Your thesis will condense a series of claims into one or two sentences. To prove your thesis, you will need to articulate these claims and convince the reader that they are true. Consequently, the majority of your paper will be dedicated to presenting and analyzing evidence that supports your claims.

By the time you start writing, you should already have conducted research and assembled your evidence. You should also know from your outline which pieces of evidence you want to use to back up each claim. What you have probably not finished working out is how you want to present those pieces of evidence and tie all the claims together. The first draft is the time to focus on doing that.

Drafting Best Practices

Writing drafts makes the work more manageable. It also builds in the time necessary for your brain to integrate the information and come up with new ways to present it. With that in mind, here are some ways to maximize the benefits of drafting:

Write without editing: Drafting gets your ideas onto paper, which gives you more to work with than the perfectionist's daunting blank screen. You can always return later to fix the mistakes that drove you crazy. If you get stuck, just jump to the next paragraph. At this stage, your goal is to keep writing. 

Allow time between drafts: One of the great benefits of writing a series of drafts is that it allows your brain to sift through the information layer by layer. When you write and then take a break, especially if the break includes a good night's sleep, the next time you approach your paper you'll have new ideas, and problems will be solved. 

Recognize that you may need to narrow the scope of the paper: If you're feeling overwhelmed and trying to manage mounds of evidence, it may be that the scope of the paper is simply too large. The drafting stage is about seeing what works and what doesn't, so don't hesitate to trim, discard, and shift as necessary.

Revisit prior stages of the process as needed to move forward: If you're feeling stuck or unsure, go play with your outline. If you haven't already put your points on index cards, do that now so you can move them around. If you're finding that your evidence seems scanty, go back to the research phase. And if you need creative inspiration, doodle a concept map around your paragraph's claim or chat about it with a friend. Try not to resist these steps "back"—writing is not linear, it's iterative. Enjoy the benefits of that.

Evidence

The first thing you should assemble is evidence. You cannot make a good argument unless you have strong evidence in sufficient amounts. It is the foundation of the rest of your paper—every claim you make and conclusion you draw must be backed up by the evidence you present.

Evidence can come in many forms: data, written reports or articles, graphs or visual representations, even anecdotes and interviews. Choose whatever forms work best for your argument. While it is important to provide enough evidence to support your argument, be selective about what you use. It is better to choose several very convincing pieces of evidence than to have many different pieces that are only vaguely convincing. Also be careful about how reliable your evidence is. Faulty evidence can damage the credibility of your entire paper, so make sure that everything you use is accurate and comes from a trustworthy source.

Next, you want to be clear on what conclusions you are drawing. Make sure that every conclusion corresponds to some piece of evidence. Also have an idea of how you want to organize your conclusions, particularly the order in which you will present them. Conclusions should build on each other. Figure out how they fit together before you start writing, and your paper's structure will benefit from it.

Warrants are the way in which you link evidence to conclusions. Broadly speaking, "warrant" refers to the explanation of your reasoning. Even though you will not state every warrant openly, you need to make sure that they all hold up under questioning. If required, you need to be able to articulate to the audience why evidence supports claims and conclusions. You should also have an idea of what parts of your argument are complex or important enough that your warrants will need to be stated explicitly.

Paragraph Types

You have your thesis and all of the points of argument and counter-argument mapped out, along with their supporting evidence. The thesis often appears in the opening paragraph of the paper, although you may choose to construct a different form for your paper. Each point of argument or counter-argument will have a paragraph of its own. You'll want to conclude the paper by bringing the points together and giving the reader a sense of closure.

Introduction  

Your paper's opening lets the reader know what the topic is and, usually, leads him or her to your thesis statement.  

Guidelines for construction:

Consider writing the introductory paragraph(s) last, rather than first: It's easier to introduce something you know thoroughly. Also, it's vital to be creative in this first paragraph, and after you've written your paper, you'll feel freer to play with words and ideas. You can go back to the prewriting exercises to spark ideas for the approach you'll take.

Let your topic and style of argument guide your method of introduction: A controversial topic that includes strong parries with counter-arguments might best be introduced by a provocative statement. A story about how the topic garnered your interest might be an inviting introduction to a paper that includes personal anecdotes. You might decide to begin with the question or conundrum that leads to your topic sentence. An analogy or metaphor could be a way to introduce a subject that's difficult to understand or is well-worn and needs a new perspective. Some topics are best described with imagery. Don't limit yourself to pedantic facts that plod toward the thesis statement.

Make it interesting for the reader: A good writer always keeps in mind that there's potential for publication in every piece of writing. Even if on the first round there will be only one reader, write as if you have a broad audience. You need a strong start if you want the reader to read more than the first few sentences. You make it interesting by making strong statements. If it doesn't captivate you, it won't interest your audience. Take a risk and be bold. Why should anyone care about this topic Show us!

Also make it a coherent guide to the paper: At the same time as you're making your introduction intriguing and captivating, you want to make it logical. You needn't give away the secrets of your argument in the introduction (e.g., "I will show that this thesis is true by proving X, Y, and Z"), but you will need to create a clear path to the thesis and give us an idea of the terrain we'll be crossing.

Example:

He's eighteen years old, this soldier, just out of public school. The cliche about not being able to grow a full beard actually applies, and he's cut himself shaving enough to have tiny scars healing on his thin face. He sits on the ground a few feet from the rubble, open-mouthed and barely breathing. The bomb must've been in the engine. The jeep's door is a yard behind him and his buddies, well, he can't see all the bodies, but there's no question that they're dead. And something inside him is dying too.

