as all that. These bad-faith actors will be quoted or even published in The Washington Post and The New York Times . They will argue that presidents can still be prosecuted for “unofficial acts,” and so they will say that everything is fine.

But they will be wrong, because while the Supreme Court says “unofficial” acts are still prosecutable, the court has left nearly no sphere in which the president can be said to be acting “unofficially.” And more importantly, the court has left virtually no vector of evidence that can be deployed against a president to prove that their acts were “unofficial.” If trying to overthrow the government is “official,” then what isn’t? And if we can’t use the evidence of what the president says or does, because communications with their advisers, other government officials, and the public is “official,” then how can we ever show that an act was taken “unofficially”?

Take the now-classic example of a president ordering Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival. According to the logic of the Republicans on the Supreme Court, that would likely be an official act. According to their logic, there is also no way to prove it’s “unofficial,” because any conversation the president has with their military advisers (where, for instance, the president tells them why they want a particular person assassinated) is official and cannot be used against them.

There will doubtless be people still wondering if Trump can somehow be prosecuted: The answer is “no.” Special counsel Jack Smith will surely argue that presenting fake electors in connection with his cadre of campaign sycophants was not an “official act.” Lower-court judges may well agree. But when that appeal gets back to the Supreme Court next year, the same justices who just ruled that Trump is entitled to absolute immunity will surely rule that submitting fake electors was also part of Trump’s “official” responsibilities.

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Elie mystal.

There is no way to change that outcome in the short term. In the long term, the only way to undo the authoritarianism the court has just ushered in is to expand the Supreme Court . Democrats would have to win the upcoming presidential election and the House and the Senate. Then Congress would have to pass a law expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court; then the Senate would have to pass that law as well, which, at a minimum, would likely have to include getting rid of the filibuster. Then the president would have to sign such a bill, and appoint additional Supreme Court justices who do not think that presidents should be kings—and then those justices would have to be confirmed. And all of that would have to happen before the current Supreme Court hears whatever Trump appeal from his January 6 charges comes up next, because if court expansion happens after the current Supreme Court dismisses the charges against him, double jeopardy will attach and Trump can never be prosecuted again under a less-fascist court.

So, since that’s not going to happen, Trump won. He won completely. He tried to overthrow the government, and he got away with it. I cannot even imagine what he’ll try if he is actually given power again, knowing full well that he will never be held accountable for literal crimes.

If you ever wondered what you’d have done in ancient Rome, when the Roman Republic was shuttered and Augustus Caesar declared himself the “first” citizen of Rome, the answer is: whatever you’re doing right now. It’s what you would have done during the Restoration of King Charles II in England, and what you would have done when Napoleon declared himself emperor of France. This, right here, is how republics die.

And the answer that cries out from the abyss of history is that most people, in real time, don’t care. Republics fall because most citizens are willing to give it away. Most people think that it won’t be that bad to lose the rule of law, and the people who stand to benefit from the ending of republican self-government tell everybody that it will be OK. When the Imperium came to be, the Romans didn’t realize that they were seeing the last form of European self-government for 2,000 years, and the ones who did were largely happy about it.

For my part, I assume that like Mark Antony’s wife, Fulvia, defiling the decapitated head of Cicero, Martha-Ann Alito will be jabbing her golden hairpin into my tongue for criticizing the powerful soon enough. But I’m just a writer. I wonder what the rest of you will do as the last vestiges of democracy are taken away by the Imperial Supreme Court and the untouchable executive officer they’ve just created.

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Elie Mystal is  The Nation ’s justice correspondent and the host of its legal podcast, Contempt of Court . He is also an Alfred Knobler Fellow at the Type Media Center. His first book is the New York Times bestseller Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, published by The New Press. Elie can be followed @ElieNYC .

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Hillary Clinton: I’ve Debated Trump and Biden. Here’s What I’m Watching For.

By Hillary Rodham Clinton

Mrs. Clinton was the Democratic nominee for president in 2016.

Last week I had the time of my life at the Tony Awards introducing a song from “Suffs,” the Broadway musical I co-produced about the suffragists who won women the right to vote. I was thrilled when the show took home the awards for best original score and best book.

From “Suffs” to “Hamilton,” I love theater about politics. But not the other way around. Too often we approach pivotal moments like this week’s debate between President Biden and Donald Trump like drama critics. We’re picking a president, not the best actor.

I am the only person to have debated both men (Mr. Trump in 2016 and, in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race, Mr. Biden). I know the excruciating pressure of walking onto that stage and that it is nearly impossible to focus on substance when Mr. Trump is involved. In our three debates in 2016, he unleashed a blizzard of interruptions, insults and lies that overwhelmed the moderators and did a disservice to the voters who tuned in to learn about our visions for the country — including a record 84 million viewers for our first debate.

It is a waste of time to try to refute Mr. Trump’s arguments like in a normal debate. It’s nearly impossible to identify what his arguments even are. He starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather. This has gotten only worse in the years since we debated. I was not surprised that after a recent meeting, several chief executives said that Mr. Trump, as one journalist described it, “could not keep a straight thought” and was “all over the map.” Yet expectations for him are so low that if he doesn’t literally light himself on fire on Thursday evening, some will say he was downright presidential.

Mr. Trump may rant and rave in part because he wants to avoid giving straight answers about his unpopular positions, like restrictions on abortion, giving tax breaks to billionaires and selling out our planet to big oil companies in return for campaign donations. He interrupts and bullies — he even stalked me around the stage at one point — because he wants to appear dominant and throw his opponent off balance.

These ploys will fall flat if Mr. Biden is as direct and forceful as he was when engaging Republican hecklers at the State of the Union address in March. The president also has facts and truth on his side. He led America’s comeback from a historic health and economic crisis, with more than 15 million jobs created so far, incomes for working families rising, inflation slowing and investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing soaring. He’ll win if that story comes through.

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With Paolo Banchero's selection in the 2022 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic at No. 1, Duke now boasts five top overall picks in draft history (since 1947) — the most of any NCAA school.

Banchero joins Zion Williamson (2019), Kyrie Irving (2011), Elton Brand (1999) and Art Heyman (1963) as Blue Devils to hear their names called to start off draft night.

After Duke, Kentucky has the next most top picks with three — Karl Anthony-Towns (2015), Anthony Davis (2012) and John Wall (2010).

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The Cleveland Cavaliers have selected first overall a league-high six times, most recently selecting Andrew Wiggins out of Kansas in 2014. The Cavs have also taken Anthony Bennett out of UNLV (2013), Irving (2011), LeBron James from St. Vincent-St. Mary High School (2003), Brad Daugherty of UNC (1986) and Austin Carr of Notre Dame (1971).

See the full history of No. 1 overall picks in the NBA Draft since 1947 below:

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