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Preparing the final draft of
your paper
Now that you have addressed
the issue of common knowledge, and assessed
your paper, it's time for the simple task of preparing
the final draft of your paper.
1) Archive the colored footnote version of your
paper: SAVE it with a new file name such as YourLastName_PaperTitle_ColoredFootnotes_FINAL.docx.
Be sure to KEEP this file either for your own future reference
or to hand in if your professor requires it. To avoid accidental
data loss, it's a good idea to save this file into a folder titled
"ARCHIVE--do not edit"
2) The FINAL VERSION
of your paper: Now save the colored footnote version of your
paper AGAIN with a DIFFERENT name, such as: YourLastName_PaperTitle_FINAL.docx.
When you finish the steps below you will have the final version
of your paper.
Working on this file (YourLastName_PaperTitle_FINAL.docx)
and NOT on the archived colored footnote version:
- Go through your paper and
delete all footnotes that include citations from three sources. This, of course, is why putting the
second and third citations in different colors (such as blue for the second source, and red for the third) is so useful. The colored footnotes
are easy to see, so you won't delete a footnote that you should
keep in your paper. If you're using Microsoft Word, to delete
the footnotes containing the triple documentation, all you have
to do is to delete the appropriate superscript1 in the text of your paper and the footnote
will disappear.
Here is a link to the example we've already looked at of colored footnotes correctly
done (Microsoft Word format).
And here is a link to the same
example with the colored (common knowledge) footnotes removed.
See how much shorter the paper becomes? It's also rock-solid,
and NOW the remaining footnotes will be helpful to an interested
reader.
- Prepare your final "Select
Bibliography," OMITTING
many of the sources you used to nail down the common knowledge
footnotes.
You will, of course, KEEP any
source that:
- You also used as an important
source for the paper, or
- Appears in at least one footnote
in the final version of the paper
- Be sure to use the correct
format for the entries in your bibliography, and if you divide
your bibliography into categories, after the main heading include a short introductory
paragraph that says something like: "I have organized the
bibliography under these headings: a) [title], b) [title], c)
[title] etc." This is such standard phrasing that you may
use the sentence without fear of plagiarism.
- Insert page numbers your
name and the title of your paper in a header or footer. This is a great help to anyone who
does a printout of your paper: Imagine dropping a printout of
your paper and then having to re-assemble the scattered pages
in the right order.
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