Rough Draft Checklist for Main Idea/Thesis

You have a rough draft in front of you. Maybe it’s an amazing example of the very best work you’ve ever done. Maybe it’s a rushed job that you threw together because it’s due in two hours. Likely, it’s somewhere in between. 

A lot of writers struggle to figure out what to do between the rough draft stage and the final draft stage. Often, you can get feedback (from your teacher, a parent/guardian, a tutor) at this point. However, it’s great to get in the habit of revising your own work as a next step once you have a completed draft. 

If you do this, you’ll get even better feedback with more useful suggestions because you will have already taken care of the parts that were clearly in need of revision. It will also help you become a stronger, more confident writer to be able to look at your own work and make changes. 

In this resource, we’re talking about how to check and make sure your Main Idea/Thesis Statement is in good shape in a rough draft. 

What's a Thesis Statement?

Before we go any further, let’s make sure you know what a thesis statement is. You probably know that it’s the main point of your paper, but let’s dig into that a little more. 

  • Single, Well-Written Sentence: For most academic papers at the middle and high school level, the thesis statement will be a single sentence. It needs to be well-written and focused. 
  • Mostly for Formal Academic Writing: Not every kind of writing has a formal thesis statement. Stories, casual blog posts, and creative writing will often NOT have a thesis statement. They still have a point, but it’s not spelled out in quite the same way. 
  • Clear and Consistent with Paper: Your thesis statement is the roadmap to your paper. It needs to match what you actually end up writing. 
  • Worthwhile and Meaningful: Your thesis statement is the purpose of your paper. If it’s not doing important work, then your paper probably isn’t, either. 
  • Easy to Find: Don’t hide your thesis statement! Your reader wants to know what they’re about to read. Make the thesis statement come early in your paper (usually in the introduction).

Watch the Video: What is a Thesis Statement?

Step 1: Make Sure Your Thesis Statement is Clear and Consistent

Let’s start with making sure you have a thesis statement and that it’s written in a clear way that matches what your paper actually does. There are some common reasons that your thesis statement might be unclear or inconsistent: 

Reason 1: You Found a New Topic

Sometimes, as you’re writing, you write your way into a brand new topic. You thought you were going to write about one thing, but by the end of the paper, you’re writing about something else. This is great! It means you really opened your mind up to new ideas and used your research and exploration to find new ways to think about the topic. 

But it can also mean that your original thesis statement doesn’t match the actual paper. It’s time to double check and make revisions so that you have consistency. 

Reason 2: You Changed Your Mind

This is a related issue. Sometimes you start out arguing one point in your paper, but once you’ve done the research, read the opposition, and really thought about it, you changed your mind. You don’t believe what you used to believe. This, again, is great! That’s what research and writing and reflection is for! It’s making you a more informed person with stronger, better supported opinions! 

But that original thesis statement may be the complete opposite of what your actual paper says. That’s going to confuse your readers and make your whole paper seem off. You’ve got to revise to make them match. 

Reason 3: You Didn’t Know What You Thought

Sometimes, you start writing a paper without knowing where you’re going. In fact, if you’re writing about a brand-new topic that required a lot of reading, research, and thinking, it’s even likely that you didn’t know what you thought about it when you started. Often, by the time you get to the end of your rough draft, you’ve found your point. 
 
But now you have to go back and fix the “filler” thesis statement you used to get started. It probably didn’t really say much, and it needs to be much clearer and more consistent with your new idea.

Watch the Video: Clear and Consistent Thesis Statements

Step 2: Make Sure Your Thesis Statement is Easy to Find

The next thing you want to look at is where your thesis statement is located. Does it come near the beginning of your paper? Is it easy for your readers to find? 

This may sound like a simple fix of just cutting it from wherever it is and moving it to the beginning, but that can leave you with a hole in your paper and a choppy introduction. 

Making sure your thesis statement anchors your paper is about more than its location. It’s about making sure you really used that main concept to focus the rest of your paragraphs. 

Watch the Video: Is Your Thesis Easy to Find?

Step 3: Make Sure Your Thesis Statement is Worthwhile

This last step is probably the hardest. It requires you to be really honest with yourself about the level of effort and attention you put into your work. 

You want to make sure that your paper is actually doing something worthwhile. One place to check for that is your thesis statement. You want a thesis statement that is: 

  • Reflective of Effort– Did you really put energy and time into this paper, or did you phone it in? Your paper doesn’t have to be a breath-taking masterpiece, but it should be something you’re proud of turning in. 
  • Appropriate in Scope– Are you trying to cover too much ground? Do you need to focus on a smaller piece of your topic to make it manageable? 
  • Connected to Real Work– Did you read closely enough to really understand the topic? Did you spend time reflecting on it? Did you do the research required? If you didn’t put the work in, it will probably show up in your paper. 

Watch the Video: Is Your Thesis Worthwhile?

Don't Be Afraid to Make Big Changes

The last thing I want to say to end this resource on revising for main idea/thesis statement is that it’s okay to make big changes. 

It can feel scary or disappointing to realize your rough draft needs more work than you thought. It can be frustrating to see that entire paragraphs of your rough draft don’t really have anything to do with the topic you ended up with at the end. 

I want to assure you that that’s part of the process! ALL writers — professional and not — go through the frustration and challenge of really figuring out what they want to say. 

It can feel like wasted time to have a draft that ends up getting cut to pieces, but it isn’t. It’s part of the work, and being willing to do it will help you become a great writer.

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