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WritingOn grade · 11 minW.3.5
The Second Draft
The first draft is you telling yourself the story. The second draft is you telling the reader.
The move
Revising is not fixing spelling — it is making writing say more than it did. You reread what you wrote, find the sentence that is doing the least work, and give it something to carry: a detail, a reason, or a better ending.
Write it
Here is a first draft: "My bus was late. I waited a long time. Then it came and I got to school." It is true, but it tells the reader nothing. Rewrite it so somebody who was not there can see the morning — what the waiting was like, why it mattered, and how it ended.
Write at least 5 sentences.
Stuck? Start with one of these:
0 sentences · 0 words
Check your work
0/4
- Adds details the first draft did not have
- Gives a reason that explains why it mattered
- A closing sentence that ends the morning
- Capital letters and end punctuation
Keep going — 5 sentences at least, then we’ll look at it together.