revision methods essay

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Steps for Revising Your Paper

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When you have plenty of time to revise, use the time to work on your paper and to take breaks from writing. If you can forget about your draft for a day or two, you may return to it with a fresh outlook. During the revising process, put your writing aside at least twice—once during the first part of the process, when you are reorganizing your work, and once during the second part, when you are polishing and paying attention to details.

Use the following questions to evaluate your drafts. You can use your responses to revise your papers by reorganizing them to make your best points stand out, by adding needed information, by eliminating irrelevant information, and by clarifying sections or sentences.

Find your main point.

What are you trying to say in the paper? In other words, try to summarize your thesis, or main point, and the evidence you are using to support that point. Try to imagine that this paper belongs to someone else. Does the paper have a clear thesis? Do you know what the paper is going to be about?

Identify your readers and your purpose.

What are you trying to do in the paper? In other words, are you trying to argue with the reading, to analyze the reading, to evaluate the reading, to apply the reading to another situation, or to accomplish another goal?

Evaluate your evidence.

Does the body of your paper support your thesis? Do you offer enough evidence to support your claim? If you are using quotations from the text as evidence, did you cite them properly?

Save only the good pieces.

Do all of the ideas relate back to the thesis? Is there anything that doesn't seem to fit? If so, you either need to change your thesis to reflect the idea or cut the idea.

Tighten and clean up your language.

Do all of the ideas in the paper make sense? Are there unclear or confusing ideas or sentences? Read your paper out loud and listen for awkward pauses and unclear ideas. Cut out extra words, vagueness, and misused words.

Visit the Purdue OWL's vidcast on cutting during the revision phase for more help with this task.

Eliminate mistakes in grammar and usage.

Do you see any problems with grammar, punctuation, or spelling? If you think something is wrong, you should make a note of it, even if you don't know how to fix it. You can always talk to a Writing Lab tutor about how to correct errors.

Switch from writer-centered to reader-centered.

Try to detach yourself from what you've written; pretend that you are reviewing someone else's work. What would you say is the most successful part of your paper? Why? How could this part be made even better? What would you say is the least successful part of your paper? Why? How could this part be improved?

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Revision Strategies

Revision Strategies  

Why is Revising Important? What is Revision? 

Now what? You’ve done your research, written your paper, but the big question now is: what do you do next? Answer: Revise. Although it can be a daunting word, revision is the time during your writing when you can carefully go back over your paper to fix any mistakes that may confuse or trip up your reader. Revision is a time to smooth out the flow of your thoughts through transitioning between your paragraphs, to make sure that each of your paragraphs are balanced with supporting evidence and your own original thought, and to look at sentence level edits like grammar and sentence flow in the final stages. While most see this as a time to make sure commas are in the right place, revision is for looking at the big picture just as much as the fine details and below are some tips and tricks to get you started!      

How do I Go About it?   

One of the first steps in the revision process is making sure you set aside enough time to properly edit your paper. If you finish a paper twenty minutes before it’s due, then there is little you can do to revise it. Although sometimes it’s hard to find time to write and revise amidst your busy schedule, I promise it’s worth it!   

Writing a paper a few days before it is due will allow you to take a step back and edit the big and small details without the pressure of a looming deadline. This will also give you time to consult writing tutors, your classmates, or your teacher if you find you need help during the process. The ratio of planned writing time to revision is usually along the lines of 70/30 or 80/20 depending on the type of writing assignment you have.   

For example, if you are assigned an 8-page research paper, then you are more than likely going to spend 70% of your timing writing and 30% of your time revising since you will have more writing that needs revising before you turn it. This is versus if you are assigned a 1-page reflection essay that requires you to spend more time writing at 80% and only about 20% of your time revising since there is only so much writing that can fit onto one page.        

Let’s face it, many of us get bored while writing. Taking a brief moment to step back after writing your first draft to do other things will allow you to return to the assignment later with fresh eyes in order to spot any errors that you may have missed before.   

The Big Picture   

When thinking about revision, our minds often jump to making sentence-level edits first. However, revision is much more than that!   

