Once the initial period of invention is
completed, you should review what you have learned about the
topic and start to plan your essay.
The assigned readings in the textbook should
help you to set goals and to organize your ideas and information
in order to achieve those goals.
Planning requires you to put your ideas into a
coherent, purposeful order appropriate to your readers; drafting
challenges you to find the words that will be understandable and
interesting for those readers.
Invention continues as you draft, for you will
continue to make further discoveries about your topic as you
work. But drafting requires you to shift your focus from
generating new ideas and gathering further information to
forging new and meaningful relations among your ideas and
information.
1. Formulate a tentative introduction and
thesis statement, around which you organize an essay. Of
course this may be revised later on, so remember that it is not
set in set in stone.
Remember that you will not need to have the kind
of explicit thesis statement typical of
research-paper-type essays.
Sample introduction + thesis:
When I was younger, I thought of myself as a
coward. I was afraid to take risks, and for the most part went
through life passively, often regretting afterwards the chances
I chose not to take. In the past few years, however, I have
undergone various experiences which have negated that feeling of
cowardice. The culmination of these experiences came on
September 19, 1999, as I hung roughly five thousand feet over
Perris Valley, and in that precarious position I came to a
realization.
2. Now that you have a sense
of direction, you need to think about how you will
3. Using your brainstorming notes,
make a brief outline to refocus your storyline so that it lists
the main actions in order. You can note on your outline
where you plan on describing the place, key people, and
reconstructing any conversations that might be pivotal to your
epiphany. Typically, with this kind of
autobiographical writing, writers may
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Begin essay with some opening statements to
engage the readers' interest. |
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Frame essay so that it leads to a climax
(the epiphany). |
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Use some narrative action and dialogue to
help intensify the drama of the epiphany. |
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Follow a chronological, flashback, or
flashforward organizational pattern to make story dramatic. |
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Conclude with some reflections of the
meaning of the moment, without sounding too obvious. |
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Frame the ending so that it echoes something
from the beginning so that readers have a sense of
closure. |