1. To avoid cumbersome, awkward, or meaningless sentences, scan your paper for “flow.” Similarly, watch out for abrupt transitions: a startling switch of topic; the sudden appearance of a source without introduction or purpose; the quotation that is not fully integrated into your paper (not preceded by an introductory sentence to explain its relevance or followed by analysis, which would explain why you used it to begin with). Reading your paper aloud is still one of the best ways to troubleshoot these problems. Asking a friend to read your paper is also a “tried and true” method of alerting you to trouble spots in your paper. After all, your goal is to make your ideas comprehensible to your readers.
  2. Reader-friendly papers contain a variety of sentence structures; too much repetition can become mind numbing for your reader. We all have our favorite constructions. I tend to write too many introductory prepositional phrases. When I read through what I have written, I look carefully for structural repetition. I revise so that, not only do I vary the structure of my sentences, I tighten them to further clarify my meaning.
  3. Cut excess verbiage. Sometimes students think they will sound more knowledgeable if they use long, complex sentences and esoteric words. In reality, simple, elegant prose communicates your ideas more effectively than the pseudo-language of Scholarese.
  4. Your conclusion should relate directly to your introduction. When I read your papers, the first thing I do is read your first paragraph. Then I turn to your last paragraph. Do you restate your thesis? Does the last paragraph reach a relatively satisfying conclusion? Have you remained on topic, or have you written toward your thesis but not taken the time to revise (see #’s 2 and 3 above)? If your first and last paragraphs do not coordinate, your paper will look like a rough draft. If you have written toward your thesis, place that thesis in your introduction, make any changes to that introduction, and revise the body of your paper accordingly. If you do, you will discover that you have even more to say about your topic, and what you thought was the pinnacle of achievement (your original conclusion) was really a starting point.
  5. Copy-editing and deep revision are not the same thing. Revision involves making the kind of changes I described in #4 above. Formal papers require both kinds of changes: the deep revision that can lead to structural change, and copy-editing, which is more cosmetic but still contributes to overall clarity.

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