Thoughts on Drafting

As we progress through our drafting and revision process, it's important to realize the process of writing for every genre and how they overlap. In the blog post below, I will be analyzing some of the advice on drafting given for an essay format and contemplate how it will translate over into the development of my QRG.

Helpful Advice from Student's Guide

Thesis: The questions posed regarding the point of a thesis and what it should achieve are helpful to the QRG genre in regards to introducing an idea you will be summarizing.

Paragraph Development: The focus of  a paragraph should not be lost in a brief QRG paragraph and I think that's an important note to make. Paragraphs should be brief, but focused.

Quotes and Citations: Quotes should be used frequently to explain or support a situation or claim, especially when presenting two sides of an argument.

Organization and Flow: Even though the QRG is a fast paced genre, it's important to maintain fluidity throughout the writing and use transitions.

Less Helpful Advice from Student's Guide

Thesis: The typical formatting of a one or two sentence thesis is too brief for the QRG genre, where you typically try to engage your reader with an informative introduction. Thesis also tend to prove a point, while the QRG is just a summary.

Bochkarev, Eugene. "Cherry Pie" via 123RF
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PIE: While PIE is useful in paragraph formatting and the presentation of thoughts and arguments, I feel that it's not extremely applicable in the QRG genre. It is a bulky description process, when in the QRG you want to be brief, yet informative.

Quotes and Citations: Quotes should be used to make a point or bring something to light for the audience, however, an individual quote should not be the primary focus of a large portion of the QRG (unless it is the source of the conflict), which is something that tends to happen in essays.

Organization and Flow: Don't focus on making an incredibly smooth composition. It's important to have transitions, but don't overload the QRG with unnecessary fluff.

REFLECTION:

After reading through Hallye and Chelsea's Thoughts on Drafting, I saw differing perspectives, as well as similar thoughts. Hallye felt that the book only offered useful advice, which I had to respectfully disagree with because I felt it's predominantly written for an essay format and not the quick style of a QRG. Chelsea and I had a similar perspective on the usefulness of PIE in a QRG and felt that it can be too dense for the light reading organization demanded by the QRG genre.