Back: Drafting Your Conclusion

Creating the Final Draft of Your Paper

For information about writing a rough draft of your paper, see Creating the Rough Draft of Your Paper.

Here are some tips to help you create your final draft:

Leave a day or two between writing the rough draft, revising the rough draft, and writing the final draft. This will enable you to develop a fresh perspective on your work and help you spot problems that you had not noticed before.
Proofread your revised rough draft carefully.

Look at the words, phrases, and sentences. Are they clear and connected?
Look at the paragraphs. Do they hold together internally, and are they linked to one another?
Cut out any places where you repeat yourself or where your sentences are not related to your theme.
Check all quotations and footnotes for accuracy.
Make sure that your conclusion is in agreement with your introduction.
Check grammar and spelling. Your word processing program will not catch all of the errors, not even some obvious ones. For example, your spell checker cannot tell whether you mean meet or meat.
Check formatting. If your instructor has given you specific formatting instructions (margin width, font type and size, single- or double-spaced lines), make sure that your paper conforms to what is required.
Print out your paper, and see how it appears on the page. Is it easy to read? Are the margins adequate? Have you included page numbers, and are they in order? Make sure you have not squeezed the words too closely together or spread them too far apart. The same is true for paragraphs.
Make sure that the cover page has all the information your instructor will need to identify you, your theme, and your course. If you have received any special instructions for this page, be sure to follow them.
Show your paper to a friend, and ask if any parts of it are unclear.