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Writing : Revising Your Essay
Revising Your Essay
Revision means to ‘see again’. It is the opportunity to look critically at what you have written and make sure that you are expressing your ideas clearly. Revising an academic essay involves revising the content of your essay, editing the spelling and grammar, and proofreading to catch remaining errors.
Top Tips
- Ask questions.As you read your first draft, ask yourself if there is information that you should add, remove, or move?
- Read critically.When you revise your draft, make sure your ideas are expressed clearly.
- Consider your purpose.Does your draft fit this purpose?
- Consider your audience.Does your draft fit what your audience would expect?
- Check your spelling and grammar.They count.
- Edit after you revise the content.Once you have revised the content, you can begin editing for spelling and grammar errors.
- Read your draft out loud.You may have an easier time catching a mistake when you hear it spoken.
- Use spelling and grammar checks.These tools are useful, but not perfect, so make sure you are still reading critically.
- Start at the end. Working backwards will stop your brain from seeing what it expects, and may help you catch errors.
Quick Links
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Grammar: Common Errors Opens in a new windowUse this tip sheet to identify and correct common grammar errors.
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Revision Checklist Opens in a new windowUse this checklist as a guide when you are revising your essay.
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Run-On Sentence Tip Sheet Opens in a new windowUse this tip sheet for help correcting run-on sentences.
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Types of Sentences Tip Sheet Opens in a new windowUse this tip sheet for help correctly constructing simple, compound, and complex sentences.
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Higher Order and Lower Order Concerns - Opens in a new windowUse this tip sheet to help you know what you should be looking at in each phase of the revision process.
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Tips for Editing - Checklist Opens in a new windowUse this checklist as a guide when you are editing your essay.
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Prepositions Opens in a new windowUse this list of prepositions as a reference that you can use for your writing.
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The Parallelism Principle Opens in a new windowUse this tip sheet for help constructing sentences using parallel structure.
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Commas, Semi-colons, and Colons. Opens in a new windowUse this tip sheet for help knowing when and how to use commas, semicolons, and colons.
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Proofreading Checklist Opens in a new windowUse this checklist as a guide when you are proofreading your essay.
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Prefixes and Suffixes Opens in a new windowUse this list of prefixes and suffixes as a reference for your writing.