Is it okay to draft my essay using a vague rubric?

It is absolutely okay to start drafting your essay using a vague rubric, but you should write a flexible, modular draft now while simultaneously seeking clarification from your professor. Waiting for a response with only five days left risks running out of writing time, whereas drafting adaptable sections ensures you have solid material ready to pivot once you get feedback. The single most helpful piece of advice is to draft your paper in self-contained, movable blocks based on standard scientific structures rather than trying to write it as one seamless flow. This works because if your professor later clarifies that they want a heavier focus on methodology rather than literature review, you can easily expand, shrink, or rearrange those independent blocks without ruining the paper's overall coherence. For instance, you might draft a broad section on biomedical imaging techniques that can easily be reframed as either a literature review or a methodology discussion depending on how your professor responds. Since academic expectations and grading standards vary wildly by department and institution, your safest next step is to email your professor a polite, bulleted list of your structural assumptions today, or drop by their office hours tomorrow to confirm you are on the right track.