Transcript Document

REVISING AND EDITING
Lecturer:
Email:
Office:
Linda Te
[email protected]
Faculty Area
Revision
• Revision means “to see again” (a FRESH
perspective)
– Rethink your paper
– Reorganize your thoughts
• Check:
– Are your ideas clear?
– Is your thesis statement strong?
– Is your essay organized?
Why Revise?
• You don’t always produce your best work the
first time
• Look critically at what you have written to
see
– if it’s really worth saying
– if it says what you wanted to say
– if a reader will understand what you’re saying
Steps of Revising
• WAIT a while after you’ve finished a draft before
looking at it again.
• Focus on large issues in the paper (the IDEAS), and
ignore spelling, punctuation, etc.
• Check the FOCUS of the paper
– Is it appropriate to the assignment?
– Is the topic too big or too narrow?
– Do you stay on track through the entire paper?
• If you read only your THESIS STATEMENT, would you
know what the paper was about?
• Does the introduction grab attention?
Steps of Revising
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Is the essay focused on the HOW part?
Do you stick to the ideas of your THESIS?
Check the organization:
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Does your paper follow a pattern that makes sense?
Do the transitions move your readers smoothly from one point to the next?
Do the topic sentences of each paragraph introduce what that paragraph is about?
Would your paper work better if you moved some things around?
Check your information:
– Are all your facts accurate?
– Have you provided enough detail to explain the concepts?
– Have you cited all your information appropriately?
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Check your conclusion:
– Does the last paragraph tie the paper together smoothly and end on a stimulating note?
– Does it feel like the paper just dies abruptly?
Take the Time
• Look on it with fresh eyes
• Something that sounded brilliant the first
time might sound like nonsense when you
read it again.
Other tips
• Print out a copy to read; it’s easier on the
eyes.
– Problems somehow show up better on paper.
• Read the paper out loud to see how well
things flow.
– Read from the beginning of the sentence and
don’t stop until you reach a full stop. If it feels
too long, you probably have a run-on sentence.
• Focus on one paragraph at a time.
Concerns
• When I revise, I make it worse.
– The most expert writers know revising is
necessary. Hemingway rewrote the last page of A
Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times.
– Reread an old paper; you’ll find something you
wish you had changed.
• But I love what I wrote.
– Good writers are able to let go.
• Confusing
• Irrelevant
Write Lively Sentences
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Use forceful verbs—replace long verb phrases with a more specific verb.
– “She argues for the importance of the idea”
– “She defends the idea.”
Don’t use the same phrases repeatedly, especially two sentences in a row
– Planning your budget is an important step to building a house. Also, applying for a
loan is an important step to building a house.
Limit prepositional phrases
– “There are several examples of the issue of integrity in Huck Finn,”
– “Huck Finn repeatedly addresses the issue of integrity.”
Check your sentence variety.
– It is important to not overspend your budget. It is important to consider the extra
costs.
Use a thesaurus (along with a dictionary) to search for the word that says exactly what you
want to say.
Look for sentences that start with “It is” or “There are” and revise them
– There are many people who want to live in a house
– For many people, living in a house may be a personal goal.
Editing and Proofreading
• Get some distance from the text!
• Try changing the look of your document.
– Altering the size, spacing, color, or style of the text
may trick your brain into thinking it’s seeing a new
document
• Find a quiet place to work where you can
concentrate and avoid distractions.
• If possible, do your editing and proofreading in
several short blocks of time, rather than all at
once
– otherwise, your concentration is likely to wane.
Editing
Content
• Have you done everything the assignment
requires?
• Have you supported each point with
adequate evidence?
• Is all of the information in your paper
relevant to the assignment?
Editing
Overall structure
• Does your paper have an appropriate
introduction and conclusion?
• Is your thesis clearly stated in your
introduction?
• Is it clear how each paragraph in the body of
your paper is related to your thesis?
• Are the paragraphs arranged in a logical
sequence?
Editing
Paragraph Structure
• Does each paragraph have a clear topic
sentence?
• Does each paragraph stick to one main idea?
• Are there any extra or missing sentences in
any of your paragraphs?
Editing
Clarity
• Have you defined any important terms that might be
unclear to your reader?
• Is the meaning of each sentence clear?
– Read each sentence one at a time
• Is it clear what each pronoun (he, she, it, they, which,
who, this, etc.) refers to?
• Have you chosen the proper words to express your
ideas?
– Avoid using words you find in the thesaurus that aren’t
part of your normal vocabulary; you may misuse them.
Editing
Style
• Have you used an appropriate tone?
– Formal
– NEVER use: gonna, wanna, ALOT
• Is your use of gendered language appropriate?
– masculine and feminine pronouns like “he” or “she”
– words like “fireman” that contain “man”
• Have you varied the length and structure of your
sentences?
• Does your writing contain a lot of unnecessary phrases
like “there is,” “there are,” “due to the fact that,” etc.?
• Do you repeat a word unnecessarily?
Editing
Citations
• Have you appropriately cited quotes,
paraphrases, and ideas you got from sources?
• Are your citations in the correct format?
– Chicago style!
Proofreading
The Technical Stuff
• Don’t rely entirely on spelling checkers.
– Your, You’re
– Their, There, They’re
– To, too, two
• Don’t rely entirely on grammar checkers.
– Can’t identify every error and often make mistakes.
– Help identify potential run-on sentences or too-frequent use
of the passive voice, but you need to evaluate.
• Proofread for only one kind of error at a time.
– Punctuation
– Spelling
– Capitalization
Proofreading
• Read slowly, and read every word.
– Try reading out loud
• forces you to say each word
• lets you hear how the words sound together.
– When you read silently or too quickly, you may skip over errors or make
unconscious corrections.
• Separate the text into individual sentences.
– Read each sentence separately, looking for grammar, punctuation, or spelling
errors.
• Circle every punctuation mark.
– This forces you to look at each one.
– Ask yourself if the punctuation is correct.
• Read the paper backwards.
– This technique is helpful for checking spelling.
• If it seems wrong, but you’re not sure, look it up
Essay Structure
Today…
• Pass your essay to get revised/ edited/
proofread
• Continue working on your essay
• Come back at 12:15 to tell me what you got
done
• Attendance
That’s it for Today!
• Questions/Comments/Concerns?
• Next Week: Final day to work on essay