You have done the research, and you know what you want to say, so what is wrong with just writing? Nothing! In fact, that’s exactly how to write a rough draft. You may think that rough drafts are not important. Just as grouping similar puzzle pieces can give you an idea of what the final puzzle will look like, grouping your ideas in a rough draft gives you an idea of what your final draft will look like. When you write your rough draft, you begin organizing how these ideas go together. Your outline and your research are a collection of ideas similar to that jumble of puzzle pieces. Writing a rough draft is similar to building a puzzle. But looking at the pieces, you can get an idea of how they will all fit together. It is likely that the jumble of puzzle pieces in no way resembles the picture on the puzzle box. Have you ever assembled a puzzle? Most of us begin by dumping all the puzzle pieces out of the box and then grouping the pieces by color and shape. But what exactly is a rough draft? And just why do you need to write one in the first place? You turn on your computer, poise your fingers over the keyboard, and begin your rough draft. You are ahead of the deadline, and you want to stay that way. Side Note: In previous articles, I talked about content development, where we find inspiration for articles, types of articles, and our process for editing.You have done the research and written the outline of your paper. If you’re starting a blog to support your business and don’t know where to begin, try the process I outlined above and then modify it for your own needs. “Ugh…help me, Mark.” Mark can you add a wrap up?Įvery writer eventually develops their own process. I really want my conclusions to leave the reader with enough momentum to spark change. I’m sitting here right now thinking, “Crap, Mark (our editor) is going to have to help me finish this article.” I don’t know why I can’t think of conclusion paragraphs. I look for opportunities to add links to other articles we’ve written or link articles that are related.Īlso, I try to remove all uses of “that,” “got,” and “it.” Add a Conclusionįor me the hardest part of writing is wrapping up the idea in a nice little bow. I read the article aloud, again and again. What could give this article a better takeaway?.So am I making this article actionable enough? I want these articles to positively impact the readers’ businesses.Do the paragraphs segue in the correct order?.I start combing back through the content looking for ways to simplify the reading and be less vague. At this point, I start rereading the article. So I’ve made an outline and I’ve broken that outline into paragraphs. I end up creating another Google doc for these tangential ideas. Within this step I’ll start to see ideas for future articles. I like to keep my articles really short, with a reading time of around five minutes maximum. The next step is to complete my thoughts for each header point by writing a paragraph or two tying in the sub-bullets from the list. It also gives you an opportunity to put keywords in the headers and strengthen the SEO prowess of the article. Our mind starts thinking, “Oh just wait, a really good point is coming.” That’s just a theory but I personally like to see sub headers in articles I read. I think subconsciously as readers we see them, even if our eyes aren’t there, yet. I like having sub-headers in my writing for many reasons. Once I have a simple outline in bulleted list form, I move the bullets into headers for the upcoming paragraphs I’m about to write.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |