There are 6 steps to the AFOSEP* revising and editing process. Research on student writing indicates that most of the errors in college essays are related to careless editing. Revising, Editing, and Proofreading Overview Successful writers use a writing process. Revising and Editing Your Writing . Revision is about seeing your writing again. You may need to make changes to content and organization. Do the content and organization fit the assignment instructions? Then consider the key questions for Support. Reread the instructions and your paper. Revising improves the quality of your academic writing. This takes away the flow as you read your essay, will slow you down, and can give you an opportunity to see each sentence on its own. Does each section of the paper clearly link to the thesis or focus of the paper? In case the paper hasn’t done so, you need to either revise your purpose, or revise the paper so that it addresses the purpose. Are there language errors that make meaning unclear? Word usage is also a common problem to catch in editing. During revising, you add, cut, move, … You may need to cut out information that doesn’t relate to your thesis or focus. A thorough editing process is one that involves several editing passes. When you edit, you find opportunities to develop your work further, and you find problems to correct. Too often, students think that they can edit well with one pass or count on a grammar checker to “fix” everything, but to be a good editor, you should read over your essay many times yourself, each time focusing on a different issue. Revising is about your content while editing is about sentence-level issues and typos. When you edit, you find opportunities to develop your work further, and you find problems to correct. While this may seem straightforward, it is very possible for goals to change during the writing process. Then, with those guidelines fresh in your mind, edit your essay, just paying attention to your use of commas. List your most common types of errors. As you see, these basic revision questions concern themselves with the amount, clarity, and order of information. Spelling errors are often caught by spellcheck, but do not trust this tool to catch everything. Revising is an important step in the writing process, because it enables you to look at your writing more objectively, from a reader’s view. During revision, take the following steps: 1. Read through the paper looking for each error type. A frequent teacher comment in marked papers is “Explain!” or “Develop!”. After identifying the focus of the paper, read the paper over considering whether each idea is related to the focus. After you review your draft at each step, make any changes to your paper before moving on to the next. A password reset link will be sent to you by email. With that in mind, it’s important to take steps to ensure you are engaging in a good editing process. While editing is also very important, revision is an integral part of any good writing process. Are there sentences that could be worded more effectively? When you revise, it’s particularly important to keep your target audience in mind. Once you have your content the way you want it and have completed your revisions, it’s time to think about editing your paper. A good editing practice also involves spending extra time on the issues you may have had trouble with in the past. Reconsider the order of ideas. Revising isn’t the first step in the process of writing a research paper, but it is perhaps the most important. The most common reason students lose marks is not following instructions! Please give us your feedback! A good strategy for doing this is to make a simple outline from the paper. Does each paragraph have a topic sentence? Another helpful strategy is to read your essay in reverse, starting with your last sentence and going from there. During revision, you should try to see your work from different perspectives and different angles. Many students skip the revision process, mistaking editing for revision. Is each topic sentence supported by main supporting points and evidence? Are there detail errors in citations/bibliography. Once you deal with the big things (amount and order of information), then you can move to the small things—the language, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. In this process, you are going to look for the details that may have slipped by you during the writing process. Is there sufficient specific evidence (e.g. Then, underline the specific evidence for each point. And, when you edit, it’s important to realize that it’s difficult to catch all of these errors in one editing pass. Identify the thesis and the topic sentences. Is each section of the paper clearly linked to the section before it? Add any missing links. You shouldn’t begin editing until you feel confident in your revisions. When you edit, you should check for things like grammatical errors, punctuation errors, spelling, and issues related to documentation. Please give us your feedback! Revising improves the quality of your academic writing. If your paper is persuasive, then your paper will likely also have a main claim… Handouts produced by the Learning Centre are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License unless indicated otherwise. It’s best to allow some time between drafting and revision. Revising and editing are the stages of the writing process in which you improve your work before producing a final draft. * Adapted with permission from a rubric developed at the Washington State University Writing Center. Does the paper explain the evidence and link it back to the point being supported? If you are writing an essay, is the focus stated in a thesis statement with the qualities of a good thesis? Editing your paper happens once you have a draft you are confident in as a whole. Creative Commons Attribution-4.0 International License. Are sources of information credible and documented? Is there any information in the paper which is not clearly related to the focus? A password reset link will be sent to you by email. Consider removing parts that do not directly relate to the focus. Does the paper have an introduction, body and conclusion (as required in the instructions)? Read the paper aloud, slowly, to yourself. Research on student writing indicates that most of the errors in college essays are related to careless editing. It’s important to remember to allow yourself time to complete both parts of this process carefully. Revision is about making big changes to your writing to improve flow, development, and focus. https://guides.douglascollege.ca/writingprocess, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Is the main focus of the paper stated clearly? There are 6 steps to the AFOSEP* revising and editing process. With that in mind, it’s important to take steps to ensure you are engaging in a good editing process. Put a star beside the explanation of the evidence that links it back to the topic sentence. Go through all citations checking order of information, capitalization, spacing and punctuation with the style guide. Revising isn’t the first step in the process of writing a research paper, but it is perhaps the most important. Analyze any part that sounds awkward or causes you to stumble while reading. Enter the username or e-mail you used in your profile. Confirming Purpose and Main Claim: The first step in the revision process is to confirm that the draft actually serves the purpose outlined in the introduction. A thorough editing process is one that involves several editing passes. Many students often try to lump revising and editing into one, but they are really two separate activities. This handout suggests an approach you can use to maximize the improvement to your paper. Set your writing aside for a time. Are there mistakes in sentence structure or punctuation? Creative Commons Attribution-4.0 International License. Editing is about making changes to your sentences and surface features in your research paper. Then go back to it and work from big to small as you ask and answer revising questions. If you can take a break from your writing and come back to it a few days or even a week later, you’re more likely to be able to see where you need to revise. Are there language errors that make it difficult for the reader to understand? For example, if you know you have trouble with commas, you might review the guidelines on the comma in the Grammar Essentials area of the Excelsior OWL. Grammar checkers are helpful tools, but they miss a lot, as you’ll see in the See It in Practice video. When you edit, you are looking for issues with sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc. You may have to go back to the research stage of your process to find more information. Look for the links between ideas. examples, statistics, description, quotations) for each point? Listen to the wording. While editing is also very important, revision is an integral part of any good writing process. Once you feel your content is where you need it to be, it’s time to begin a thorough editing process. Check your page setup. You might then make another pass, just looking to make sure your in-text citations are correct. During revision, you should try to see your work from different perspectives and different angles. Many students skip the revision process, mistaking editing for revision. Are there mistakes in grammar or word choice? Mark up each body paragraph by circling each topic sentence and supporting point. (unity). Consider mistakes you commonly make. This handout suggests an approach you can use to maximize the improvement to your paper. This process consists of revising, editing, and proofreading to create writing that is clear, organized, and effective. Revisit the assignment instructions concerning the required format. That’s what the revision process is all about—making sure that your concepts and supporting information are presented in the clearest, most logical way for most readers to understand. Enter the username or e-mail you used in your profile. Are there any gaps or errors in logic which cause the support to be less than convincing? Helpful tools, but they are really two separate activities to take steps to you... 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