Drafting

In Module 1, we made several recommendations for writing first drafts:

• Concentrate on getting down what you want to say.
• Don't try to be drafter and editor at the same time. Do your editing later.
• Try to keep your thought flow going.
• Concentrate on capturing a good flow of ideas.
• Aim to pick up mechanical and other errors later.
• Don't try to write an introduction first or stick to a beginning-to-end structure.
• Write your draft as fast as you can and in one sitting if possible.

Don't skip the crucial steps. Don't expect to be able to write a final copy of your report immediately. If your timeline is desperate, it's still worthwhile going through the steps of identifying your objective and the report's purpose, quickly thinking about your reader, and working out an outline. Taking these steps will enable you to create a report more quickly and efficiently, and the product will be better than if you just sat down and wrote a draft.

Control your writing sessions. When your timeline for producing a report is less pressured, plan to write at least one draft of the entire report and be prepared to rewrite critical sections several times before you are satisfied. Try to write in uninterrupted blocks of time, and if you have to stop, try to break at a point where you know what you are going to write next. This means when you come back to the task you can reduce the warm-up time before becoming productive again. If time permits, wait at least two days after completing the first draft before you begin editing and rewriting.

Use headings. The drafting stage is a good time to consider your use of headings. Headings almost always improve the report's readability and usefulness.

Headings are like parts of an outline that have been pasted into the pages of a report. They are important to both the writer and the reader in long documents. Working on levels of headings (main headings, sub-headings, sub-sub-headings, etc.) forces the writer to think about the relationship between the different parts of your document.

For the reader, headings:

• indicate visually how the various parts of the document and the content relate to each other and their level of importance;
• help readers to find their way through long reports and to skip what they are not interested in;
• break up long stretches of text visually, with the result that a less-daunting reading task is presented to the reader;
• are an aid to revisiting parts of the document of particular interest to the reader.

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