• what steps did you follow to revise and edit your argument?
Rewriting is the essence of writing well—where the game is won or lost.
—William Zinsser
What this handout is about
This handout will motivate you to revise your drafts and give you strategies to revise finer.
What does it mean to revise?
Revision literally ways to "come across once more," to look at something from a fresh, critical perspective. It is an ongoing procedure of rethinking the paper: reconsidering your arguments, reviewing your evidence, refining your purpose, reorganizing your presentation, reviving dried prose.
Just I thought revision was just fixing the commas and spelling
Nope. That's chosen proofreading. It's an of import step earlier turning your paper in, just if your ideas are predictable, your thesis is weak, and your organization is a mess, then proofreading volition just exist putting a band-assistance on a bullet wound. When y'all finish revising, that's the time to proofread. For more data on the subject, see our handout on proofreading.
How nigh if I just reword things: await for better words, avoid repetition, etc.? Is that revision?
Well, that'southward a part of revision chosen editing. It's another important final footstep in polishing your piece of work. But if y'all haven't thought through your ideas, then rephrasing them won't make whatsoever deviation.
Why is revision important?
Writing is a process of discovery, and you don't always produce your best stuff when you first get started. So revision is a adventure for yous to look critically at what you have written to see:
- if it'southward really worth proverb,
- if it says what you wanted to say, and
- if a reader will sympathize what you're saying.
The process
What steps should I use when I begin to revise?
Here are several things to exercise. But don't try them all at one time. Instead, focus on 2 or three primary areas during each revision session:
- Wait awhile afterwards you've finished a draft before looking at it again. The Roman poet Horace thought one should wait nine years, but that'due south a bit much. A mean solar day—a few hours even—will work. When you practise return to the draft, be honest with yourself, and don't exist lazy. Ask yourself what yous really think about the newspaper.
- As The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers puts information technology, "Call up BIG, don't tinker" (61). At this stage, you should exist concerned with the large issues in the paper, not the commas.
- Check the focus of the paper: Is information technology appropriate to the consignment? Is the topic too big or too narrow? Do you stay on track through the entire paper?
- Think honestly well-nigh your thesis: Do you lot still concord with information technology? Should information technology exist modified in light of something you discovered as yous 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 inverse birthday? For more information visit our handout on thesis statements.
- Remember about your purpose in writing: Does your introduction land clearly what you intend to do? Will your aims be clear to your readers?
What are some other steps I should consider in later stages of the revision process?
- Examine the balance within your paper: Are some parts out of proportion with others? Do you spend besides much time on 1 petty point and neglect a more important signal? Do you requite lots of item early on on and so let your points go thinner by the stop?
- Bank check that you accept kept your promises to your readers: Does your paper follow through on what the thesis promises? Practice yous support all the claims in your thesis? Are the tone and formality of the linguistic communication appropriate for your audition?
- Bank check the organisation: Does your newspaper follow a design that makes sense? Practice the transitions move your readers smoothly from i bespeak to the next? Do the topic sentences of each paragraph appropriately introduce what that paragraph is about? Would your paper work better if you moved some things around? For more than information visit our handout on reorganizing drafts.
- Check your information: Are all your facts accurate? Are whatever of your statements misleading? Have you lot provided enough particular to satisfy readers' curiosity? Accept you cited all your information accordingly?
- Check your conclusion: Does the last paragraph tie the newspaper together smoothly and cease on a stimulating note, or does the paper just die a slow, redundant, lame, or abrupt death?
Whoa! I thought I could just revise in a few minutes
Sorry. You may want to start working on your side by side paper early and then that you take plenty of time for revising. That way y'all can give yourself some fourth dimension to come back to expect at what you've written with a fresh pair of eyes. Information technology's amazing how something that sounded vivid the moment you wrote it can testify to be less-than-brilliant when you requite it a chance to incubate.
Only I don't want to rewrite my whole newspaper!
Revision doesn't necessarily mean rewriting the whole newspaper. Sometimes it ways revising the thesis to match what you've discovered while writing. Sometimes it means coming upwardly with stronger arguments to defend your position, or coming up with more vivid examples to illustrate your points. Sometimes it means shifting the society of your paper to help the reader follow your argument, or to change the emphasis of your points. Sometimes information technology means calculation or deleting material for balance or accent. And and then, sadly, sometimes revision does hateful trashing your first typhoon and starting from scratch. Better that than having the instructor trash your final newspaper.
Just I work so hard on what I write that I tin can't afford to throw whatsoever of it away
If yous desire to exist a polished writer, then yous will eventually find out that y'all can't afford Not to throw stuff away. As writers, we often produce lots of textile that needs to be tossed. The idea or metaphor or paragraph that I think is virtually wonderful and bright is ofttimes the very thing that confuses my reader or ruins the tone of my piece or interrupts the flow of my argument.Writers must exist willing to cede their favorite bits of writing for the good of the slice as a whole. In club to trim things down, though, y'all showtime have to take plenty of cloth on the page. One trick is not to hinder yourself while you are composing the offset draft because the more than you produce, the more than you will have to work with when cutting time comes.
