Tutorama: Week Three: Revision I

Introduction: Seven steps for revising your paper
After you write your first draft, your instructor will ask you to revise your paper into a final draft using peer review feedback. Revision is more than polishing the rough spots. Often students spend more time working on the final draft than they did writing the rough draft. Your thinking will change substantially as you go through the process of writing your paper and discussing your ideas in class. Here are seven steps for you to follow as you revise your paper.

Getting Started

Step 1: Review your work so far. Re-read your paper. Then reread your class notes, instructor comments for the class, writing handouts, and peer review comments. Finally, look again at the assignment. Then on a separate sheet of paper, write a checklist of things you need to do to improve the paper. (Hint: Instructors will sometimes provide a list of "writing goals" in their assignments. Handouts on specific strategies—creating a project, making connections—can provide good clues to what the instructor is looking for in your final draft. See the "Sample Checklist for Revision" below.)

Step 2: On a separate sheet of paper, write down the main points and connections that you want to make in your final draft. Then write an outline of the ideas in the order you want to present them in your paper.

Step 3: Read your rough draft again. As you read, compare the draft to the list of ideas you've written. Underline or highlight sentences that convey the ideas on the list, and write the number of the idea next to the sentences you've indicated. If you go through a paragraph without underlining anything, it usually means that you won't need that paragraph in your final draft. If there's an item on your list that doesn't correspond to anything in your rough draft, you will have to write a brand new paragraph to convey that idea.

Writing

Step 4: Create a new document on your computer or take out a blank piece of paper to begin writing your final draft. Starting with a blank page helps you remember that you are writing a new draft, even if you copy parts of your first draft onto it.

Step 5: Re-write your paper paragraph by paragraph. Take each idea from your list and build a paragraph around it. Begin with the idea you feel most comfortable writing about—you don't have to begin with the introduction. Cut and paste sections of your first draft that are still useful. Create new paragraphs around the ideas you wrote on your list that didn't appear in your rough draft.

Polishing your paper

Step 6: Return to the checklist for revision you made in Step 1. Focus on the first item on your checklist. Then reread your paper to make sure that you have accomplished that goal throughout your paper. Repeat the process for each item, adding to and changing your paper where necessary.

Step 7: Proofread your paper. While computer spell- and grammar-check systems are useful, they can't catch all errors. Read your paper out loud to yourself to catch any spelling or grammar mistakes like fused sentences or sentence fragments. You can also use this final reading to clarify complex ideas.

Sample Checklist For Revision

• Do I have a clear statement of project?

• Do I introduce and define the key terms that are important to my project?

• Do I provide quotations from the text that further my project?

• Does each paragraph focus on one distinct part of the project?

• Is it clear how every paragraph contributes to the overall project?

• Do I make connections between the essays within some paragraphs? Do I use the writers' ideas together within the same sentence?

• Do I have an introduction and a conclusion?

Conclusion
Thoroughly revising your paper means writing a new draft that reflects how your thinking about the topic has changed. Using the process outlined above will keep you focused on your ideas and help you present them clearly to your audience.

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