The first step in any revision process is taking a step back to look at the big picture. Does your paper have an introduction with a thesis statement? Does it have complete and coherent body paragraphs? What about a conclusion that sums up the main focus of your paper for the reader one last time? For a better understanding of how a typical essay is organized, check out “How is it Organized?” on our Reading Strategies page. 

Keep in mind that the Big Picture also includes any rubrics or assignment guidelines that your teacher may have given you. It’s important to note requirements like word/paper length during writing and revision as you don’t want to have a complete paper only to realize at the end that you missed the word count or forgot to include three scholarly sources. For more tips on how to keep rubrics and requirements in mind click here to jump to our section on assignment guidelines . Link to rubrics and assignments guidelines sections below.      

Main Intent 

Start with the main intent of your paper which is found in the ‘thesis statement.’ The thesis statement is included in the introduction paragraph and is typically found at the conclusion of the paragraph. It tells what the text will focus on and how the writer plans to achieve this. Do you state clearly and concisely what your paper will achieve and why and/or how? Do your body paragraphs support your thesis statement? Does your conclusion paragraph match your thesis statement? If you make sure that every part of your paper can be brought back to your thesis statement, then your paper will be more well-rounded and fluent.  

Note the thesis statement that is highlighted in yellow from an analysis paper on the biblical prophetess Deborah below.  

This thesis statement tells what the body paragraphs will analyze: “these texts” (analysis being the how ). It also tells why : because “they are more important in setting an example for woman of all ages by displaying how God uses a female to undertake several predominantly male roles, as He resorts to His preferred method of using the unexpected, or, in this case, a woman, to conquer a problem.”  

The following paragraphs in the paper will analyze the biblical texts that mention Deborah in order to show the reader that God uses women in male roles, an aspect that the writer found while analyzing the texts. We can assume that certain body paragraphs will inform us of the texts and others will attempt to prove the writer’s reasoning with supporting evidence from other sources.  

Paragraphs 

When reviewing your body paragraphs, you may want to consider why you are writing your paper. Are you trying to argue, persuade, or analyze? Does the structure of your paper enable you to do so? For example, a research paper is different from a persuasive paper since a persuasive paper is trying to persuade t he reader to see a topic as the writer does while a research paper focuses on objectively analyzing available sources of a topic to come to a conclusion, without regards to the writer’s personal opinion. So , the persuasive paper will have paragraphs that inform the reader of a topic, but also paragraphs that attempt to prove to the reader why their stance is the best stance on the topic.    

Topic Sentences tell the intent and focus of a paragraph. Most of the time they are original thought or observation. They can sometimes be used to attract the reader’s attention to a certain issue or point by giving a preview of what the paragraph is about which propels them to keep reading. Topic sentences are typically found at the beginning and ending of a paragraph to introduce and then sum up the points mentioned within the paragraph.  

For example, if you were to write a topic sentence for a paragraph in the aforementioned Deborah essay stating that it is hard to properly analyze the biblical texts because women prophets, especially Deborah, are sadly not as studied as male prophets, a poor intro topic sentence for paragraph might be:  

“Many people find it difficult to study the texts with Deborah in them because there is little research done on female prophets.” 

While we are able to see that this paragraph will focus on the aspect of female prophets and that it is hard to study the texts with Deborah in them because there is little research on female prophets, there is no transition from the last paragraph to connect the thoughts of the paper nor is the sentence specific about who the “many people” are.    

Whereas a more defined topic sentence with proper transitioning between paragraphs and one that introduces the full intent of the paragraph might be:   

“Although the only apparent struggles in analyzing such texts could be seen through their aforementioned slight detailed differences, a majority of scholars find textual difficulties presented in the lack of focus on female prophets in general.”   

This topic sentence, which is the first sentence of the paragraph, transitions the reader from the paragraph before it by using a good transition phrase starting with the word “Although.” “Although” is generally used to compare and contrast ideas, and ere it is used to do just that.   

By acknowledging the intent of the paragraph before it as well as previous research in general, this makes the previous information relevant to this paragraph since the content of this paragraph will be slightly contrasting since the writer is stating that this is actually the biggest issue in analysis not the other ones previously stated even though they are important too.   

