Drafting Your Essay Handout
Getting Started
Once you fully understand your assignment, you are ready to begin the Writing Process for your essay. If you research your topic, organize your ideas, identify the preconceptions on the topic (yours and the audience's), identify the possible biases, and understand the counter-arguments (the other side’s viewpoints on the subject), take plentiful notes, organize your sources, and write a detailed outline, you should not have much trouble writing your rough draft.
Just as the foundation, walls, and roof of a house are constructed for strength and support, so too must your essay. The essay will follow a basic structure, and from this structure, your writing will gain strength.
The research from your first stages of the Writing Process needs to be carefully documented so that it can be cited properly to avoid plagiarism. After you have finished your rough draft, you are ready to check your source format according to your institution's assigned formatting guidelines (MLA, APA, or Turabian/Chicago).
Once you fully understand your assignment, you are ready to begin the Writing Process for your essay. If you research your topic, organize your ideas, identify the preconceptions on the topic (yours and the audience's), identify the possible biases, and understand the counter-arguments (the other side’s viewpoints on the subject), take plentiful notes, organize your sources, and write a detailed outline, you should not have much trouble writing your rough draft.
Just as the foundation, walls, and roof of a house are constructed for strength and support, so too must your essay. The essay will follow a basic structure, and from this structure, your writing will gain strength.
The research from your first stages of the Writing Process needs to be carefully documented so that it can be cited properly to avoid plagiarism. After you have finished your rough draft, you are ready to check your source format according to your institution's assigned formatting guidelines (MLA, APA, or Turabian/Chicago).
Crafting an Original Piece
Your body paragraphs must follow a similar structure to the Hamburger Method. The Hamburger Method will help you to construct a fully-developed essay (the meat of the paper) and prevent you from simply letting the sources take over your writing. Your essay needs to be YOURS. This means that you must write an original piece and simply support your ideas with academic sources that are cited parenthetically. Do not take the sources and create your essay from that. YOU are the writer. Organize your ideas and find sources to back you up--not the other way around.
As you construct your writing, be sure to create proper transitions between argument claims, between sentences in a paragraph--to link the topic, between paragraphs in the body--to link the Thesis, and moving from Introduction, to the body, to conclusion paragraphs. These transitions work as the nails, drywall, and paint to hold everything on the inside of the writing together.
Finalizing Your Writing
Be sure that you take your time when organizing the points for your body paragraphs of your essay. Then, you will craft your introduction and conclusion to act as bookends to your body paragraphs. These bookends should follow the steps and styles listed in your textbook and this website. Your TITLE will come directly from the conclusion paragraph. Therefore, make sure that your conclusion is strong and creative. From this paragraph, you develop your title. The title and the conclusion work together to bring the reader full circle.
Once you have your first version of the paper completed, you must take the time to revise and edit the writing before ever considering turning it in. A first draft should never be turned in for peer or instructor review.
The revision and editing process are two separate steps, and so you will need to sit down at two separate times to adequately devote time to each step. Revision focuses on the content, structure, and movement of argument within the essay. Editing focuses on the grammatical, formatting, and overall Standard English and Academic Writing requirements for essays. Please take the time to perform both of these steps before thinking about submitting your paper for peer or instructor review.
Your body paragraphs must follow a similar structure to the Hamburger Method. The Hamburger Method will help you to construct a fully-developed essay (the meat of the paper) and prevent you from simply letting the sources take over your writing. Your essay needs to be YOURS. This means that you must write an original piece and simply support your ideas with academic sources that are cited parenthetically. Do not take the sources and create your essay from that. YOU are the writer. Organize your ideas and find sources to back you up--not the other way around.
As you construct your writing, be sure to create proper transitions between argument claims, between sentences in a paragraph--to link the topic, between paragraphs in the body--to link the Thesis, and moving from Introduction, to the body, to conclusion paragraphs. These transitions work as the nails, drywall, and paint to hold everything on the inside of the writing together.
Finalizing Your Writing
Be sure that you take your time when organizing the points for your body paragraphs of your essay. Then, you will craft your introduction and conclusion to act as bookends to your body paragraphs. These bookends should follow the steps and styles listed in your textbook and this website. Your TITLE will come directly from the conclusion paragraph. Therefore, make sure that your conclusion is strong and creative. From this paragraph, you develop your title. The title and the conclusion work together to bring the reader full circle.
Once you have your first version of the paper completed, you must take the time to revise and edit the writing before ever considering turning it in. A first draft should never be turned in for peer or instructor review.
The revision and editing process are two separate steps, and so you will need to sit down at two separate times to adequately devote time to each step. Revision focuses on the content, structure, and movement of argument within the essay. Editing focuses on the grammatical, formatting, and overall Standard English and Academic Writing requirements for essays. Please take the time to perform both of these steps before thinking about submitting your paper for peer or instructor review.
NOTE: All writing at Liberty University requires a Title page--no matter what formatting style your degree requires you to use. Be sure to see the sample Title page(s) to know what the first page of your document will look like.
The final version of your essay will have these sections:
- Title page--no matter which formatting style you use
- Abstract page--only if you are using APA formatting
- Essay pages--includes headers, title, introduction paragraph, multiple body paragraphs, and the conclusion paragraph
- References/Works Cited page--no matter which formatting style you are using, you must have a properly laid out, alphabetized, spaced, indented, and organized source listing to link all of the parenthetical citations used in the essay
Additional Resources
For additional help on drafting a research paper, refer to the following links:
- Go to: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/658/05/
- This handout provides detailed information about how to write research papers including discussing research papers as a genre, choosing topics, and finding sources.
- Go to: http://www.infoplease.com/homework/t6roughdraft.html
- This webpage provides basics on the layout and design of a research paper.
Please keep in mind that the details on this website are how you are to structure the sections of your essay. These other resources are supplemental. Always refer to this website and your textbook as your guiding documents.
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