Transcript Lesson 14 Essentials Video: Drafting

PHILLIP: I'll turn the internet off. I'll have my sources. I let people know don't bother me. And I just start typing.

DEONTA: Well, when I write a first draft, I typically think about my time constraints and what else I have to do during that day. But I like to sit down and get my first draft all done at one time. I don't like to have to do it over multiple days because that's when I like to make my revisions and my edits. If I'm doing my whole first draft in one day before the paper, then I'm making my edits as I go along. And it takes a lot longer than it should.

GRETCHEN: It's usually one sentence. And then I'll sit there with one sentence, and then I'll have a couple of sentences. And then once I get the first paragraph, then I just keep going and going. And it doesn't always connect. I'll go from one idea to another. But as long as I have writing, I'll feel good, like I'm getting somewhere.

AMANDA: I have gone back to pen and paper because it's easiest for me to just go. I'm not so worried about punctuation and the red squiggly lines when you screw up on your screen.

KARINA: When I begin the whole drafting process, I just write. And I let my first draft be like terrible because it is my first draft. And I know I'm going to have to go back and edit it and proofread and all those things. So I just write. I mean, I'm not going to write horribly, but I just kind of let it flow. And then, I do not read—the same day that I feel like I'm done with my draft, I don't like reading it that same day. I like reading it the next day with fresh eyes.

ABIGAIL: I don't necessarily have expectations for each draft. I just know in the first draft, I want to do the best that I can. But, I know that I’m going to have more than, you know, two or three drafts. I was always taught in high school and in college writing that you need to have people review your paper and then that’s kind of when the drafting comes into play. You have your own thoughts and you have your own draft, but you need someone else to look at it to form another draft.

YADIRYS: When I think about drafts, I don’t think that there’s a first, second and third draft and then your final draft. I feel like there is a flow to the whole thing. Because, let’s say one day you started out your first draft and you wrote it down. But then, like, a minute later, you started to change things. You’re going to constantly be changing things throughout the week or throughout the, you know, month that you’re writing your paper.

DAN: We learn a lot in college. We never learned this in high school. But, we learned it in college that everything’s a draft. You never, ever, ever have a final draft. Everything’s always, uh, being, in the process, you know? Even once you publish something in a book, you know? If you want to republish it somewhere else, you’re probably going to change it, in some regard.