A word to the wise! This step often makes the difference between an “A” paper and a “C” paper. Don’t skip this step!
Look at your paper with fresh eyes!
Give yourself as much distance as you can from what you wrote. Let it sit for a day or two. If you're pressed for time, let it sit overnight and get up early the next morning to revise and edit. At the very least, leave it for an hour or two before you look at it again.
Peer Editing
It also helps to have someone else look at your paper with you. Another person can often pick up mistakes you might miss. Possible peer editors include:
- a parent
- an older sibling
- a friend
- a classmate
- a teacher
- a tutor
Revision = Checking the Paper’s Content
Read the paper as if you've never seen it before. Ask yourself the following:
- Is there a clear thesis statement!
- Are the main ideas mentioned in the introduction paragraph!
- Are there ideas that don't make sense?
- Are ideas presented in a logical order!
- Is each paragraph about one main idea!
- Are all main ideas supported by facts or examples!
- Does each paragraph relate to the paper's main idea? And does each paragraph clearly prove the main idea?
- Are all the facts correct!
- Is all information that isn't your own cited with parenthetical citations? Do your parenthetical citations match with your Works Cited list?
- Does each paragraph contain a clear transition to guide the reader from one idea to the next?
To check organization quickly: Read only the introduction and topic sentence of each paragraph. You should be able to do this and still follow the paper's main argument.
When Revising, Don’t Be Afraid to Operate!
Cut: Cut out the parts that don't support your main idea: Sometimes in the heat of writing the first draft, writers go off on a tangent or they include unnecessary information. Good writers know to cut this from the final draft. If you're not sure whether you want to keep a section, cut it, paste it to a separate page, and see if your paper still makes sense without it.
Avoid Redundancy: Check to make sure you're not saying the same thing twice. Cut out places that give the same idea with different words.
Add: Are there unsupported main ideas? Jumps in logic? You might need to add information! Beef up those weak areas by adding clarification, transitions, or examples.
Cut and Paste: Do ideas seem to jump around'? Do paragraphs start out being about one thing, but end up being about another? Does that great idea introduced in the second paragraph have an example in the fourth paragraph'? Use those cut and paste word processing features. Put ideas that are about the same topic together in the same paragraph. Organize your ideas so that they go in chronological order, build on each other, or follow some other form of logic.
Editing = Checking for Mechanical Errors
You should edit after you've revised. This prevents having to edit parts you later cut or missing mistakes in parts you've added. When you edit, check that spelling, punctuation and grammar are correct. Use the editing checklist below to check for common errors:
- Check spellings of "there," "they're," and "their."
- Check spellings of 'your" and "you're." (Many teachers will want you to avoid using "you," anyway).
- Check spellings of the names of characters, historical figures, authors, etc.
- Check for incorrect subject- verb or number agreement (using "they" with "is," etc.).
- Make sure all your sentences are complete -they should each have a subject and a verb.
- Make sure you've used commas correctly.
- Make sure your paragraphs are indented.
- Make sure your Works Cited List is formatted correctly and alphabetized by the first word of each entry (other than "the" or "a"). Entries shouldn't have numbers or bullet points.
Ways to Do Well at Revision and Editing
- Get help. Have a parent, friend, teacher, or classmate look at your paper. Often a different person will see the things you've missed.
- Read your paper out loud, even if you're reading it by yourself. Hearing what you read will help you catch some grammatical errors, as well as problems with the "flow" of your writing.
- Look for grammatical errors by looking at each sentence separately. Start with the last sentence of your paper and go up toward the beginning.
- Read your paper several times, checking separately for idea development, organization, grammar and formatting.