But sometimes I revise as I go
That's OK. Since writing is a round process, you don't do everything in some specific society. Sometimes you write something and then tinker with it before moving on. But exist warned: there are 2 potential problems with revising as you get. I is that if you lot revise merely as yous proceed, you never get to remember of the big movie. The key is still to requite yourself enough time to look at the essay as a whole one time you've finished. Another danger to revising as you go is that you may short-circuit your creativity. If you spend too much time tinkering with what is on the folio, you lot may lose some of what hasn't yet made it to the page. Hither'south a tip: Don't proofread as you lot become. You may waste time correcting the commas in a sentence that may end up being cutting anyway.
How do I go about the process of revising? Any tips?
- Piece of work from a printed copy; information technology's easier on the eyes. Likewise, problems that seem invisible on the screen somehow tend to prove up improve on paper.
- Another tip is to read the paper out loud. That's ane way to run across how well things flow.
- Retrieve all those questions listed above? Don't try to tackle all of them in one typhoon. Pick a few "agendas" for each draft so that y'all won't go mad trying to meet, all at once, if you lot've done everything.
- Ask lots of questions and don't blanch from answering them truthfully. For example, ask if at that place are opposing viewpoints that you haven't considered yet.
Concerns
Whenever I revise, I only brand things worse. I exercise my all-time work without revising
That's a common misconception that sometimes arises from fear, sometimes from laziness. The truth is, though, that except for those rare moments of inspiration or genius when the perfect ideas expressed in the perfect words in the perfect order menstruation gracefully and effortlessly from the mind, all experienced writers revise their piece of work. I wrote six drafts of this handout. Hemingway rewrote the last page of A Bye to Artillery 30-ix times. If you lot're still not convinced, re-read some of your erstwhile papers. How practice they audio now? What would you revise if yous had a chance?
What can arrive the mode of expert revision strategies?
Don't fall in love with what you have written. If you do, yous will be hesitant to alter it fifty-fifty if yous know information technology'south non great. Start out with a working thesis, and don't act like yous're married to it. Instead, act like you're dating information technology, seeing if you're compatible, finding out what information technology's like from 24-hour interval to solar day. If a ameliorate thesis comes forth, let go of the old one. Likewise, don't think of revision as just rewording. It is a hazard to look at the unabridged newspaper, not but isolated words and sentences.
What happens if I find that I no longer agree with my ain indicate?
If you lot have revision seriously, sometimes the process volition lead you lot to questions you cannot respond, objections or exceptions to your thesis, cases that don't fit, loose ends or contradictions that only won't go away. If this happens (and it will if you think long enough), then you have several choices. You could choose to ignore the loose ends and promise your reader doesn't notice them, but that'south risky. You could alter your thesis completely to fit your new understanding of the issue, or you could adjust your thesis slightly to suit the new ideas. Or you lot could simply acknowledge the contradictions and evidence why your main indicate all the same holds up in spite of them. Most readers know there are no piece of cake answers, and then they may exist bellyaching if you lot give them a thesis and try to claim that it is always true with no exceptions no matter what.
How exercise I get actually expert at revising?
The same way you lot get really skillful at golf, piano, or a video game—do information technology oft. Take revision seriously, be disciplined, and set high standards for yourself. Here are three more tips:
- The more y'all produce, the more than you can cut.
- The more than you can imagine yourself as a reader looking at this for the first time, the easier it will be to spot potential problems.
- The more you lot demand of yourself in terms of clarity and elegance, the more clear and elegant your writing will be.
How do I revise at the sentence level?
Read your paper out loud, judgement by sentence, and follow Peter Elbow'south communication: "Look for places where you stumble or get lost in the middle of a judgement. These are obvious awkwardness'southward that demand fixing. Expect for places where you go distracted or fifty-fifty bored—where yous 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. Heed even for the tiniest jerk or stumble in your reading, the tiniest lessening of your energy or focus or concentration as you say the words . . . A judgement should be live" (Writing with Power 135).
Applied advice for ensuring that your sentences are alive:
- Use forceful verbs—replace long verb phrases with a more specific verb. For example, supercede "She argues for the importance of the idea" with "She defends the idea."
- Await for places where y'all've used the same word or phrase twice or more in consecutive sentences and look for alternative ways to say the same thing OR for ways to combine the two sentences.
- Cut equally many prepositional phrases as you can without losing your pregnant. For case, the following judgement, "There are several examples of the issue of integrity in Huck Finn," would exist much better this way, "Huck Finn repeatedly addresses the issue of integrity."
- Cheque your sentence variety. If more than two sentences in a row beginning the aforementioned way (with a subject followed by a verb, for case), then effort using a dissimilar sentence pattern.
- Aim for precision in word choice. Don't settle for the best word you can think of at the moment—use a thesaurus (along with a dictionary) to search for the word that says exactly what you lot want to say.
- Look for sentences that start with "Information technology is" or "There are" and see if you tin can revise them to be more active and engaging.
- For more information, please visit our handouts on word pick and style.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License.johnsongoverrestat.blogspot.com
Source: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/revising-drafts/
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