Parent Tip: Writing first drafts

If your child has already completed earlier levels of the June Writers program, they should have no problem writing the first draft of a text. We define a complete first draft as a text with a coherent argument statement backed by supporting claims, details, and insightful connections. The draft should meet the criteria set out in the prompt, including genre and length. While it’s certainly nice when we receive a clean text, we would rather that your child focus all of their mighty brain power on building the best possible argument they can imagine than on perfecting their mechanics at this stage of their writing process. Substance always trumps form in the first draft of a non-fiction text because it’s much harder to add substance down the road than to refine form. So, don’t panic if your child’s first draft has spelling and punctuation mistakes—if you know they worked hard on the argument.

If your child did not complete earlier levels of June Writers and is daunted by the prospect of writing a medium-length text out of the blue, please let us know. We can work with them to see what level of support they need to get off the ground. Supports may include attending our Live Help Hours and talking through their drafting process, or it may involve first completing some of our earlier practices to warm up their skills.

Over the course of Level 5: Solo Editing, your child will draft many medium-length texts, of various genres. The more they do, the easier it will get. But yes, the first one is always the hardest, so please let us know if your child is struggling to launch.