Revision and Editing
Revision Guide:
How to Revise
First, put your draft aside for a little while. Time away from your essay will allow for more objective self-evaluation. When you do return to the draft, be honest with yourself; ask yourself what you really think about the paper.
Check the focus of the paper. Is it appropriate to the assignment prompt? Is the topic too big or too narrow? Do you stay on track throughout the entire paper? (At this stage, you should be concerned with the large, content-related issues in the paper, not the grammar and sentence structure).
Get feedback. Since you already know what you’re trying to say, you aren’t always the best judge of where your draft is clear or unclear. Let another reader tell you. Then discuss aloud what you were trying to achieve. In articulating for someone else what you meant to argue, you will clarify ideas for yourself.
Think honestly about your thesis. Do you still agree with it? Should it be modified in light of something you discovered as you wrote the paper? Does it make a sophisticated, provocative point? Or does it just say what anyone could say if given the same topic? Does your thesis generalize instead of taking a specific position? Should it be changed completely?
Examine the balance within your paper. Are some parts out of proportion with others? Do you spend too much time on one trivial point and neglect a more important point? Do you give lots of details early on and then let your points get thinner by the end? Based on what you did in the previous step, restructure your argument: reorder your points and cut anything that’s irrelevant or redundant. You may want to return to your sources for additional supporting evidence.
Now that you know what you’re really arguing, work on your introduction and conclusion. Make sure to begin your paragraphs with topic sentences, linking the idea(s) in each paragraph to those proposed in the thesis.
As you revise your own work, keep the following in mind:
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- Revision means rethinking your thesis. It is unreasonable to expect to come up with the best thesis possible – one that accounts for all aspects of your topic – before beginning a draft, or even during a first draft. The best theses evolve; they are produced during the writing process. Successful revision involves bringing your thesis into focus—or changing it altogether.
- Revision means making structural changes. Drafting is usually a process of discovering an idea or argument. Your argument will not become clearer if you only tinker with individual sentences. Successful revision involves bringing the strongest ideas to the front of the essay, reordering the main points, and cutting irrelevant sections. It also involves making the argument’s structure visible by strengthening topic sentences and transitions.
- Revision takes time. Avoid shortcuts: the reward for sustained effort is an essay that is clearer, more persuasive, and more sophisticated.
- Think about your purpose in writing: Does your introduction clearly state what you intend to do? Will your aims be clear to your readers?
- Check the organization. Does your paper follow a pattern that makes sense? Doe the transitions move your readers smoothly from one point to the next? Do the topic sentences of each paragraph appropriately introduce what that paragraph is about? Would your paper be work better if you moved some things around?
- Check your information. Are all your facts accurate? How do you know? Are the sources reliable? Did you conduct the CRAAP test? Are any of our statements misleading? Have you provided enough detail to satisfy readers’ curiosity? Have you proven the worth of the evidence in the paper? Have you cited all your information appropriately?
- Revision doesn’t necessarily mean rewriting the whole paper. Sometimes it means revising the thesis to match what you’ve discovered while writing. Sometimes it means coming up with stronger arguments to defend your position or coming up with more vivid examples to illustrate your points. Sometimes it means shifting the order of your paper to help the reader follow your argument, or to change the emphasis of your points. Sometimes it means adding or deleting material for balance or emphasis. And then, sadly, sometimes revision does mean trashing your first draft and starting from scratch. Better that than having the teacher trash your final paper.
Adapted from: https://crk.umn.edu/writing-center/how-revise-drafts
Editing Activities:
Read it out loud, ask someone else to read it out loud, ask word processor/phone to read it out loud: Read your paper out loud, sentence by sentence, and look for places where you stumble or get lost in the middle of a sentence. These are obvious places that need fixing. Look for places where you get distracted or even bored – where you cannot concentrate. These are places where you probably lost focus or concentration in your writing. Cut through the extra words or vagueness or digression: get back to the energy.
Search/Find Feature: For very specific issues like excessive comma usage, misspelling of the same word, forgetting to capitalize something, getting rid of first or second person pronouns.
Proofread for only one kind of error at a time. If you try to identify and revise too many things at once, you risk losing focus, and your proofreading will be less effective. It’s easier to catch grammar errors if you aren’t checking punctuation and spelling at the same time. In addition, some of the techniques that work well for spotting one kind of mistake won’t catch others.
Separate the text into individual sentences. This is another technique to help you to read every sentence carefully. Simply press the return key after every period so that every line begins a new sentence. Then read each sentence separately, looking for grammar, punctuation, or spelling errors. If you’re working with a printed copy, try using an opaque object like a ruler or a piece of paper to isolate the line you’re working on.
Decide which medium lets you proofread most carefully. Some people like to work right at the computer, while others like to sit back with a printed copy that they can mark up as they read.
Change the look of your document. Altering the size, spacing, color, or style of the text may trick your brain into thinking it’s seeing an unfamiliar document, and that can help you get a different perspective on what you’ve written.
If possible, do your editing and proofreading in several short blocks of time. Your concentration may start to wane if you try to proofread the entire text at one time.
Double check everything: proper names, citations, punctuation, page numbers, header/footer material, fonts
Know yourself. Make a list of your most common mistakes and watch out for them.
Twenty of the Most Common Surface Errors
- Wrong Word
- Missing comma after an introductory element
- Incomplete or missing documentation
- Vague pronoun reference
- Spelling (including homonyms)
- Mechanical error with a quotation
- Unnecessary comma
- Unnecessary or missing capitalization
- Missing word
- Faulty sentence structure
- Missing comma with a nonrestrictive element
- Unnecessary shift in verb tense
- Missing comma in a compound sentence
- Unnecessary or missing apostrophe (including its/it’s)
- Fused (run-on) sentence
- Comma splice
- Lack of pronoun-antecedent agreement
- Poorly integrated quotation
- Unnecessary or missing hyphen
- Sentence fragment
Adapted from The St. Martin’s Handbook
