Depending on the topic, my essay writing will either start with a pen or a keyboard. If it's short and to the point, one to two pages, I will just type away. If it's a little bit longer and has more detail, I will create an outline on paper, writing down my main points, so I will remember everything I want to write about. I will sit at my desk if my room is quiet and put some music on.
I normally start off with an introduction that will capture the reader's attention. Although normally I always end up staring at my computer screen for at least a half hour. So then, I start to write the body of the essay, working on developing my main points and the other information in a very organized way. If something comes to me, I will go back to the introduction.
If there is a paragraph that has information that HAS to be in the essay, but I don't like the actual paragraph and how it was formatted, I will bold the paragraph and come back to it. If I'm stuck on something else or finished with the paper, I will go back to all the things I don't like and try to fix them.
Normally, I will write my entire paper out like it is the finished draft. That way, I will know exactly what I want to say and I can only get better from there. If my ideas aren't almost completely developed, I have a tendency of not remembering what I wanted to say.
I've never actually technically "workshopped" before. Normally, we just have peer review, where you switch papers with someone in your class and they critique it for you. Last semester, I had a really good peer review partner. We not only critiqued the normal grammatical errors and such, but we actually got together and bounced ideas off each other to make our papers better.
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Haha, I agree. It takes forever just to start writing that first line of a paper.
ReplyDeleteI do the same with creating an organizer so you remember everything you want to say. Otherwise I would forget haha.
ReplyDeleteMusic is a must!
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