When students are required to write drafts, they begin thinking about an assignment well in advance of the due date. This not only prevents procrastination, it also gives students the opportunity to display their early thinking.
Early thinking often takes the form of summary or reaction, valid approaches for a draft, but not acceptable substitutes for the analysis expected in a final paper. The advantage of encouraging students to bring this early thinking to class is that you can actually reward them for things in a draft that you might penalize them for in a final paper.
For example, if you see that a student is summarizing a text rather than analyzing it, you can give positive feedback about the accuracy of the summary. This also gives you the opportunity to articulate the difference between summary and analysis. If a student has merely reacted to a topic, you can talk about how that reaction might lead to a position for a thesis.
Have students bring drafts to class and give them one or two tasks appropriate to reading drafts. Is the writer addressing the topic? Is the writer summarizing or reacting rather than analyzing? What has the writer written that she can elaborate on in the next draft?
Collect one copy of each draft, and while students are reading each other’s drafts, skim a few with the assigned task(s) in mind. Remember that you do not need to grade or write comments on the drafts. Requiring multiple drafts ensures that students write over time, not at the last minute, which results in better papers.
Jane Hammons (College Writing Programs)
Originally published: Volume 1 – Number 1 (Spring 2000)