Revising And Editing Your Essay

Revising and Editing Your Essay communicate clearly and concisely, without introducing
confusion?
  
When it comes to revising and editing your essay, it√      Are your sentences varied and
is best to work from your first draft so you areinterestingly structured?
positively satisfied with what you said and how you 
said it.√      Do all your sentences flow smoothly?
  
You can do this by reading aloud and pretending you√      Does your main idea come across with
are the audience. Pay attention, as if you are readingall subsequent sentences making complete sense?
the essay for the first time.  You should be able to 
notice mistakes, trouble with flow, or structural√      Did you use transitions to connect your
disagreements.  As you read, ask yourself: Are allideas?
the parts working effectively to bring home the
thesis?  Will this persuade the reader that my opinionChecklist for Editing Essays
is based on common sense and logic? 
 √      Examine your sentence structure.
Make any improvements or changes that you Does the sentence make sense?  Is it easy to
discover are needed, such as re-wording, developingread?
better explanations, using more appropriate 
vocabulary, and clarifying your viewpoints.√      Is the grammar correct? Are there any
 spelling errors?
Write a second draft, focusing your revision/editing 
attention on the individual paragraphs. Every√      Are capital letters used in the right
paragraph in your essay performs a specific function;place?
examine whether they follow the rules and 
accomplish what you intended. You can refer to the√      Is the punctuation appropriate?
checklists below. 
 √      Are you repeating yourself? Have you
Finally, in your third and last draft, pay particularused the same words and phrases?
attention to sentences, individual phrases, and 
individual words. See if they are complete in thought√      Overall, do the sentences flow
and if they communicate concisely.  When you aresmoothly, or are they choppy, too short or too long?
satisfied that you have exhausted the revision and 
editing process, it is time for your final read-throughSummary
using checklists. 
 It is very important that you allow time for revising
Using Checklistsand editing, otherwise, your paper will not really be
 complete or polished.  It could take several drafts to
Checklists are an important tool in writing and formactually get to that point.
an essential part of quality control.  For your final 
read-through, use the two checklists below, one at aYou may think while writing that all is well and you do
time as separate activities to avoid confusion. Checknot need to revise or edit. However, you will find all
whether you have missed anything.  Focus on thekinds of errors, awkward wordings, repetitions or
revising checklist first as you read your entire essayredundant expressions that will not be noticed until
once. Then finish up while referring to the editingyou revise and edit.  It doesn’t mean that you
checklist on your last read through.are not a good writer--even John Lennon and Paul
    Checklist for Revising EssaysMcCartney of the Beatles revised and edited their
 songs!
√         Do your sentences communicate 
exactly what you intended? If you are writing an in-class essay or final exam
 essay within an assigned time limit, you may think
√      Does every word in your writingyou do not have time to get in all the revising and
count?editing steps.  However, if you practice well
 beforehand, your overall speed will increase so you
√      Did you discard excess baggagewill have extra time left to revise and edit. . You may
words?be surprised at what you can accomplish. 
  
√      Do your support sentencesYou can do it!  The best of success to you!