The second half of the sentence also serves to tell the intent of the paragraph. Here as the reader, we know that we are going to be presented with sources that support the idea that there is a lack of focus on female prophets in general which makes it hard to study them.   

Some questions to ask might be:  

•   Do your paragraphs have a clear topic sentence? Do your topic sentences tell the main intent of that specific paragraph? Is it one clear point? If not, you may want to pick the point that best describes the content in your paragraph.    
• Do your paragraphs transition smoothly? What draws your attention during reading? Is it to the things that you want to draw attention to?  

Examples/Evidence provide a foundation atop which you can build your paper on. Teachers will typically give a minimum or maximum number of sources that you can have in your paper within the rubric or assignment guidelines. Always remember to pick sources that will best support the main intent of your paper and the assignment’s requirements. However, try to keep an open mind when you’re choosing your sources. When you’re writing a paper, you want sources that will support your argument, but, if you’re struggling to find any, try reconsidering your initial idea . It’s okay to be wrong, and it’s okay to revise and change; that’s all part of the process of learning. What you want to avoid is pulling bits and pieces from sources that don’t agree with your argument. This is called ‘cherry-picking’, and it can actually make writing a paper harder, since you have to construct writing that fits your sources, instead of finding sources that fit your writing. Some questions to ask would be:  

• Do your paragraphs have enough examples, quotes, paraphrasing, and summary from other sources to provide support for the main topic of each paragraph? Do you have more quotes than paraphrasing or vice vera?  
• Sometimes it may work better to have a quote rather than summary; however, keep in mind that well-rounded papers typically have an even amount of all in order to keep the audience’s attention and show that you know what you are talking about.    
• Do you explain why you included that examples, quotes, paraphrasing, or summary with a follow-up sentence on how it supports your argument or research? Does your inclusion of this example lead into the idea of your next sentence?  
• Sometimes having too many sources can drown out your own thought, so be sure to keep an eye out to see if your paragraphs are balanced with original thought and other sources.    

One way to check if your paragraphs are complete is by putting them to the PREP test:  

P oint: Does your paragraph have an introduction topic sentence? What is this paragraph going to be about?   

R eason: Does your paragraph give reasoning for your topic sentence? Why do you think this way, or why is your point valid?   

E xample: Does your paragraph provide an example/ evidence from supporting sources that backup your reasoning. Do you provide quotes, and/or paraphrasing, and/or summary from other sources?  

P oint: Does your paragraph have a conclusion topic sentence? Does it sum up/(re)state the focus of the paragraph without being repetitive? Does it provide a smooth transition into your next paragraph?    

Structural Edits 

Structural Edits are just what the name hints at: they involve the overall structure, or layout, of your paper. When doing structural edits, you are looking at how your paragraphs are arranged and how the sentences within them are arranged.   

Are your paragraphs arranged in a way that promotes the best flow of thoughts and transitions between them? Are your sentences arranged in a way that enables the reader to follow your thoughts while reading? Or are your paragraphs choppy and jump from idea to idea without any rhyme or reason?    

Here are a few different ways of how to go about Structural Edits:    

The Outline Method  

As you reread your paper, create an outline as you go. Do not look at your original outline but follow the flow of your written paper.   

Note where your introduction and thesis are. What does your introduction introduce and how? Note where each of your paragraphs are, what the focus of each paragraph is, what supporting and/or challenging evidence does it provide, and where their topic sentences are. Finally, note where your conclusion is. Does it sum up everything in your paper well?   

Once you finish, you should have an outline that looks somewhat like this:  

(Access a downloadable copy of the  Outline Method here.)

Now pull your original outline back out. Does your current outline and original outline match in the same places? If not, look and see how and why. Are your paragraphs in reverse order? Do you have holes in your new outline where you haven’t supported a point in one of your paragraphs? Are your topic sentences in the middle of one of your paragraphs instead of at the beginning or end? Does this work for that particular paragraph (sometimes it can depending on the length and focus of the paragraph)?   

