The longer I teach, the more I grow bothered by the phrase "rough draft." I'm not sure if it has always been this way, but it seems increasingly common that when students work on rough drafts, they take that to mean really rough drafts. As if it's a license for turning in garbage, students believe rough drafts are simply opportunities for getting something on the page, regardless of what it looks like, knowing that it will just be changed later anyway. This is completely the wrong perspective.
Rough drafts should be the student's absolute best attempt at properly completing the written project at this specific moment in time.
In fact, in my classes, I emphasize "first version" in place of rough draft, in hopes of getting students to take that step in the writing process more seriously. Yes, there will be changes. Yes, a student may end up scrapping entire sections of her work. And yes, doing a good job at this early stage is difficult and time-consuming. But that's what should happen. That paper should be as perfect as she can possibly make it, as of now.
I've discovered that students don't just cut corners on their actual essay when we refer to rough drafts, the body paragraphs, argument, and other key components in the main text. They also avoid doing the simplest of tasks--name in the proper place, effective title, source list properly formatted, and more. I'm always baffled at this. These are the easiest parts of the assignment--why not just do these simple elements right the first time, so they won't require attention later?
I tell my students to envision that I'm grading their draft, and their entire semester grade depends on their score on it--even though we will go through several steps of revision. That usually helps a bit, but it's still not ideal. But getting past the term "rough draft" is a step in the right direction for both students and teachers. There should be nothing rough about writing. It should be excellent from the start, and together we will work to make it even better before the final due date. The goal is to make the subsequent stages, from major revisions to minor copy-edits, as small and painless as possible. But that can't happen if we keep doing "rough" work. Use "final version" instead, and get students writing better earlier.
Rough drafts should be the student's absolute best attempt at properly completing the written project at this specific moment in time.
In fact, in my classes, I emphasize "first version" in place of rough draft, in hopes of getting students to take that step in the writing process more seriously. Yes, there will be changes. Yes, a student may end up scrapping entire sections of her work. And yes, doing a good job at this early stage is difficult and time-consuming. But that's what should happen. That paper should be as perfect as she can possibly make it, as of now.
I've discovered that students don't just cut corners on their actual essay when we refer to rough drafts, the body paragraphs, argument, and other key components in the main text. They also avoid doing the simplest of tasks--name in the proper place, effective title, source list properly formatted, and more. I'm always baffled at this. These are the easiest parts of the assignment--why not just do these simple elements right the first time, so they won't require attention later?
I tell my students to envision that I'm grading their draft, and their entire semester grade depends on their score on it--even though we will go through several steps of revision. That usually helps a bit, but it's still not ideal. But getting past the term "rough draft" is a step in the right direction for both students and teachers. There should be nothing rough about writing. It should be excellent from the start, and together we will work to make it even better before the final due date. The goal is to make the subsequent stages, from major revisions to minor copy-edits, as small and painless as possible. But that can't happen if we keep doing "rough" work. Use "final version" instead, and get students writing better earlier.