Chapter 4: The Writing Process 3: Drafting

ENL1004 COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Write professional documents that are clear, concise, correct, and visually engaging (1).
• Apply appropriate planning strategies to communicate purpose and message effectively (1.1).
• Compose a variety of academic and vocation-related documents tailored to specific audiences and purposes (1.2).
• Adapt tone, style, and language to meet the needs of a variety of audiences (1.4).
• Incorporate visual elements to support communication objectives as required (1.5).

Now that you’ve planned out your document and gathered information that meets your audience’s needs as explained in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, you’re just about ready to start drafting the document’s message. At this point it’s worthwhile reminding yourself that the words you start entering in your word processor on your computer will look different from those your reader will eventually read. By the end of the drafting stage examined in this chapter, your document will be partway there, but how much revising you do in the fourth stage of the writing process (see Ch. 5) depends on how effectively you’ve organized your message in the first step of this third stage.

• 4.1: Choosing an Organizational Pattern
• 4.2: Outlining Your Message
• 4.3: Forming Effective Sentences
• 4.4: Forming Effective Paragraphs
• 4.5: Writing in the Standard Business Style
• 4.6: Effective Document Design