The Rough Draft
What is a rough draft?
A rough draft is your chance to get all your ideas on paper. It
must contain all the required parts of a term paper and it must be legible.
Will it be graded?
Yes, it will be graded.
What goes in the rough draft?
Everything!
Your rough draft will have a title page, final outline, an introduction,
the body of the paper, conclusion, and works cited page.
Get Ready. . .
Find a place where you can spread out with lots of room and where you
won’t be disturbed. An empty floor or kitchen table would be a good
choice. You’ll need your preliminary outline, bibliography cards, and note
cards. Take all of your note cards and spread them out, face up, so you
can read them. As you lay them out, glance at each one to familiarize
yourself with what you have.
Organize . . .
Using your preliminary outline as a guide, group your note cards into the
three main topics of your paper. You may have some that do not fit in any
category. Set these aside in their own group as you may use them later.
Order . . .
Now, go through each set of note cards and group them within smaller
groups of similar topics. Once you have all the topics established, put
the cards in the exact order in which you will write about them. If you
wish, you may number the cards in the lower left-hand corner in case they fall
out of order.
Now you are ready to write the body of your paper.
Writing
Begin by writing the body of your paper first. The introduction and
conclusion will be easier once this is finished. Write on only one side of
the paper and leave a one inch margin all the way around. Use your
preliminary outline as a guide. Each Roman numeral represents a section.
Begin using only your note cards from Roman numeral “I” in a stack next to you.
Write the information from the first card into your paper, then turn the card
over, face down, in another pile. Keep the cards in order and it will make
citing your sources so much easier.
Common Pitfalls
1. Try not to copy your notes word for word. You probably
wrote them in a hurry and were overwhelmed with too much information at once.
Try to clean up the language and make it more formal.
2. Do not use too many quotations. You should have no more than two
quotations per paragraph. Otherwise, you are not really writing your own
paper, just copying someone else’s work.
3. Do not forget TRANSITIONS! See the list of transitions included
in this packet or in a grammar book. Begin every paragraph with some type
of transition.
4. Do not forget to document your sources.
5. Remember, this is a practice for your final draft.
Revising
Do not forget to go back and revise your paper once it is written.
Read it all the way through once you finish writing to be sure it makes sense.
It helps to read it aloud. Then, have at least two other people read it.
Be sure they will be honest with you and point out any mistakes. Be sure
they can understand your paper. Try to allow yourself time so that you can
set the paper aside and ignore it at least overnight. Then, read it
straight through again to be sure it still makes sense when it is not fresh in
your mind. Last, start at the end of your paper and read each individual
sentence to yourself, checking for spelling and grammar mistakes and any missing
words.
BBCHS
English Department