This story by ProPublica’s Ken Armstrong, a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, should be a chastening reminder of how citing history with which you have not really grappled can end up being intellectually humiliating. It leans on and cites the work of 17th Century English jurist Sir Matthew Hale. It’s even worse if you assemble scraps of “history” to craft a novel narrative.Ī classic example arose recently with the leaked first draft of Justice Alito’s opinion in Dobbs. Overly broad claims, even if mostly justified, are too easily dismissed counter-arguments not surfaced by you will only bob up elsewhere. Like all good reporting, these techniques both strengthen your argument and make it more enduringly persuasive. For reasons we’ll get to in a minute, we’ll call this the Hale Error. Beginners should probably not look at first drafts of famous novels as a comparison, they are interesting but not a valid comparison point of where a writers first draft of their first novel (like OP. If you’re going to write a 65,000-word memoir over 100 days, let’s say, then divide 65,000 by the number of weeks (about 14) to get your weekly word count goal: about 4,600 words per week. His 'very, very rough' first draft at that point is still way ahead of what his first draft of his first novel attempt ever must have been like.

Next, if you are drawing conclusions contrary to those who have come before you, be careful to specify both how you differ and why and how others may disagree. In addition to your final deadline, I recommend breaking up the writing process into weekly milestones. Besides, especially as we near the fiftieth anniversary of Watergate, most of us would do well to remind ourselves that we aren’t Bob Woodward. I have long read, enjoyed and benefited from the work of Bob Woodward, but the standard sourcing rules of his original newspaper work have always seemed to me superior to those of his just-take-my-word-for-it books. It familiarizes students with the general shape and components of many essaysa broader introductory conversation giving readers context for this. Of course there is value in introducing new readers to history, but special care should be taken to note explorers who have been there before you, and especially people who have been living (or living in) the history themselves.Ĭlaiming that citing sources undercuts the power of narrative is no more persuasive in revisiting the past than it should be in investigative reporting about today. It is a good introduction to a simple way of structuring an essay that lets students focus on content rather than wrestling with a more complex structure. Other times, writing a rough draft is like building a fire and you want to touch a match to it right away to get it burning. You may need to give your story time to sprout. Sometimes creating a rough draft is like planting a seed. We might call this the Columbus Error, and it seemed in play in the New York Times’s fascinating recent project about the history of Haiti. After writing your rough draft you can either start on a first draft right away or wait a few days. This means that it’s imperative not to depict history as a land you have discovered, even if part of it may be unfamiliar to your readers. First, there is no excuse for not showing your work.

First rough draft examples