wia1elp_ch16

16a Refine your writing plans.

16a

Refine your writing plans.

You should by now have notes containing facts, opinions, paraphrases, summaries, quotations, and other material; you probably have some images or media to include as well. You may also have ideas about how to synthesize these many pieces of information. And you should have some sense of whether your hypothesis has sufficient support. Now is the time to reconsider your purpose, audience, stance, and working thesis.

What is your central purpose? What other purposes, if any, do you have?
What is your stance toward your topic? Are you an advocate, a critic, a reporter, an observer?
What audience(s) are you addressing?
How much background information or context does your audience need?
What supporting information will your readers find most convincing—examples? quotations from authorities? statistics? graphs, charts, or other visuals? data from your field research?
Should your tone be that of a colleague, an expert, or a student?
How can you establish common ground with your readers and show them that you have considered points of view other than your own? (See 11e and Chapter 18.)
What is your working thesis trying to establish? Will your audience accept it?