Lecture
It is advisable to write the rough draft on standard sheets of writing paper. Fill such sheets on one side only, so that if necessary you can make various textual insertions or, conversely, deletions, without having to rewrite the page from scratch.
Do not fill each page completely; leave room for subsequent additions and changes. Arrange the notes on the page so that at a single glance it is clear which ideas or concepts are the main ones. To highlight an important part of the text, use colour, underlining, a marker, or any other method you know.
Constantly watch that you do not stray from the assigned topic. It is extremely easy to get carried away with one or two aspects and end up with a text in which a whole series of key points is left untouched.
Do not start with the introduction. It is better to write the introduction later, once you know exactly what you have produced.
Think through what you already know about the topic of the work and what you still do not know and need to find out. Record the results of your reflections at this stage not as complete sentences but as key words.
Determine the most logical sequence of presentation. Having considered various options, decide what it would be best to start with, what should follow after that, and so on.
Proceed to composing the central part of the work. Select the points that you intend to include in the central part, and write each of them down as a short paragraph (on a separate sheet of paper or in a text editor).
Prepare the rough draft of the main part as early as possible. The longer you work with the rough draft of the text, the more you will manage to improve it.
Once you have drafted the bulk of the main part of the work, write its concluding part. Now you can be confident that your conclusion truly summarises the content of the work.
Now that you know exactly what the work is about and what the conclusions are, write the introduction, which should point to what you have already written; then it will automatically correspond to the content.
Now proceed to editing what you have written. In doing so you need to strive to ensure that each paragraph contains a single, self-contained thought. It is best if the subject of the paragraph is already clear from its first sentence. Supervisors wishing to get an idea of the content of a work usually read only the first sentence of each paragraph.
Set your work aside for a while. Such a break is very useful when carrying out any large piece of written work. Returning to it after a few days, you will be able to look at the text you have already written objectively, much as a reviewer would, and quite possibly you will see many ways to improve its content. Without distancing yourself for a while from the work at hand, you will not notice the need for many of the changes.
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