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ISN'T SPELLCHECKING ENOUGH?

Of course not.

Revising is not a quick check for spelling and grammar mistakes, it is a long, hard look at the substance and organization of your essay to check the logic, development and unity of your ideas, and the order and coherence of your paragraphs. It is one of the most painful processes in writing -- after all, who wants to look at their own work? -- but, after the development of a strong thesis, it is the single most important process in good writing.

Writing after the first draft is done is a two-part process: first you revise globally and then edit locally. Global revision means looking at the big picture items: the main idea of the paper, the organization, and the development of the thesis. Local editing comes after this, and consists of correcting your writing for sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, etc. (When you are ready for this step, click to the Editing Your Paper for Mechanics page.) But editing cannot take the place of thorough revision.

STEPS IN THE REVISION PROCESS

1. Reread and Rethink

   First, if possible, set the draft aside for a day or at least a few hours (if you don't have time to do this, remember to start earlier next time!) Any amount of time can be helpful though -- you just want to return to it with a fresh brain.

   • Read your paper out loud to yourself. This is a good way to hear problems that you cannot see.
   • Have a friend read your paper (to him or herself, or out loud to you). Another pair of eyes will be able to tell you if things make sense. If you can persuade your friend to read it out loud to you, you can concentrate on the logic and organization without getting distracted by visual errors.
2. Check Thesis Statement and Purpose

   To check the validity and presentation of your thesis, ask the following questions:

   • Can you summarize, in one sentence, the main point of this paper? (No fair reading your thesis straight from the paper).
   • Is the main idea clear from the introduction? In most college papers, this should occur in the first two, at the most three, paragraphs.
   • Does this thesis respond to the requirements of the paper assignment? Your original purpose sometimes gets lost in the course of writing.
3. Check Organization and Paragraphs

   The order in which your ideas are presented are crucial in making an understandable point that will persuade your reader. Ideas are organized on two levels: in the paper as a whole and in the individual paragraphs.

   A.  First, think about your overall organization:
   

   • Re-outlining is an extremely useful revision tool. On a separate piece of paper, write down the main idea or topic of each paragraph, in order. Even if you made an outline before you started writing, make another one now based on your actual work. You may be surprised at the order in which your thoughts got down on paper. Start rearranging things to make the presentation of the ideas more logical (see the Writing Across Disciplines or the Organization and Paragraphing pages for suggestions about how different papers might be organized). Ask yourself these questions:
     1. Does the paper move from one major point to another in a logical and connected way?
     2. Does each paragraph do something to explain, support or argue the thesis? Do some paragraphs need to be developed further, or some eliminated that go off on interesting but unrelated tangents?
     3. Based on the re-outline, by the end of the paper could a reader understand thoroughly the point that the paper is supposed to make?

   B.  Now, move to a close look at the paragraphs:
   

   • Without looking at the contents of each paragraph, skim the paper to see if any paragraphs are unusually long or short. Sometimes paragraphs need to be quite long when you are explaining things, and quite short when you are making a rhetorical or emphatic point (e.g., "Then, I quit."). But watch out for places where you might be either crowding too much information into one paragraph or where you have scanty, undeveloped material.
   • Return to your re-outline. Which paragraphs caused you difficulty when trying to determine their central ideas? Read these carefully to see if you are trying to discuss more than one idea or point at at time that might require splitting up. Or, see if the order of the sentences in the paragraph jumps back and forth rather than presenting an orderly explanation or development of the central idea.
   • Look at a random paragraph on each page. Does each of those paragraphs deliver enough information and the appropriate information to make the point of that paragraph, based on your re-outline? Is all the information relevant? Does some need to be moved, developed into a separate paragraph, or omitted?
   • Look at the terms and words that connect your paragraphs. Are you providing transitions that indicate when you are shifting ideas, focusing on a detail in greater depth, or returning to an earlier point? Sometimes, especially in a longer paper, a whole paragraph can also serve as a transitional mechanism from one idea to another.

   C.  Re-outline once again to check your revised structure. You are aiming for a paper that presents logical, well-developed ideas in a clearly argued structure. If you are not satisfied with it at this point repeat these steps with your new draft.

Now that you have considered the big picture of your paper, you are ready to move on to the local editing step; click to Editing Your Paper for Mechanics.

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Copyright 1998 © Margaret Oakes
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