The steps that follow in this section of the Excelsior OWL will help! Rough Draft ExampleĮxcelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL). As the outline develops, and in outlines. And then, sadly, sometimes revision does mean trashing your first draft and starting from scratch. Sometimes it means adding or deleting material for balance or emphasis. Once you complete your own rough draft, you will want to engage in a revision and editing process that involves feedback, time, and diligence on your part. The topic sentences are repetitive in the first draft of the outline only to increase the simplicity of the example. Sometimes it means shifting the order of your paper to help the reader follow your argument, or to change the emphasis of your points. Use this interactive quiz and worksheet to help you learn how and why a rough draft of. Take a look at this example with notes a student wrote on her rough draft. First attempts are a messy but necessary part of the writing process. The sample rough draft below shows you an example of just how much more work a rough draft can need, even a really solid first draft. When you draft, you don’t want to feel like “this has to be perfect.” If you put that much pressure on yourself, it can be really difficult to get your ideas down. Sometimes, keeping this in mind can help you as you draft. It’s important to remember that your rough draft is a long way from your final draft, and you will engage in revision and editing before you have a draft that is ready to submit. In this section of the Excelsior OWL, you have been learning about traditional structures for expository essays (essays that are thesis-based and offer a point-by-point body), but no matter what type of essay you’re writing, the rough draft is going to be an important part of your writing process.

Example of essay rough draft