The Writing Process: The College Essay - Section 5

Directions: Ideally, it is best to use this handout alongside a draft of a paper you are currently working on to aid you in revising and editing.

Revising and Editing Overall Tips

Is your paper double spaced?
Have you printed out a copy to read over?
Did you visually scan your paper for paragraph length? Paragraphs that are either too long or shorter than the others may need some revision.
Have you read your paper aloud to catch errors?
Have you given your paper to a friend/instructor/CLA tutor to review?

Did you reread the assignment details?
Now that you have a draft, is your thesis statement clear, limited, and interesting, and is it supported in your draft?
Are all your sources cited correctly? Does each parenthetical citation have a matching entry on the Reference page? Does every entry on the Reference page have matching parenthetical references?
Review your introduction. Do you have a strong hook that engages the reader?
Review the conclusion. Does it sum up your main points and restate the thesis?

Does each paragraph have a strong topic sentence?
Do all sentences support the topic sentence?
Is the paragraph organized logically?
Do the sentences transition smoothly and logically?
Is each paragraph supported with sufficient details, examples, statistics, facts, research?

Did you correct suggestions made by your word processing program’s spell check and grammar check?

What errors have teachers most corrected on your past papers? Did you check for those same errors on this paper?

Did you check for some of the most common errors in your paper?

Are there any words that you use repeatedly in your paper?

Consider word choice. Can you identify any sentences/phrases which are awkward and need to be rephrased?

Could your sentence structure use more variety?