Revising  Editing  Proofreading

1. Revising  Editing Proofreading Rereading, Rewriting and Correcting Lynne Earls

2. Rereading, Rewriting and Correcting Revising is both rereading and rewriting what you have written. Revising includes adding, deleting or reordering text. Although you may continually rework your text as you write, it is usually better not to be too critical of your work when you write your first draft as this may lead to writer’s block. Editing is a process of making sure that grammar, vocabulary and spelling are correct after you have finished your revisions. Proofreading includes formatting the essay to conform to the requirements of the assignment and checking for typing errors just before submitting it.

3. Writing, Rereading, Rewriting and Correcting • Creativity, purpose and critical thinking: Focus on research and you, the writer • Social construct: Focus on disciplinary truth, critical thinking, form and content • Intended audience and critical thinking: Focus on intertextuality • Revising: Focus on intended reader(s) • Editing: Focus on the form

4. The Assignment What exactly are you going to be writing about? What question(s) will you be answering? The purpose of the assignment Why are you writing? How much information/knowledge/critical thought should come from your experience? How much information/knowledge/critical thought should come from research in your discipline? Creativity, purpose and critical thinking:Focus on research and you, the writer

5. Creativity, purpose and critical thinking: Focus on research and you, the writer The preparation and research: The issues • What are the issues to be tackled? • How do you synthesize, analyze and critique the issues? The thesis • What is the answer to your research question? • What thesis statement best illustrates the answer to the research question?

6. Creativity, purpose and critical thinking:Focus on research and you, the writer The material to be used in the essay • What ideas and evidence best represent the thesis? • Which research is among the most credible, explanatory and thorough in its account of the topic? • How can you best arrange and order the body of your essay at this stage in writing?

7. Social construct: Focus on disciplinary truth, critical thinking, form and content The information What does your reader want to know about you? • What knowledge(s) from your discipline does your reader expect you to exhibit? • What language (vocabulary and grammatical structures) do you need to use for the discipline?

8. Intended audience and critical thinking: Focus on inter-textuality The audience • Who is your reader? • What feedback have you already received on your previous work? • Whose research work/writing is considered better by you and by your professor(s)? Write the first draft • Begin with your thesis. Write the body. Introductions and conclusions can be added later.

9. Revising the overall structure: Focus on the academic reader With a fresh mind: • Underline your thesis • Check your purpose • Write the main idea of each paragraph/large section in one or two words in the margin • Check to make sure that these parts of your essay follow each other logically • Rearrange any paragraphs or sections to more clearly express your thought and state the material. • Write an academic introduction and conclusion which are clearly related to the text, and are not too long.

10. Revising within each paragraph: Focus on the academic reader With a fresh mind: • Check that your argument, problem or topic is well-defined and the relationships between your ideas and paragraphs are clear. • Differentiate between the facts and opinions/theories of researchers. • Distinguish between your own opinions and the facts and theories of the researchers cited. • Rearrange any sentences so that the topic, ideas and support are expressed logically in the same paragraph.

11. Revising within each paragraph: Focus on the academic reader • Check that there is enough evidence to support your thesis. • Include various forms of evidence including expert opinions and facts, examples, statistics, definitions, descriptions and explanations in order to make your work clear and forceful for your reader. • Be sure that you have introduced and led into paraphrases and quotations and visuals • Follow paraphrases and quotations with clear explanations. • Check that all information cited is accurate and that support is correctly documented.

12. Revising sentences and visuals: Focus on the academic reader • Eliminate repetition and redundancy of ideas, sentences, phrases and words. • Vary sentence structure and sentence length. • Make sentences as precise and concise as possible. • Make sure all graphs, tables, charts, maps, cartoons, diagrams, pictures, formulae and written problems are clearly labelled and correctly interpreted in your essay. • Check that all visuals are relevant to your topic. • Make certain that all visuals are well-placed within the body of your text.

13. Revising the words: Focus on the academic reader • Use the vocabulary and level of formality as practised in your discipline. • Make sure that the collocations in your paper are accurate. • Check your use of transitions and conjunctions. Do not overuse them or use them incorrectly. • Replace unnecessary jargon, cliches and common expressions with original words.

14. Editing: Focus on the form The final draft: A day or so later • Double check that the vocabulary and expressions are appropriate. • Make sure that the language is neither too formal nor too informal. • Check for grammar, punctuation and spelling. • Read your paper aloud to see if you can catch any mistakes. Read it to a friend or have a friend read it. • Double-check all in-text references, reference list entries and footnotes or endnotes to make sure they are complete and correct.

15. Proofreading: Focus on the form The final copy • Appearance is important. An essay which appears to have been done at the last minute with sloppy writing and lack of attention to the format may influence the final mark. • Typing must be double spaced. • Write on one side of the paper. • Essays usually should have a title page, footnotes and a bibliography or reference list. • Footnotes and bibliographies or reference lists follow the format requested by your professor. • Try reading your final draft backwards to catch typing errors

16. References • Ferris, D. & Hedgcock, J.S. (1998) Teaching ESL composition: Purpose, process, and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. • Leki, I. (1989). Academic writing: techniques and tasks. New York: St. Martin’s Press. • Spack, R. (1999). Guidelines: A cross-cultural reading/writing text (2nd ed). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Wyrick, J. (2005). Steps to writing well (9th ed.). Boston: Thomson Wadsworth.

17. References • http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/index.html • http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/561/04/ • http://http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/revision.html • http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/1437/eval.html • http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.html • http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/revising.html • http://www.gprc.ab.ca/library/Homepage/Help/LSC/LSC%20pdfs/Constructing%20a%20Research%20Paper.pdf