Revising your Paper
The notion of "revision" is tied to the word's
very meaning, and that is to see again, to take a fresh
look at something. This stage of the writing process is
most often skipped over or rushed through in the interest
of completing the paper and turning it in. The life of
an undergraduate is a busy one, and whether you are the
kind of person who can only allot a certain amount of
time for a given assignment, or prefer to put the assignment
off until hours before it is due, it is important to allow
yourself a sufficient amount of time to proofread and
revise your paper before you turn it in. The rewards
are a stronger paper, a more interesting and coherent
paper, and possibly a higher grade.
Depending on how much time you have to spend
revising your paper, following these points will help strengthen
your final product. Remember, the more time you can allot
yourself for this activity and the more steps you can go
through, the better the paper can be.
If you have minutes
to an hour before turning in the paper . . .
Slowly read the paper through out loud making sure sentences
make sense and flow together smoothly. Reading the paper
out loud will make errors and incorrect word usages more
obvious to you. When reading, pay careful attention to
spelling, remember that your computer's spell check does
not pick up everything and you may have used the wrong
word in a given instance. Print out your paper and mark
any errors you see with a pen, correct them on the screen
before printing out your final clean copy. It is often
easier to read a hard copy of a paper than one on a computer
screen.
If you have a
few hours to spend revising . . .
Print out the paper and read it aloud backwards. Begin
with the last sentence and read each sentence which comes
before it. This way you can isolate each sentence and
find grammatical mistakes on a sentence level. After rereading
the paper, highlight your thesis statement and where in
your paragraphs you have your major support sentences
for that thesis. Ask yourself if you have sufficient examples
and proof supporting your various statements. Be sure
your important sentences are at the tops of paragraphs
and not buried within them; be sure your thesis statement
is present and clearly stated. Feel free to move sentences
and paragraphs to better organize your paper, computers
make this easy. Outline the paper you have written and
be sure it is organized in a clear way. Again, move ideas
and paragraphs, or cut them altogether if they don't work
the way you want them to.
If you have a
day or more to revise . . .
Ask a friend, your instructor, or a writing consultant
to read your paper and let you know what does not make
sense to them. Often, what makes sense to you in your
paper may not be clear to someone who has not been involved
with your topic like you have. This will insure you paper
is clear to everyone who reads it. Put the paper in a
drawer for a few hours, a day, or as long as you can allow.
Often, letting time pass puts some distance between you
and your paper and helps you have a fresh pair of eyes
when reading it again. Things which once made sense might
seem less clear after time, highlighting what aspects
need to be reworked.
By allowing yourself more time after you finish
you paper for revisions, you might realize that you need
to make major changes to your thesis statement, or find
a new topic altogether because this one did not work. The
more time you have to rework the paper before handing it
in, the better paper it will be for it.
