Objective

Produce a rough first or “zero” draft of your first essay. This will help you find raw material (i.e. potential evidence and rough ideas) that can be refined and further developed when you revise. You’ll use response exercises to develop two analysis paragraphs and to draft a working thesis.

Talk Out Your Ideas

The writing in your Zero Draft should be very rough and messy. You should explore potential paths of inquiry without necessarily knowing whether or not they will lead to fruitful conclusions. The point of this part is to continue to think your ideas through, to explore your thoughts on paper. Do not “go back” to fix spelling or grammar errors, or to revise or change ideas; keep going forward! Allow your messy, nascent thoughts (and questions) to unfold and develop on the page. In other words, talk out your ideas.

If you have a non-English first language, incorporate words and phrases from your first language as much as you want.

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