You have a draft of your article,
then what? First give yourself a cheer and celebrate, then begin the rewriting
process. Rewriting?? Yes, you have done a first draft, hopefully including all
of the necessary parts, but it is rough, and needs a lot of polishing. I
suggest reading through the draft in full, make notes to yourself (I use track
changes) and mark areas that are not complete, that may not be clear to someone
reading it for the first time, or that needs more support with citations. Then
start at the beginning and read each sentence aloud, is there a way to make it
clearer, more concise? Picture your grandmother who knows nothing about the
topic reading it, would she understand that sentence? Check for any pronouns
(they, he, and she), is it clear who the pronouns are referring to? Check your
plurals versus possessives (this makes me crazy when they are wrong): plurals
(e.g. “girls”) do not have an apostrophe, possessives do have an apostrophe
(e.g., “the girl’s bike;” “the girls’ bikes”).
Do you know a
former English major? Someone who is a great writer? If so, ask them to read
through your paper and offer suggestions.
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