Writing the first draft

A hard copy of your first draft is due on or before noon of April 20 (Wednesday). A soft copy must
be uploaded to the assignment bin on or before 11:55 p.m. of the same day. Submit a Word doc. No
PDFs, please. If you fail to submit either of the two, kindly drop J200.

The first draft is not a progress report. It is the initial version of your thesis. It must be a
COMPLETE write-up of ALL relevant findings to date. Best treat the first draft as though it were
your final draft, like there were no tomorrow.

Before you start writing, see to it that all major changes to your thesis proposal, especially the
problem and objectives, methodology and study framework, have my approval.

May I suggest the following sequence when writing the first draft:

1. Start with Results and Discussion. Incorporate photos, tables and figures (crude, though, the
latter two may be). For those doing longform writing or narratives, you may cut up the text
into two or more parts, if necessary, complete with titles. But don’t put subheads. Do this
only in the final draft. If you have a sidebar, this should immediately follow the part where it
belongs.
2. Update the Methodology to document what you actually did during the research. Use the
past tense. Revise the paragraphs where the methods have changed since your last
consultation. Again, the changes should have been cleared with me. Kindly highlight the
sentences or paragraphs that have been modified so I can keep track of the changes you
have made. Or use track changes.
3. Leave the Statement of the Problem and Objectives intact. But should your research lead
you to strongly believe that this section must change, kindly insert the proposed changes as
footnotes. Let me first carefully go over your plan.
4. Update or create the Table of Contents and Bibliography.

There is no need to include the Summary and Conclusions as well as the Implications and
Recommendations in the first draft as your research is ongoing. Let’s save them for the second
draft.

Rigorously apply the APA style rules, especially to the citations and bibliography. For those doing
longform writing, apply too the Associated Press style rules to the Results and Discussion, where
appropriate. If you are using another style book (e.g., PDI, New York Times), let me know.

Reusing paper is highly encouraged. Also, there is no need to ring-bind the first draft, but do clip or
fasten the sheets.