Don’t Be Afraid to Work “Backwards”
It can be very effective to write a rough draft of
your paper first and then go back and add a thesis, transitions, and topic
sentences. Once you have your basic
ideas down, you are better able to rearrange your material and polish the
presentation of those ideas.
2.
For
each paragraph, ask yourself, "What am I trying to say?"
2.
Put the
main point of each paragraph into a single sentence.
3.
Tie the
information from the previous paragraph into that single sentence.
(A prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence is one way to
do this.) This new sentence
will be a good rough draft topic sentence.
4.
Take each
topic sentence and condense it into a word or short phrase.
5.
Use these
words and phrases to construct a rough draft of your thesis statement.
Make
an Outline
1.
Use the paraphrasing techniques above to create an
informal outline.
2.
Look at the order of your information.
a.
How are these ideas connected?
b.
Are closely related points next to each other?
3.
If you need to, rearrange the information so that new
ideas build on previous, related material.
