Discovery draft review
1:
Thesis & Organization
plan
Use your first draft to
generate more ideas and to find promising options. For now, focus
on you r working thesis, the organizing plan its suggests, and the topic
sentences needed to "prove"it. Read the draft through, and highlight
the thesis sentence or sentences and topic sentences.
Who does the draft talk to:
How much about the topic
does the reader know or need to know:
What does the draft ask the
reader to consider? Enter the thesis idea here, or paraphrase it:
| Assessment
Questions |
Needs work |
Promising |
| 1) Assess the working thesis
for its
–Fit with the assignment
purpose
–Interest/"so what"
appeal I(is the main idea both new and useful in this context?)
–Specificity
(Is it too vague or broad?)
– Manageability
(Can it be treated within the length/time limits of assignment?)
|
|
|
2) Any revisions the writer
might try stating the thesis idea?
|
|
|
3) Placement of thesis:
Does a reader have to hunt
for it?
In this type of writing task
or assignment, where do readers
expect to find the thesis?
Would an explicit thesis
statement or ("This paper argues that . . ." or forecasting/purpose statement
"The goal of this paper is to . . ." make the thesis clearer and the draft
easier to read (and easier to write)? |
|
|
4) Organizing plan that
thesis suggests:
Enter all topic sentences
on back of this sheet.
Read the thesis again, and
see if the topic sentences all
follow from or support it
in a workable order. Think it over.
The working thesis and topic
sentences should create
and "abstract" of the draft.
|
|
|
|
5) Next steps:
Take a hard look at the
order and appeal of your thesis and topic sentences.
Consider revisions in the
wording of the thesis and in the order and wording of topic points that
might be useful in writing your next draft.
|
|
|
|