First, don’t panic. Deadlines such as peer review can actually work to your advantage. They help you focus on your work, prioritize your tasks, and hold you accountable for turning in a draft that doesn’t look like it was written at 4 a.m. on the due date.
Second, instead of rushing to the library with your laptop and doing it all at once, take evenly measured steps. Giving yourself time to reflect on the assignment and to write multiple drafts will ensure that you have a top-notch draft to present to your peers and (eventually) to your professor.
Do the Research First
Read the assignment to make sure you understand the requirements. Do additional research through the library or Internet, if required. Take notes about key points as well as your impressions. What was significant about the reading? Did you agree or disagree with the author? Why? Did the reading generate feelings or memories? Any response is a good response at this time.
Pre-Write and Write the Rough Draft
Pre-write. Use spider-charts, outlines, or graphic organizers to generate ideas for your paper. Be creative in generating your own pre-writing strategies. Summarize the reading as you would summarize a movie to a friend. Write a passage in which your favorite characters interpret a painting, each in his or her own way.
Write the first draft by hand. Yes, you read that correctly. Don’t worry if your handwriting looks like an ancient runic alphabet – it's called a rough draft for a reason. Only you will see this draft. Do not be concerned with structure, grammar, or even sense. Write naturally.
Put it aside for a day or two.This is a critical step in the writing process. In odd moments while you’re studying for other classes, working, or hanging out with friends, new ideas may come to you. Do not judge these ideas at this time, no matter how absurd some may seem (“What would have happened if Cinderella’s slippers were made out of wood instead of glass?”). Merely jot them down. Later, you can work with the ideas to see if some may generate usable material.
Compose a Second Draft
Write your second draft on computer. Do not look at your first draft or try to recall how you wrote it. Write the second draft as if you were writing it for the first time. Craft this draft carefully, with an introduction, thesis statement, body, and conclusion.
Compare the two drafts. Look both for material you may have left out or changed from the first draft, as well as any holes in your logic or support. Sometimes that important quote in the first draft becomes unnecessary in the second. The idea you overlooked during your initial research now becomes the key to understanding the entire topic. Be willing to change anything and everything you have written in order to write a better paper.
Tweak and edit your second draft. Tweaking means checking for organization, flow, tone, and stance. Editing means looking for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.
Even after completing all of these steps, you may find it necessary to revisit some or all of them. That’s perfectly normal. Writing is a process that is rarely, if ever, completed. But if you follow these steps, you can approach peer review with a draft you can be proud of and put to shame the students who waited until 4 a.m.
 |
