Reorder a draft by paragraph jobs
Whenyou revise a complete draft
Beside each paragraph, write its job: question, scene, reason, example, objection or turn. Compare the order with what the reader needs next. Move, merge or cut one section to repair a jump or repetition. Reread the whole piece before polishing sentences.
- Make it easier
- Use a draft of three to five paragraphs.
- Make it harder
- Map scenes or sections in a longer piece.
- Progression
- Repeat on later drafts; use fewer labels once you can hear the sequence.
Start tiny
Label what one paragraph gives the reader.
Wischgoll, A. (2016), Combined Training of One Cognitive and One Metacognitive Strategy Improves Academic Writing Skills. Frontiers in Psychology 7:187. Read the source ↗ A small randomized undergraduate academic-writing study supports structure practice plus self-monitoring; this prose application and duration are editorial.
Mastery: Inspect your work, apply a specific correction in later practice and check whether it helped.
