Do not think or worry about making it clean, or about spelling mistakes. Just keep the topic in mind and write continuously. What you are writing right now is your first draft. Do not worry about being in line or making sense of stuff, what you need to concentrate on is filling up the pages with relevant stuff about the topic. Follow the basic rules of “free writing” and do not look back o check for mistakes, do not go back to cross something out, do not stop to choose from multiple words in your mind, write them all down. Keep writing for 10 minutes no matter what. When you’re done, just go through it once, you will notice that it is not as bad as you though it was. Most parts of it actually make sense.
Free write for 10 minutes for the next 2-3 days and then shift to 15 minutes a day. Now since the time is already set for 15 minutes, this will not be your primary goal. Your primary goal is to write a certain number of pages everyday in the allocated time and increase the no until you reach the optimum number. Something like 3 pages in 15 minutes or more. This will enable you to accumulate a large no. of written pages for your first draft. When you feel like you have a significant number of pages for the first draft, move on to the next step, creating the second draft. Keep writing the first draft for 15 minutes every day, but later on find the time to go through the previously written pages and straightening out the mistakes and errors to turn it in to the 2nd draft.
You do not have to set a time limit for this. To maximize productivity set a number of pages that you need to clear as the second draft. Start with a few pages and increase as you go. Keep in mind that during all this time, you need to keep researching and keep working on other aspects of your dissertations. That is where the raw data for the drafts come from. You have to incorporate all the data you collect in to your drafts regularly, or else you might forget some details or some important data might get lost. The reason we start with 10 minutes and later to 15 minutes is because writing can get very boring after a while and limiting it to 15 minutes a day and incorporating free writing helps keep your mind on track, because anyone can maintain concentration for at least 15 minutes.
But you do not have to stick to that figure. Depending on circumstances like days left till submission, upcoming social or personal obligations, any emergency events, other academic/job related work needed to be done, you might want to change the time form 15 minutes to 20 or maybe 30 minutes. If you feel like you have the stamina to free write for a whole day then you can just give one day to first draft, one day to the second draft and one day to draft 3, This will help you along the way as well. But in either of these cases a relentless dedication is required. There is no room for laziness and procrastination. Everything has to be done on time. If you leave even a single loose end, it might start a snowball effect that will unravel all of your hard work.
Eventually you will run out of raw data for the first draft. So it’s safe to assume that most of your research and interviews etc are also over, and the deadline is nearby. This is when you might want to go into an over drive mode and work on the 2nd and the 3rd draft. Also start giving your 3rd draft finishing touches to completely convert it to the final draft. The Final draft is what you will be submitting to the board as your dissertation. So make sure that whatever you’ve worked on is accurate and none of the information or data is missing. While creating final draft it is not a wise idea to recheck it for minor errors and other mistakes. That should be done with by the time you get to the 3rd draft.
Let’s recap. First draft, free writing and no checking for any errors of any kind. Just plain writing for a set number of minutes that gradually increase but to a certain level and the no. of pages to be written increase until it gets to an optimal no. Second draft, no time limit rather a page limit is set that gradually increases. Work on the 2nd draft will not start until there is enough data from first draft. The work is given a proper error free shape and is much cleaner than before. 3rd draft, further remove errors and mistakes, include further data while cleaning up the format etc. Finally the final draft, when the 3rd draft is cleaned up so that it’s ready for submission.
Author Bio:
Author of the article is working with a dissertation writing service provider company “The Academic Papers UK”. However, due to his interest in writing, he often writes for different tech, social and education issues.
