Most people write their work from top to bottom, starting from the introduction and ending with the conclusion. It’s logical and makes the process simple. Unfortunately, that’s hardly the best way of putting a piece together.
In practice, several parts of your first draft – namely the introduction, conclusion, recommendations and summary – should be written only after you’ve finished the body. Why? Because their actual content will depend on the discussions you’ve made in the main part of the piece.
Think about it. Would it really be easier to write your introduction before you’ve even worked on the “meat” of your writing? Wouldn’t it almost write itself once you’ve put the rest of the discourse out of the way? Same with the conclusion, recommendations and summary. For an analogy, would it make sense to run a grammar software before editing or would it make sense to do it during the proofreading phase?
Another advantage to using this process is that it saves you from having to do unnecessary rewriting. Most of the time, doing the introduction, summary and recommendations before the draft is done means you’ll have to review and, most likely, revise them afterwards. Saving them for later, on the other hand, allows you to start them with your ideas and arguments already fully-formed, decreasing the likelihood of having to rewrite for content.
