How to Write and Review a First Draft of a Paper

The purpose of the first draft is to get one’s ideas on paper and to try out a plan of organization for those ideas. Of course, it should follow the outline that you have prepared beforehand! Much of the effort of a first draft is experimental. For example when writing, one should err toward including, rather than excluding, information and ideas. That is, the first draft is the time to see whether or not an idea or approach works. If you leave it out, neither you nor another reader will be able to evaluate the appropriateness, of that idea to the paper or its manner of expression there.