Thoughts on Drafting

By now, I've completed the initial drafting process writing my QRG.  To help me compose a first draft, I consulted A Student's Guide to First-Year Writing.  Some of their advice was helpful, while other parts were not so relevant.  Here, I will discuss what I found useful from Student's Guide.

Stowe, Rennett. "Tapping a Pencil." 10/30/08 via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

The section begins with exploring thesis statements.  Although we didn't talk much about thesis statements in class, I thought this section was actually pretty helpful, because QRGs contain some personal opinions about the topic as well as information.  It's important for a writer to understand his/her own stance before writing, because that will ensure the text has direction and an objective.  Starting out by thinking about a thesis statement is a good way to ease into the drafting process.  However, for a QRG the thesis isn't stated in the same blatant way it is in an essay, so the exercise in developing sophisticated thesis statements wasn't as useful.

The Student's Guide Point, Illustration, Explanation (PIE) setup for paragraphs was less relevant to a QRG style.  QRGs are set up with more of a narrative style, and always starting with an opening point usually feels unnatural.  It is important to include all of the PIE elements when using a direct quote in a QRG, although the format is somewhat different, because the speaker's credentials must be established.  Their section on the Explanation part was also helpful in explaining how to tie a quote to the thesis, and the examples given really cemented the idea.

The most relevant part of their drafting guidance was probably the Introduction section.  An introduction for a QRG must contain a decent hook and "forecast the direction" of the article, and their descriptions were helpful ideas of how to accomplish this.  Their advice to "avoid certain traps" was also highly relevant, because introducing too much information or evidence right away can be confusing and too lengthy for a QRG as well.  That information should be saved for later, once the reader understands where the article is headed.

The only thing was that a thesis isn't really necessary in the introduction for a QRG, but instead is developed as the writer explains the issues and his/her opinions.  Readers won't understand the thesis right away, because they aren't familiar with the topic, whereas for essays readers generally already have a background.

The section on organization was also pretty useful.  An argument in a QRG must flow with logic, too.  I started out by writing out my subheading questions to see how well one led to the other, and ended up having to change the order around.  This was a technique that Student's Guide suggested, by "cutting up the [writing] and rearranging the pieces."

Transitions are also just as important in QRGs as they are in essays.  I used the pointing term "this" a few times throughout my article to break up what would be very long sentences.

Student's Guide strategy for "Answer the Question 'So What?'" and "Looking Forward" were the most helpful parts of their conclusion section.  In a QRG, the conclusion doesn't really have to be a summary of the article, because the reader should have followed the logical explanation of the topic and therefore not need a recap at the end.  Instead, explaining the relevance of the situation is much more effective.  And although Student's Guide didn't really mention it, successful QRGs evoke sympathy to stay memorable.


REFLECTION
I think I found more useful things in the Student's Guide reading than Olivia, since I found almost every section helpful in some way, and I'm not sure she found a lot of it to be very relevant.  From reading Hunter's post, I realized that conclusions are really important, because I found I actually disagreed with what he said.  Having an over all conclusion at the end of a QRG is really where the author shows how his/her topic is relevant to the general public.  Hunter mentioned there were conclusions within each paragraph, but I would argue those are more of transitions.

Some things I could improve for my own draft:

1. Making sure my introduction doesn't include any vast generalizations
2. Strengthening the "explain" part of my paragraphs to make sure the speaker's values and fears are outlined clearly
3. Reworking my conclusion to "paint a picture" and make it memorable.