Editing Your Rough Draft

Things To Look For and Do

Is It Complete?

O What changes have I observed in the Internet and the digital world within my own lifetime?

O What technologies and programs do I use now which are part of the digital world?

O What changes do I believe may happen in the digital world by the time I graduate college?

The first thing you want to look at is to make sure that the rough draft answers all the questions required in your

essay. This means you need to

look over your prompt carefully

and check each part to see that it has been clearly

answered in your essay. Also

make sure you did not forget to include an introductory

paragraph and a conclusion.

Look at the questions to the right. Have you answered all these questions about your

focus?

Is It Long Enough?

O 1 ½ - 2 pages long

O Times New Roman

O Double-spacedO 1” Margins

What are the requirements of

your essay? How many pages

does it need to be? What type

of font and what size should it be? Is it double spaced or

single spaced? If my essay is too short, how can I make it

longer? Do I need to add more explanations? Examples?

Detail? If it is too long, how can I say things better?

Look at the requirements for this particular essay.

Does It Make Sense?

O Read your essay out loud. Does it sound like you meant it to?

O Have a friend or adult read it. Ask them to be honest about whether the content makes sense and point out areas of confusion.

O Put your essay away for a day and then read it again after taking a break. Taking a fresh look can catch things an hour of cramming can miss.

After you have made a lot of

changes in length and content,

sometimes things get confused.

A paragraph you thought you

had in one place in the essay was moved to another place

and not moved back. After you

have the length you want and have answered all the

questions, read through your

essay carefully to make sure it still makes sense.

Here are some tips to help you double check this.

Is It Grammatically

Correct?

O Are all my sentenced capitalized?

O Do I have proper end marks at the end of complete and accurate sentences? Do I use other punctuation correctly?

O Are my words spelled correctly?

O Did I avoid using personal pronouns like I, you, me, this paper, etc. except where it is necessary for the clarity of the paper?

O Are my paragraphs indented?

O Do I have a proper heading and title for the paper?

Though there is a temptation to worry about

this first, this is actually your last step in editing

your essay. Now that you have said all you want to

say in the way you want to say it, make sure that poor grammar and spelling won’t make your great thoughts get buried under the red

marking pen.

Am I Done Yet?Once you have completed all of these steps and have a great paper, it is a good idea to double check the rubric for how your paper will be graded. Most teachers have a specific method they use to determine how they will grade a paper. If your teacher has not already given you one, ask for a copy. For this class, your rubric is at the end of the worksheet for your rough draft. Read through it and see if you can guess what grade your teacher will give you based on this rubric.