Step 7: Writing the Rough Draft

Now that you have all of your information in good order, it is
time to get down to the serious business of writing the rough draft of
your research paper. This should not be a difficult task because you
have all of your information organized in your outline.

Follow the next nine steps carefully.

1.

Check to be sure that your thesis states as specifically as
possible exactly what the material that you have gathered adds
up to.

2.

Double check your outline to be sure that each Roman Numeral
is one of the supporting ideas for your topic. Also, check to be
sure that each subtopic (A, B, C,) is directly relevant to the
Roman Numeral under which it appears.

3.

Take out a clean sheet of paper, and starting on the first line,
write your thesis. This is not the time to add an interest
catcher-that will come when you are ready to revise the rough
draft. It is impossible to introduce something when you do not
know what you are introducing, and at this point, you do not
know exactly what you are going to say.

4.

Write on only one side of the paper.

5.

Double space so that you can cross out poor wording or
improve vocabulary and sentence structure when you revise
your essay later.

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