Write the first draft
Tags: essay, writing
Published: 2022-01-31 07:07:02


How to successfully get started with the first draft of your text. The tips are aimed at students and doctoral candidates and [Order Essay Online Cheap](https://buyessayonline.us/).
![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/blxhthfrbfggixa1urb4.jpg)).
1. Basics
Have you already researched, read and, depending on the topic, perhaps also collected data? And now should and must a text be created from the results of your reading, your analyses, comparisons or measurements? If you encounter unexpected questions, ambiguities, or obstacles as you write, it can help to be aware of two basic truths of the first draft:
2. Why the first draft doesn't start from scratch
Getting started with the first draft seems to some writers to be the decisive milestone in the work process. For some, the more important and interesting part of the work has already been done by then - the interviews or the tests have already been carried out - for others it only gets really serious from here.
But is the boundary between not-yet-writing and first-draft that strict? Look back: haven't you written this far? Have you created keyword lists or mind maps? Have you written an exposé, made excerpts on important sources, made comments on experiments or interviews? Have you written down thoughts in a work journal, given a presentation on your topic in a seminar, or presented excerpts from your doctoral project in a colloquium or at a conference?
All of these texts, notations or visualizations represent a reservoir of "pre-texts" that you can refer to when writing the first draft. In this respect, the first draft - contrary to what is often assumed - is by no means the moment when "correct" writing is made for the first time. The first draft does not start from scratch, but continues on another level what you have already written up to that point.
3. Why the first draft doesn't have to be perfect
Do you know that? You write a sentence. You read this sentence. You delete this sentence. They think. You write a new sentence. You write a second sentence. They think. You insert something between the two sentences. But the first sentence isn't quite right anymore. They think. You delete the back of the first sentence. And so forth ...
What happens with this way of working and why can it sometimes be so exhausting? Quite simply: every single sentence is wrestled with. The basic attitude is: "If I'm going to write, then I'll do it right and orderly right away, then I'll have less revision work later." The result: The revision is mixed up with the first draft. With almost every sentence there is a permanent change of mode between production and revision: I write a sentence and I revise it. This is demanding and often exhausting.
Therefore, make a conscious distinction between the first draft and the revision. Have courage for a shitty first draft 1 , a shabby, crude, ugly first draft. Because it is not the task of the first draft to be well designed, correct and finished. Or, to paraphrase Howard S. Becker: it's not the first version that counts, but the last one. 2
If you want every sentence to be right the first time, then load each sentence with the weight of a complex decision-making task. Because you then have to decide for each sentence whether
its content is correct
he is in the right place
it is properly linked to what is before it,
it leads correctly to what you want to write afterwards,
it sounds correct and scientific,
he is understandable
it is spelled correctly.
Once you are unsure on any of these levels, you run the risk of questioning the whole sentence. The flow of writing and thought is interrupted.
The alternative is to unburden the first draft and focus on just one question: What should my text say? How it should be in the text – you then work that out in the revision.
4. Tips for getting started with the first draft
In your first draft, write ahead, don't work backwards, and leave sentences that don't sound right just stand there.
Mark any uncertainties in the text with characters, for example with [??]. Then you can see right away during the revision that you still have to check this point.
If you can't think of a term right away, use a placeholder in the first draft and mark it as such.
Or write a certain number of characters or words (e.g. 1,500 characters or 250 words) before allowing yourself to read what you have written.
There is a radical variant for the really brave: Set the font color to white on a white background. Then you cannot read and revise, only write. Only at the end of a mental unit do you put what you have written back on black and [writing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing



Of course, a first draft written in this way does not sound like all the texts you have read for your work. But consider this: you have read edited and edited final versions of texts whose first versions we never see. For your first draft, however, these texts are only a reference in terms of content; your first draft does not have to be measured against these final versions in terms of language and style. You can confidently work on language and style in the revision.