Four students reported using the T.E.D., E.D. and E.D. strategy. Early in the term, Stewart found this method “didn’t work as well as I hoped” but later he reported that it “helped get me started in my body paragraphs and keep them organized.” Trevor said T.E.D., E.D. and E.D., together with other pointers about paragraph organization, “helped in trying to get a better structured paragraph [which] should be more understandable to the reader.”

Writing drafts

As well as generating and organizing their ideas, it is important for students to develop personal strategies for writing various drafts of their assignments. Students sometimes assume that there is one “right” way to do this instead of a variety. We discussed the use of non-linear order in writing drafts, using a word processor and asking for feedback.

Floated from one [paragraph] to the other

I reinforced in class that writing a draft of an assignment may not necessarily proceed in linear order. Elbow (1973) advises that “if you think there are four sections in what you have to write, the worst thing you can do is write them separately . . . finish[ing] one before going on to the next . . . . Make yourself sketch in all four parts quickly and lightly; then work some more on each part, letting [the writing] go where it needs to . . . ” (p. 73). I suggested to students that when working on essay drafts or when writing an in-class essay, they use one piece of paper for each paragraph, which would allow them the space to add details as they thought of them.