Once you have finished writing your outline for your research paper you need to work on producing your first rough draft.  Your goal now is not perfection, but rather to transform your outline into an actual essay.  You will need to revise this essay (most likely multiple times) before it’s in a presentable form.  Today’s video tutorials offer you a number of helpful tips on how to produce a quality first draft of your paper.

How to Write a Rough Draft

First Draft Pitfalls to Avoid

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Points to Remember

• The goal of your rough draft is to turn your outline into a written paper
• You will need to edit this draft multiple times
• Don’t worry now about details such as grammar, length, style, spelling, etc.  You can fix up those elements in future revisions of your paper
• Work off of your outline
• Don’t forget to include your source material (quotes, facts, definitions, etc.)
• Make sure to cite your sources

The 8 Steps to Writing a Great Research Paper

1. Pick a good, well-focused topic that you are interested in
2. Determine the goal and/or purpose of your paper
3. Gather together the best resources available on your topic
4. Study and take notes of your resources
5. Turn your notes into a well-organized outline
6. Write a rough draft
7. Revise (over and over again) your rough draft
8. Get feedback from friends, colleagues and experts (then rewrite again)

All Tutorials in This Series

1. How to Write a Great College Research Paper
2. How to Choose a Topic for a Research Paper
3. How to Narrow the Focus of Your Paper Topic
4. How to Determine the Purpose of Your Paper
5. How to Research a Topic
6. How to Take Notes for Your Research Paper
7. How to Write an Outline
8. How to Write a Rough Draft
9. How to Revise a Rough Draft
10. Getting Feedback on Your College Paper
11. Make the Effort to Write a Great Paper