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Twelve Steps to giving up stress over revising & editing papers |
Here’s the deal: Start large and get small. Why would you want to
edit punctuation before you know what sentences you want to cut? It is a
big waste of time. So, work out what stays and what needs to go first,
then pull out your handbook and dictionary and sweat the small stuff.
The advice below will take more than 15 minutes—probably a couple of
hours, but you should start at least 24 hours before the paper is due in
case you need to do additional research or consult the teacher. You need to
read over the paper with a critical eye, and I humbly suggest that you do
this at the time of day when you are normally in the worst mood. Be
reasonable but ruthless. Scowl at the paper. Use a red pen and pretend to
be the teacher you hate the most (or a green pen if you prefer). But don’t
skip any of the 12 steps below (including #13). Need I say this?
“SAVE EACH DRAFT” with a new name—like “draft 53” (Try using a different
color for each one, or if you only have one color ink left, try a different
font.)
- First Cut:
Read the paper over fairly fast and take out rambling bits, places where
you lost direction, sentences or paragraphs that are off topic. Save this
as “[your topic]-draft2.”
- Revising outline 1:
Organization: Even if you made
a perfect outline to start with, make another one. This time look at each
paragraph and write its point in the margin next to it. Then list these
points on a separate sheet and evaluate the organization. Is it logical?
Do you repeat yourself? Should material be moved together? Do you have
important ideas buried in the middle instead of stating them first or last
where people will notice them more? Rearrange things. Now cut and paste
ideas, sentences, and paragraphs according to what you learned from
studying the revising outline. Save this draft in a different color or
font than the last one, as “[your topic]-draft3.”
- Revising outline 2:
Evidence: Make another revising
outline from the new draft. This time, look at the evidence you used.
Highlight and then list all evidence and see how much there is.
 | Do you need less
evidence? More than 80%
highlighted material may be too much, make sure your own analysis,
connections, and argument are well formulated and are fore grounded so
that the evidence supports your argument rather than being asked to try
to make the argument for you. Even a paragraph that summarizes or
synthesizes sources should begin with a topic sentence in your own
words. If it doesn’t, revise it. |
| Do you need more
evidence? Where? What kind? Every
claim you make must be supported by at least one piece of reputable
evidence (“Joe and Vinny’s music tips and medical facts page” is not
reputable unless it tells you that the medical facts have been reviewed
by a medical doctor—and names the doctor—or tells you the source from
which they were taken.) Do you have that evidence somewhere, or must
you go and do more research? Add it or do it! |
| Make whatever changes
this analysis suggests. Save this draft in a different color or font
than the last one, as “[your topic]-draft4.” |
Revising outline 3:
Citations: Go over the new
draft with your highlighter (or a different one to add variety), marking
every single piece of information that comes from any source aside from
your head. At each end of the highlight should be a “bookend”—an
introductory phrase at the beginning and a citation at the end. If that
isn’t so, fix it. Save this draft in another color or font as “[your
topic]-draft5.” Use MLA, or whatever style your professor asked you to
use. For composition, MLA is generally the default.
Thesis check:
Reread your introduction and highlight your thesis. Now look at each
paragraph and note in the margin how it explains, develops, supports, or
challenges your thesis. Is it clear what each paragraph is doing there?
If not, add a sentence making it clear. This may well take the form of a
topic sentence. (See below) Do you deal with arguments against your
thesis (a.k.a. counter evidence?). If not, consider what objections
someone could raise and insert at least one paragraph explaining the
objection and either showing why it is not really an objection, or
acknowledging its persuasiveness but affirming that it is not sufficient
to dissuade you from your thesis. If there are no arguments that any
reasonable person could make against your thesis if they have considered
the same evidence as you, your thesis is weak (or simply a statement of
truth). Revise it.
Transitions and
topic sentence check: These are
essential in longer papers because after a certain point we can too easily
get distracted or lost. Your task is to keep us on track. Topic
sentences, broadly defined, can do this Topic sentences work like road
signs, pointing us in a new direction or reassuring us that we are still
going the right way! Each paragraph needs to begin with one or more
sentences in your own words that (i) connect back to the previous
paragraph, moving us smoothly into the new idea, (ii) connect back to the
thesis so we know where we are going, and (iii) introduce the material to
come in the rest of the paragraph.
