probdraft.htm

ENGLISH 111/009

INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING THE ESSAY 1 DRAFT:

A Problem I Have Dealt With Successfully

Dr. Diane Thompson, NVCC, ELI

After reading through these instructions, click at the bottom of this page to go to the Essay 1 Forum. Post your essay draft there by selecting "Post Message."

If you are satisfied with the information you have put together in your problem-finding worksheet, you are ready to begin your draft. If you are not satisfied with the information in your worksheet and want to change topics, that's fine, but be sure to fill out another worksheet to get yourself started. You will not receive a grade for the second worksheet, but it needs to be part of your essay. In short, the draft and essay must be accompanied by the appropriate problem-finding worksheet.

You may want to make an outline at this point, or you may just want to start writing. Either is fine. Your first draft needs to be at least 500 words in length (about 2 typed double spaced pages would be the paper equivalent)

Don't try to be perfect; the goal for the draft is to organize your ideas, put them into paragraphs, and organize the paragraphs into an essay. It's a good idea to begin with your main point, develop it with supporting ideas, use specific examples to illustrate your ideas, and sum it all up in a concluding paragraph.

I will respond to your draft, praising where praise is due, suggesting options as needed, and so on. After you read my responses, you will begin the process of revision. I will suggest grammar readings and exercises as needed. Be sure to do these before you begin revising, since they will help you to understand areas you need to work on.

Do your best work on this draft. I will only respond to one version of the draft and one final revision, so if you don't give me good work here, I won't be able to give you useful responses.

You must complete and post the final revision NO MORE THAN THIRTY DAYS after the draft, because I delete material after about a month and I will not grade the revision if the draft has been deleted.

Go to Blackboard and select "Unit 1, Tasks 4, 5 and 6"