I recently was doing a small implementation evaluation report for a long term client. I read the documentation, spoke to the people, reviewed the documentation and thought about it. I went over my notes, make a list of the problematic implications. Normal stuff.
I thought I was ready to write. It would be fairly quick. No need to be the most formal, it being a long term client and all. Explain some background, lay out the facts, point to the issues, make some recommendations. I figured that it would be about 5 pages, single spaced with a bunch of headings and bullets. It turned out to be six pages.
Here’s the thing: I didn’t really pre-write properly. Sure, I had the ideas, but there is the critical step between the research and actually writing a decent draft, which I more or less skipped.
Way back in the day, I was taught that this step is called “pre-writing,” a term I kinda hate. There is so much work that comes before this step, and calling this step “pre-writing” just ignores all of it. But that is what I was taught, and it is stuck in my head.
I tend to call it “outlining,” because I believe that that is the most useful way to do it. In this case, maybe 15 lines, taking Intro and Summary for granted. That leaves three top level headings, Background, Procedure and Issues. I had that in my head — which is where some outlining can happen. But I was being to lazy (or rushing too much) and did not figuring out what the big Background Issues were before I started drafting. The Procedures section was fine. But the Issues section was a mess. And the Recommendations missed a really useful one.
The Issues section did not have a great order. The bulleted paragraphs were not distinct enough. They were not close to equal weight. Some issues ended up split across too many bullets. Ugh.
This was my fault. I knew better. I see this mistake often. I coach people to do better, all the time! So, I had to take my own painful advice and follow it.
If you do not do you outlining or prewriting before you write a draft, it will be a bad draft. And it will be more work to try to fix it than it will be to start over again. If you use that first draft to work out exactly what you want to say, what your argument is and what points you want to make, it is not actually your first draft. That is your pre-writing. It it is valuable and important, but it is not actually a draft you should edit.
Finally realizing this, I opened up a new window and started typing anew. I could not just copy paragraphs and move them around. I needed to do a better job breaking up report. I needed to use the the early sections better to set up the later sections, without giving too much away early. The writing in later sections needed to be more self-contained. So, I needed to start a new document from scratch. I had to avoid the temptation of trying to reuse the bad stuff I had already written.
Hoist on my own petard. Making the most common mistake I have to coach my dissertation coaching clients though.
But I ended up with a report that I actually am proud of.