Y1 Unit 9.2: Next Steps for Your First Chapter Draft and Preparing for Your Second Chapter
At this point, your team is more than halfway done with writing a textbook. You’ve created your {Course #} About This Book document and everyone has drafted one chapter. This is a major accomplishment!
We now enter a transition phase. You will start drafting the remaining chapters that you’ll hand in for the full manuscript review. In one month, you will receive feedback on your team’s first chapters and meet with the Project Manager and Developmental Editor to discuss the feedback in detail. It might feel as if we’re asking you to do steps in a counterintuitive order, but it’s important to keep working in order to stick with the timeline your team created. Focus on getting your chapters as complete as possible by the end of this unit so that you will get the most out of the Developmental Editor’s full manuscript review in Unit 10.
The meeting with the Project Manager and Developmental Editor is an important opportunity to make your work stronger and clarify your team’s vision. In addition, this meeting will produce concrete benchmarks for getting the remaining work done, which you’ll track in the “Chapter Draft Revision Actions” tab of the Deliverables spreadsheet.
Your Full Manuscript Developmental Edit will be the last review before course piloting begins. The purpose is to ensure that your book is ready to be shared with course pilot instructors, external reviewers, and students. Our Instructional Technologist will migrate your revised chapters into Pressbooks for course pilots. Our support team will also scan for accessibility issues and either remediate problems or move content to the parking lot as needed.
Prepare to Draft Your Next Chapter
Your immediate next step is to draft your next chapter. You can prepare by taking time for critical reflection on the experience of writing your first chapter draft. The questions below are designed to help you identify what has worked and what hasn’t so far in this process.
Keep in mind that you will be asked to discuss this reflection with the Project Manager and your author team. Please make a copy of the document Effective Writing Strategies Reflection [Google Doc] to get started.
- What was effective for you in getting your first draft done, that you would like to do again?
- What do you need to do differently next time to continue to make progress?
- What content from units 6, 7, and 8 do you want to review?
- What kind of team engagement would help you stay motivated as you manage so many additional commitments?
- Textbook writing is different from many other forms of scholarship. How have you changed your approach for writing this project?
Choosing to Start Writing Again
Back in Unit 6, we shared an important piece of advice from Instructional Editor Stephanie Lenox: Write before you’re ready.
Now that you’re waiting a month to receive feedback on your first chapter, you must start writing your next chapter in order for the project to stay on track. Don’t wait for your Developmental Editor to finish their feedback. Yes, this is counterintuitive. The fact is that you are an expert in this subject and have a lot to offer learners, so write anyway.
The good news is that you’ve just practiced writing a chapter in this book that meets the goals of the project. Here’s a reminder of how you did this, if you followed the steps we recommended:
- Unit 6 (one week): Bring in background scan content, with attribution.
- Unit 7 (one month): Draft original content for your chapter body with an equity lens.
- Unit 8 (one month): Draft openers, closers, spotlights, and figures.
If you’re looking for a focus to start your next chapter, consider which aspects of equity-minded design that we’ve previously covered speak the loudest to you right now. What are you looking forward to incorporating into the next chapter? Examples include universal design moves to adapt background scan content, inclusive writing strategies to draft original content, and developing engaging spotlights that invite Oregon students to connect lived experiences to chapter content.
Licenses and Attributions for Next Steps for Your First Chapter Draft and Preparing for Your Second Chapter
“Next Steps for Your First Chapter Draft and Preparing for Your Second Chapter” by Open Oregon Educational Resources is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