Revising outline 4:
Perfection is possible: (This is
the last outline—honestly!). This time, write out your thesis, then list
each topic sentence, and under it note the source of your evidence. It is
good to take a break here and come back to the outline later when your
mind is refreshed and has had chance to think about something else for a
while. Then make sure the outline is perfect. If there is no evidence to
support a claim, look at your notes or pay another visit to the library or
a reliable internet site. . If you need more explanatory paragraphs,
draft topic sentences for them. Review this the way you were taught to
review the kind of outline some people create before they write a paper.
Then make any final content additions, revisions, etc. (yes, save…)
The head and the
tail: Now it is looking like a
paper! Read the introduction and then read the conclusion. Do they seem
to belong to the same paper? If not, revise. Does the conclusion
introduce the paper better than the introduction (come on, be honest)? If
so, revise it as necessary and make it your introduction. Then write a
new conclusion that concludes the paper (skim through your list of topic
sentences and make sure that we are reminded of the main points in the
conclusion and don't learn anything new there). Save this. It should be
looking pretty good by now.
Revising and
editing sentences: Now you need
to read the paper over from the beginning, retaining your critical mood.
This time you’re looking for disjunctures—things that are out of place in
this paper or in academic papers in general.
| Pay attention to
your tone and avoid informal usage
(“kids,” for example) and excessively formal phrases that sound as if
they come from the Thesaurus or a dictionary worm. Simple is often
clearest. Don’t practice new vocabulary words if you aren’t sure what
they mean. |
| Watch out for
references that don’t refer to anything.
The sentence “as soon as a student arrives in class, they should begin
revising their paper” makes no sense because we don’t know to whom
they and their refer. A student is singular, so can
only be referred to by a singular referent (he or she).
Pluralizing is your best bet (“As soon as students arrive
in class, they should begin revising their papers.”) |
| Check for misleading
introductory phrases. If you
write “In Bob’s handout, ‘Revising Research Papers,’ she says….” you are
not talking about something I wrote in that handout, but about something
that “she” (someone other than me) is quoted in that handout as saying.
Fix it to read, “In her handout, ‘Revising Research Papers,’ Bob says…”
or simply “In ‘Revising Research Papers,’ Bob says…”) |
| Make sure your
sentences are varied in style and length.
Too many short sentences will start sounding like a list really quickly;
however, don’t be tempted to just connect complete sentences with commas
or you will create run-on sentences. |
| Type in those editing
changes and save the draft. |
Editing sentences
for grammar and mechanics:
Finally we get to those small changes! The easiest way to do this
effectively is to print out the paper, turn to the last page, and read the
last sentence. Then each sentence at a time, working your way up each
page to the beginning. This takes a while, but it is amazing how many
errors you’ll find. This is the single best way to edit a paper—even
better than asking your room mate to do it (unless he or she already knows
this strategy, but even so, you should do it yourself first.) Reading
this way focuses your attention on each sentence as a sentence and
prevents you from getting carried away by the quality of the content and
reading right over the errors. As you read each sentence, keep an eye
open for the kinds of errors others have pointed out in previous papers.
Check to make sure each sentence makes sense, and that there is some
overall variety in sentence length. . Write in changes as you go, and then
type in those editing changes and save the draft.
Formatting:
You’re almost done. Now you need to
check your formatting Make sure your title tells us what the paper is
about. Save the final draft in Times/Times New Roman 12, and make sure
the text is black (most professors require black ink, which is the
default, but if you run out, many will accept any dark color such as blue,
purple, or brown—ask first). Make sure you have a works cited list that
provides correct citations for all sources referred to in the paper.
Final Check:
Read over the works cited listing and
review the citations one more time. Then PRINT OUT THE FINAL DRAFT.
Staple the pages in the top left corner.
| Wait, there’s one more
thing to do: Read over the copy you intend to hand in one last time.
Make sure that all the pages are there, in the right order (and the
right way up) and that nothing odd happened during printing.
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okay, I lied, but
-- Yeah. You're DONE!! Do a
victory dance and hand in what will be an awesome paper if you have really
followed these steps
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