A.Preparing the first draft

Before sitting down for the first draft, make sure you have done the first foowing things:

◇You have arrived a thesis

◇You have gone over the note cards, picked out those cards reevant to the thesis, and set aside a others. Bear in mind: you are very ikey to have more notes than you can use.

◇You have shuffed the cards unti they are organized in the order in which they wi be used.

◇You have sketched an outine of the paper, breaking down the thesis into an ordered isting of topics.

Once you have formuated the thesis, sorted the cards in their proper sequence, and drafted the outine, you are ready to begin writing the first draft. Work from the outine and note cards. Tripe space the first draft to aow room for penciing in afterthoughts or scribbing paragraph so that additiona ideas, words or phrases that occur to you can be tacked on to the paragraphs without creating an unreadabe jumbe.

B. Incorporating notes into the fow of a paper

A notes shoud be bended smoothy into the natura fow of the paper – this is the prime rue for writing the first draft. Summaries and persona comments shoud be edited for smoothness. Quotations of course have to be used word for word. Transitions between ideas shoud be ogica and smooth. The paper shoud not seem a patch word of cut-and-paste, which is often seen in the writings of the Chinese students. When you start writing, foow these simpe steps to make your paper better:

◇a rough version, concentrating on the fow of thought;

◇a first version, reorganizing the paper, if necessary, and improving the stye;

◇a second version, eiminating a mechanica errors.