Please note that outlines are meant to be flexible, so if your current outline doesn’t 100% match the original outline THIS IS OKAY because some changes are good! As you write and revise, you are usually able to feel and see if it makes more sense to put one paragraph in a different place or to use one source but not the other. Most of the time you know when something doesn’t look or sound right as you’re writing or editing. Just make sure that your new outline matches the main points you are trying to focus on in the original outline. Trust your instincts and, if you are not sure, consult a writing tutor, your classmates, or your teacher for advice on how to revise your paper.    

One last thing to remember is the above outline is an outline for a basic essay. If you are doing scientific research or writing a business proposal, your outline is bound to look different. However, the same basic principles still apply. Read your writing, create an outline of your writing from your reading, and consult and compare your original and current outline to see if you need to change anything.         

The PowerPoint Method  

If you are a visual leaner, one way to help you visualize your paper is by copying and pasting your paragraphs onto PowerPoint slides. Put one paragraph on a slide from beginning to end (ex: Introduction is on the first slide and Conclusion is on the last slide). Now read your paper both in your head or out loud if that helps. Does your paper flow well in the order that it is in? Try moving some of the slides around. Does it read better if Paragraph 2 is in front of Paragraph 1? While you won’t always need to rearrange your paragraphs, if you are finding that your paper is a little hard to read or choppy, using the PowerPoint method can help you see if it is the layout that is affecting your paper’s flow.   

Sentences   

Note that you could also use the same method when looking at the sentences in one of your paragraphs if it harder to read. Create a PowerPoint and try putting one sentence on each slide. Now seeing if moving some slides around in a different order helps the paragraph to be read better or be understood more easily. Do you find that you need an example to backup up one of your own statements in the paragraph? Do sentences 4 and 5 need to be rearranged to make everything clearer? Do you need to delete a sentence in order for everything to be connected better?     

The Paragraph-Cutting Method 

If you’re a hands-on learner this might be just the thing for you!  

Paragraph cutting is much like the PowerPoint Method. If you’re not comfortable with PowerPoint or don’t have the time, print your paper out and lay it in front of you. With scissors, cut the paragraphs out and line them up top to bottom from introduction to conclusion and start reading.  

Just like the PowerPoint method, you can rearrange the paragraphs to see what layout best fits your paper and intent. You can also use this method on individual paragraphs by cutting up the sentences and rearranging them as noted above.  

During this time, you might realize that a sentence you have in Paragraph 1 might actually fit better in Paragraph 3, so you can physically cut it out and move it to the other paragraph. Once you are done take a picture of your finished structure just in case you forget your edits later, and then transfer your edits into your actual paper.        

The Highlighting Method 

The Highlighting Method is a simple way to check the structure of your paper and assess what you do or don’t have in your paper as well. With at least 4 different colored highlighters (or more depending on the type of paper you’re writing or what your rubric asks you to include) highlight the different elements of your paper. Maybe you want your thesis and topic sentences to be highlighted in blue and your supporting evidence to be highlighted in orange. The Highlighting Method gives you a chance to see the placement and type of sentences you have in each paragraph by color-coordinating. This not only helps you to assess your paragraphs but also how much or how little you have in each paragraph.        

   Note in the example of the Highlighter Method above:  

• Topic sentences (which are original thought or observation) are highlighted in yellow.   
• Quotes are highlighted in green.   
• Summary is highlighted in blue. 
• Paraphrasing is highlighted in gray.   
• Anything that is not highlighted is original thought from the writer.   

The end result: This method allows us to see that this paragraph is balanced with original thought as well as a variety of sources and ways in which the writer was able incorporate them into her paragraph.  

Rubrics and Assignment Guidelines  

Teachers typically give a rubric or assignment guideline when assigning a paper so make sure to consult it when you start the revision process to remind yourself what you need to include in your paper. They are extremely helpful in making sure that you have all the big bases covered in your writing since they include what the teacher expects to find when reading your paper, such as word length, formatting, number and type of sources, and how clear your points are.      

