First Draft Guidelines

[rev. 10/21/2006]

The first draft should represent the hoped-for final product in terms of length and content. Although there may be a few gaps here and there, you cannot leave placeholders for major content. For example, a beautifully formatted report that says “Body of report goes here” or “Data table goes here” is unacceptable. You should have your data (or at least a substantial portion) by now. Content is more important than format. Spell check is expected, but careful editing and revision can wait until later. If you have graphs or diagrams, hand-drawn versions are fine for now.

The basic idea: Your first draft should be, at least theoretically, something that a skillful copy editor could transform into a final product. If you have a fact you think is true, but you have not been able to find a reference for it, you may write “Footnote needed here,” because that is a gap that could be filled in by a skillful copy editor. However, writing “Paragraph on the connections between statistics and the calculus goes here” is not acceptable, because that is something that could be filled in only by a writer, not by an editor.

Warning: Any words that are not your own, or any paraphrases of other people’s words, must be properly quoted and footnoted. Plagiarism, as you know, is an honor offense. Even if you re-use your own writing (from a project in another class, perhaps), you must provide a footnote.

Grading criteria: Up to 300 points will be awarded. The group leader report is 10 points, and 10 points will be deducted from the group leader’s score if that report is missing. The remaining 290 points are subdivided as follows: 70 points for mathematical content (including usage of statistics and/or the calculus), 80 points for evidence of project organization, and 140 points for the interest, applicability, and general promise shown by the first draft. Errors in grammar, punctuation, and formatting will not count against you for the first draft, but spelling errors will. Rationale: This is the twenty-first century, and anyone who cannot figure out how to run a spell check should re-take a Lower School course in basic computer literacy. Also, all names must be spelled correctly. List group members’ names with the leader’s name underlined.

More warnings: Points will be deducted from the 80 possible for project organization if your report is beautifully formatted but lacking in content. Rationale: This would furnish clear evidence that you had made formatting a higher priority than content. Points will also be deducted if your project is excessively wordy, if it is much longer than it needs to be, or if you make gratuitous use of color printing. (If color adds no information and is mere “eye candy,” use standard black-and-white printing instead.) Another pet peeve is full-page graphs that communicate very little information. Consider using a smaller graph or a table instead. White space is useful in a report, since it improves readability by making the reader feel less overwhelmed by data, but it is also possible to overdo white space. Double-spacing is a good idea (in Microsoft Word: Format / Paragraph / Indents and Spacing / Line Spacing / Double), but triple- or quadruple-spacing for the purpose of padding your report’s length will not help you. In fact, since there is no minimum page count, excessive spacing would be more likely to cost you points than to gain you any.

Helpful hints: Use subheadings to communicate the purpose of each portion of your report. For example, “Research Question,” “Methodology,” “Discussion of Results,” “Conclusion,” and “Appendices” will serve for some projects, though you may need to add or subtract sections as appropriate. Overall length will probably be 3 to 5 pages in most cases. No points will be deducted for short papers if they satisfy the grading criteria listed above.

Group leader report (10 points): Approximately half a page is required. Describe in detail the tasks performed by each member, along with any shortcomings (e.g., missed meetings, missed deadlines) that adversely affected the group. Recommend the division of points that you feel is appropriate based on the contributions made by each member, including yourself. You may express your recommendation in fractional form (e.g., 1/3, 1/3, 1/3) or as percentages (e.g., 28%, 35%, 37%). It is a good idea to share your recommendations with the other group members, since they will probably be able to figure out what you recommended when they receive their project scores anyway.