Revising Your Essay

Revision is...

A Rethinking Process

• Revision is a thinking process that occurs any time you are working on a writing project

It means you look at your writing with a "Fresh eye"-that is-seeing your writing in ways that will help you make effective choices throughout your essay

Revision often entails rethinking what you have written and asking yourself questions about its effectiveness

writing is generally not a neat, linear process

Accept that when writing, you often jump around from
generating new ideas, writing them down, organizing them, revising them, and then
returning back to writing.

Therefore, the assumption many students have is that when they begin revising, they will begin their FINAL STEP.

They may think that they’ll conduct an autopsy of sorts. They may think that they’ll have to fix their piece just once.

This is not true.

Revision also entails revisiting new ideas. Actually, critically reviewing the content is the first step in revision, so don’t just focus on grammar and mechanical errors.

Revision is...

Not Punishment or busy work

• Rarely, if ever, does a student produce the results he or she wants without revising the essay
• Expect huge changes when you go to revise your essay
• Comments on your essays are meant to encourage you to achieve the success needed to create a final draft and assist you in the revision process

Overall

• Use the upcoming post on "Revision: How To Steps" resource
• Once you get my comments, do not be discouraged, but be encouraged
• --do not expect your writing to be perfect on the first draft