Five Most Important Takeaways

The five most important takeaways of chapter one are the suggestions on how to decide what to write about, drafting, the differences between revising and editing, purpose, and audience. Discovering what to write about is important because it will shape your entire paper. If a writer does not begin knowing what they are writing about it will lead to added revision later. Also, drafting is imperative because a writer must be willing to attempt different ideas during this stage. This stage is the time to experiment with all different ideas. Likewise, the difference between revising and editing a paper is essential to knowing how to correct writing. Chapter one explains revision is meant to help with the flow and organization of the writing, while
editing is meant to correct mechanics and formatting changes. Keeping the two processes separate can help focus a writer so that they create more clarity. Additionally, knowing the purpose of writing gives the writer a main focus that they can gauge their success on. Lastly, audience is highly necessary because if a writer tries to write a paper about the horrors of homeschooling to the proud parents of three homeschooled children the paper will not be taken well. Without knowing a writer’s audience they can make critical errors when formatting their paper. These takeaways are crucial to knowing how to start, correct, and orient a successful paper and are therefore the most important.