WIC Survival Guide Chapter 8B: Revising your Draft

Revision is a chance to re-work your paper at the major levels such as structure, content, and organization. Revision is not the same as editing or proofreading. Do your editing and proofreading after you have considered more global changes (such as structure, content, and organization).

Questions to ask yourself as you revise:

A Fresh Eye

Can I wait at least 24 hours between finishing my draft and going back to revise it?

 

Read through your paper several times, each time focusing on one of these areas:

Focus

Can a reader easily identify my “thesis statement?”

Do my thesis, paragraphs, and topic sentences all work together and deal with the same topic?

Do I avoid tangential information that might throw the reader off track?

Content/Development

Have I included all the parts or sections required by the assignment?

Have I used examples, quotes, facts, figures, tables, or other supporting material to document and reinforce the main points in my paper?

Have I properly documented all information borrowed from sources?

Organization

Have I followed the organization articulated in the assignment? Does each part of the paper flow logically from the preceding part?

Have I used transitional words and phrases to guide the reader paragraph-by-paragraph and section-by-section?

Tone

Is the tone appropriate for my intended audience, neither too formal or informal? Is the tone consistent throughout the paper?

Format

Have I followed the paper format specified in the assignment instructions?

Is the format I've chosen compatible with the genre and content of my paper?