Revising
When you finish writing your essay, you should revise it. After you revise it, you may need to return to either of the previous stages (prewriting or writing) to make improvements to your writing. You also may need to do additional drafting.
Quote about Drafting
"The second draft is where the fun is. In a first draft, you get to explode. The objective (at least for me) is to get it down on paper, somehow. Battle through the laziness and the not-enough-time and the this-is-rubbish and everything else, and just get it written. Whatever it takes. The second draft is where you go and gather together the fragments of the explosion and figure out what it is you did, and make it look like that was what you always meant to do.
So you write it. Then you put it aside. Not for months, but perhaps for a week or so. Even a few days. Do other things. Then set aside some uninterrupted time to read, and pull it out, and pretend you have never read it before -- clear it out of your head, and sit and read it. (I'd suggest you do this on a print-out, so you can scribble on it as you go.)"
- Author Neil Gaiman (2008)
"My first draft was a haphazardly mowed path through a dark and scary overgrowth of trees and weeds; it took a dozen more drafts to prune and trim, plant new things, string up some lights—so I could arrive at something of a garden."
-Author Emily X. R. Pan
"First drafts are like practicing dance moves in your room alone in the dark; it doesn't matter what it looks like because it's just for you."
-Author Jen Wang
"I think and think and think, and then the first draft pours out on to the page, ready to be expanded in the direction I actually meant for it to go."
-Author E. K. Johnston
(Source: Bustle)
Many people divide the revising stage into two parts: revising and editing. Revising focuses on making changes to improve the clarity of your ideas and organization. Editing focuses on making changes to improve your grammar. Revising should generally be completed before editing.
Here are some questions that you can ask yourself while you are revising an essay.
Revision questions
- Does the introduction provide the general information a reader needs in order to understand the topic?
- Does the introduction end with an effective thesis? Does it match the style of the essay?
- Do each of the body paragraphs begin with an effective topic sentence?
- Are the body paragraphs sequenced in a logical order?
- Look at each body paragraph. Do the supporting sentences support the topic sentence?
- Look at each body paragraph. Are the supporting sentences sequenced in a logical order?
- Look at each body paragraph. Is there enough development? Are there more details or examples that would help the reader?
- Look at each body paragraph. Does the concluding sentence close the paragraph logically?
- Does the conclusion paragraph start by restating the thesis?
- Does the conclusion paragraph have a suggestion, prediction, or opinion at the end?
Self-check
You should always read through your essay to identify mistakes. Try to finish your drafting with enough time to leave your essay, and then come back to it later to make revisions. As you revise your own work, you may need to add, delete, or move text. Mark any parts of your essay that you want to ask a friend/tutor to help you with. You should also proofread for mechanical errors (spelling, grammar, etc.). You may be surprised by how many errors you are able to identify on your own.
Here are some strategies for proofreading:
- Start by simply reading through your essay for typos. This is an easy way to clean up your mechanics and present a more professional essay.
- Look through your essay to check for basic grammar errors. For example, you might check to make sure that every sentence has a subject and a verb (and that they agree).
- If you are not writing for a test, try reading out loud. This may help you identify more errors. We often notice that something doesn't make sense when we hear it.
- Read the essay backward (paragraph by paragraph).
Get feedback and make changes
If you are not writing for a test, have a friend or a tutor review your writing before you submit it to your teacher. Then use the feedback you get to make changes. If your teacher gives you feedback on your draft before the final paper is due, make sure you use it to improve your essay.
Exercises
Exercise 1: Give Feedback
Read this student's essay. What feedback would you give the student? Don't just look at superficial concerns like spelling and grammar. Consider the ideas and organization of the essay.
Prompt: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: A teacher’s ability to relate well with students is more important than superior knowledge of the subject being taught. Give specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
Response:
The relationship between students and teachers is important for learning. Every teacher has different abilities and talents. There are teachers with a lot of knowledge about a big number of topics, and there are teachers that are friends with their students. The ability to relate with others is crucial for teachers, to get the student's attention, interest and to use all their potential.
Learning is more than just get knowledge, it's get experience and abilities for future situations. Teachers have an important influence in every student, but the print that they let to them, depends on the teacher. Teaching to many students it could be hard, but it's part of teacher's job. Teach is more than bring knowledge, it means being an example and generate motivation among the students.
The way to study has been changing during the last years, our parents have told us that the relationship with teachers was more about afraid than respect. All the teachers should recognize that having a lot of knowledge could be useless if they don't have student's attention. There will be always a teacher that is remind more as a friend than someone letting homework. Nowadays, students pay more attention to their friends than their teachers and that is problem that should be solve.
Teaching is an ability or a talent that everyone can develop with time, it's more than just have a lot of knowledge about a topic. It's necessary to be creative, enthusiastic, educated and dedicated to be a good teacher. If every teacher tries to get student's attetion should start working with the aspect mentioned below. The way to teach needs to improve, there are a lot of good teachers and they should keep working on it.
Exercise 2: Revise
Use the example essay from the previous exercise.
- Based on the feedback you gave, revise the essay. For example, you could alter the topic sentences, add more development, change the order of supporting sentences, or add something that is missing.
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