Blog / Revising essays

The best way to revise your work is to read the paper aloud after a waiting period. If you are not using a word processor that moves your material around for you, avoid the necessity of recopying your work by using scissors to cut out material that belongs elsewhere. Be sure to cut out, or move in your word processor, any documentation that belongs with the passage you are moving. Simply tape the whole insert where it belongs; you may need to cut that page in order to insert the interpolated material. It is essential that you keep the footnote or parenthetical reference with the material it documents. Accuracy in this regard is crucial. Computer bibliographical programs will do this for you when you move text, but be very careful if you are moving text on your own.

1. Check to see that you have followed the basic rules for good English sentence structure and style.

2. Check to see that you have followed the principles of rhetoric in your sentence structure, paragraph development, and diction.

3. Check to see that you have smooth transitions (connections) from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, and section to section. Check particularly to see that the quoted material is integrated into the text so that, together with your writing, it presents a unified piece of work. Check also the punctuation before and after the quoted material used as part of your own sentence; a good test is to ask yourself whether you would use a comma, a colon, or other punctuation if there were no quotation marks within that sentence. When you hear a well-prepared lecture, you are not aware that the lecturer has gathered material from many different sources, part of which he or she is quoting directly and some of which is being paraphrased. You should give the same impression to your reader. Often the addition of a few connecting words will result in smooth transitions.

4. Check to see that your finished paper sounds logically developed and that everything that you have included in your paper presents relevant, logical proof of your thesis. Draw a line through anything that does not, and eliminate it now.

5. Check to see that you have avoided the repetition of facts or ideas. A "padded" paper is boring and meaningless.

6. Be sure that specific examples are provided for all general statements whether they are from other sources or your own. Most ideas need to be explained and/or illustrated in order to be clear. Whatever your approach, your introduction should be relevant; it should gain the immediate attention of your reader, and it should clarify your thesis in some way.

The conclusion of the research paper is the most valuable single part of it. All the material you have gathered means nothing to your reader until you present the conclusion you have reached as a result of your research. Restate your thesis and show what the material you have presented adds up to. Analyze and evaluate your main points for your reader; also consider the ramifications and general implications of them to your conclusion. Although no actual new information is usually introduced in the concluding paragraphs, the conclusion is the only "original" contribution you offer in your paper. It manifests the value of your research as well as your understanding of the material that you have presented. It should be a strong recapitulation of your major ideas.
Now read the entire paper aloud again and listen to how it sounds before you fill in the footnotes. It should flow smoothly throughout; supply transitions wherever you sense a lack of continuity from one idea to the next.

It is not necessarily that when you read your essay the first and it sounds good the next time you read it, it'll be the same. By reading your essay again and again you will check how good it sounds and if there are some mistakes that you've done. By doing this you will improve your essay writing the way will be love by the readers and you.