Writing Book 8 · Lesson 39
Planning a piece of work — use the words
Deciding what the task IS is part of the task, and the part school has always done for you.
The words
a working title
a first name for it
a preliminary draft
a first version
scope the topic
decide how wide
a literature review
what others wrote
a research question
what you will answer
a timeline
when each part happens
a first pass
a rough attempt
narrow the focus
make it smaller
a structure
the plan of parts
revise and edit
improve then fix
Watch how it is built
1a working title means about the same as a first name for it.
Our working title is 'Water and Growth'.
2a preliminary draft means about the same as a first version.
Submit a preliminary draft Friday.
3scope the topic means about the same as decide how wide.
Scope the topic before writing.
Two ways to say it
✗ Our working title is 'Water and Growth'. — this is not wrong, but it is everyday talk.
✓ Our working title is 'Water and Growth'. — this is how a writer says it.
Ask yourself: “Is this topic small enough that I could actually finish it well?”
Remember
Narrow it until you could finish it well.
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