This story isn't as rare as we civilians would like to think. Estimates from the Veterans Administration put the percentage of military personnel with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) between 11 and 20%, and U.S. veteran suicides average one per day. Although the government is up to $2 billion dollars spent on treatment for PTSD, there is a cap on what is offered to an individual. Asking for additional assistance can simply be too stressful for an already vulnerable veteran. Clearly, more of the military's financial resources must be directed toward rehabilitating men and women who've experienced military combat. It is our responsibility as civilians to ensure their treatment and recovery. 

What technique did the writer use to capture your attention? Did it work? What other elements of a good introduction did you notice here? What elements are missing? Can you find the thesis? What do you think about the use of statistics in the second paragraph? What would you do differently if you were introducing this thesis?  

Body Paragraphs

When analyzing your evidence, be as thorough and clear as possible. You may be familiar with the rhetorical strategy of logos, or step-by-step rational argument. It will probably be helpful to adopt that as a model and conduct your analysis through progressive points, each one of which builds off the previous one. Even if it seems like you are oversimplifying things, it is better to give your audience too much analysis than too little. Make sure every step is included, and that the description of your evidence's purpose is clear. You do not want any part of your process to be ambiguous for your readers, or they may stop understanding or agreeing with your argument.

Revisiting your outline, you'll see your strategy for building your argument. Whether you start off with your strongest point or a counter-argument, or you reel your reader in slowly, your body paragraphs will each have the following elements:

Each paragraph addresses one (and only one) idea in support of the thesis: Think of each paragraph as a point to be made, and then gather the resources around it. You can have several pieces of evidence in a paragraph, but each piece should be supporting that one point. In turn, of course, each paragraph (each point) supports the thesis. Keep in mind that with each paragraph, you're wanting the reader to become less skeptical about your thesis. You're creating an aha moment for the reader with each paragraph's concluding sentence.

Eliminate redundancy: If you can make only three strong arguments in support of your thesis, don't try to add more. You'll weaken your case by muddling the reader. Don't re-use evidence to support more than one point, either—it activates suspicion in the reader. And don't make the common mistake of restating your thesis. Each paragraph needs its own focus. You want the reader drawing the conclusion that this point supports the thesis.

Paragraphs that articulate a counter-argument need to refute it: Perhaps it goes without saying, but if you're going to bring up a counter-argument (and this is an excellent strategy), you need to acknowledge it and then give the reasons it does not lead to the conclusion its proponents espouse. You aren't trying to make their argument, you're bringing it up because you know it's probably in your reader's mind and you must address it to argue successfully.

Anticipating readers' questions makes your argument flow: Look at your argument critically, asking yourself the same questions that you would of a scholarly article. Scholarly articles should be evaluated based on criteria such as thoroughness, credibility, and accuracy. Take the same approach with your paper. Think about the sub-claims you will need to make to clarify and support your main argument. If you make a claim, what other things will you need to prove in order to back that up? What assumptions have you made that need to be articulated to your reader? Anticipating readers' questions and protestations will help guide the flow of the paper and make transitions smoother, as you'll intuit what needs to come next.

There is a subtle art to transitions: You get a better sense of this art as you read and write more. You don't want the reader thinking about form—you want the reader focused on your argument. Therefore, you link your paragraphs with transition sentences that make the path clear:  

"So, we've found that solar power and wind power are economically viable in Costa Rica, but can geothermal power, with its high initial costs, prove a worthwhile investment over time?"  

You can guess that this body paragraph follows others that discuss wind and solar power, and the thesis is about the use of alternative energy sources. This paragraph will likely show that geothermal power is also viable. As a reader, you have yet to be convinced, but your mind is open: you're ready to hear whether or not it's viable. You're not wondering where the paper is going, and you're not confused about the writer's stance. If you find it difficult to create a transition, it may be that you need to move the paragraphs around so that a natural transition arises. 

Conclusion

It's sadly rare to read an interesting concluding paragraph, but it's not a difficult challenge if you keep in mind that you're not restating your thesis, you're retracing your argument in a new way. Just because you're not presenting new information doesn't mean the conclusion must be stale. You have permission to get creative. Here's what the conclusion must do:

Show how the ideas in the paper work together to support the thesis: You haven't made your argument until you tie it all together. You've led the reader down the yellow brick road, but no heels have been clicked until they've read the conclusion. While you don't want to introduce new points or evidence here, you can certainly use new techniques, like imagery or story. You might take the perspective of a skeptic and experience the argument through his eyes, or you might show us a vision of a brighter future now that your thesis has been implemented. The watchword is synthesis, rather than repetition. 

Tie in the more compelling elements from the introduction and body paragraphs to provide a sense of cohesion: If you used an image in your introduction (think of the soldier from the example above), consider recalling it in the conclusion. This offers the reader a sense of symmetry and completion if it isn't oversimplified. Similarly, you can recall images or stories used in other parts of the paper. These act as anchors for the reader's memory, and when memory is triggered, our minds tend to be more open. Think of the crescendo in a piece of music, where the theme is woven together with other elements of the piece, and the listener is moved to tears. Revisiting and weaving, making something new in the process, is what makes a conclusion effective. 

Read over your paper. What stands out to you? What gives you chills? The same will probably be true for your reader. These are the points to recall in your conclusion. Just as a lawyer lays out his case to the jury most powerfully in closing arguments, this is your chance to make your case clearly and concisely.