It might be helpful for you to print out a copy of the rubric or assignment guideline for yourself and check off if you meet each of paper’s requirements when revising. If you find that you have the box for word length checked off but don’t have enough sources to meet the minimum for the source requirement, this gives you a chance to find additional sources and incorporate them into your paper before the deadline.  

Rubrics and assignment guidelines can be your best friends when you’re revising! Don’t be afraid of using them to your advantage during the revision process!    

Sentence Level Edits   While it’s essential to make sure that there are no issues with the overall structure of your paper, you should also look at some of the smaller problems. You can go about tackling some of the sentence-level edits by proofreading your paper.   

Proofreading   Proofreading is usually the final step when it comes to revising. This is when you read over your paper specifically to look for any mistakes involving things such as spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Even though revising involves more than just checking your grammar, it’s still important to make sure that your paper is grammatically correct. Having grammatical errors in your paper can not only cause you to lose points on your assignment, but it can also cause your readers to become confused and misunderstand what you’re trying to say. Before you begin this process, you should doublecheck to make sure that you’ve handled any larger issues first, such as problems with the organization, style or formatting issues, etc. If everything’s correct, then you’re ready to take a look at the grammatical errors.  While proofreading may seem like a tedious process, there are a few strategies that may help you.  

Proofreading Strategies 

Set your work to the side for a little while.   After you’ve spent some time writing and revising a paper, you become very familiar with it. You know what it says, or what it’s supposed to say. However, this familiarity can actually be a hindrance when it comes to trying to proofread. So, after you’ve finished with your major revisions, consider setting your paper to the side for a bit, maybe overnight, or even just for a few hours if you’re short on time. That way, when you come back to it, you’ll have a fresh perspective to begin proofreading with.  

Don’t just use Spellcheck.   Spellcheck, or any program like it, is a very useful tool when it comes to proofreading. You should always make sure to use it before turning in an assignment, as it can catch errors that you might not have noticed. However, you should not rely on it. There are certain problems that it can’t catch, or that it may miss, so you should look back over your paper after using Spellcheck on it.  

Print out a hard copy.   Printing out a hard copy of your paper has some of the same benefits as setting it aside for a few days. By the time you’ve reached the proofreading stage of revision, you’ll have already become very familiar with your paper, and you’ll have become used to seeing it on a screen. When you print your paper out, you’ll be seeing it in a new format, which can make it easier to spot errors. Also, having a hard copy of your paper gives you the opportunity to mark-up a physical copy of your work.  

Read your work out loud.   Reading your work out loud can help you find grammatical errors, but it’s mainly useful for making sure that your sentences flow together and don’t sound awkward. Something that looks good on paper may actually end up sounding disjointed. This is a great way to ensure that your writing is cohesive. Reading aloud in front of a friend or family member can also be helpful for identifying these types of errors. They may be able to catch things that you may not notice.   

Look for one type of error at a time.   Proofreading may seem like a daunting task, as it encompasses so many things. A way to make it less intimidating can be that you only focus on looking for one type of error at a time. For example, on your first read-through, you look for any spelling errors. Then, on your second read-through, you look for any comma errors. This can help to make the proofreading process a little more manageable.  

Ask another person to review it.   Once you’re finished proofreading your paper, it can still be helpful to have another set of eyes look over it. Like with setting your work aside, or printing out a hard copy, having a fresh perspective look over the paper can be helpful. You can ask a friend or family member to read your work, or you can always make an appointment with a consultant at the Writing Center to go over your paper. If you’d like to set up an appointment with a consultant, click here .   

Many people have trouble knowing when and where to use a comma in their sentences. This can lead to confusion in their readers, because, depending on where a comma is placed, it can change the meaning of the sentence completely. Below are a few general rules that can help you check and make sure that your paper uses commas correctly.  

If you still need some help with this, click here for some more examples of proper comma use.  

Subject Verb Agreement 

Another common mistake that people make while writing a paper is that, in their sentences, their subjects and verbs don’t agree. Subjects and verbs agree when they are both singular or plural, and in the same “person” (first person, third person, etc.). An example of subject-verb agreement would be: “I am” or “he is”, while an example of subject-verb disagreement would be: “He am” or “I is”.    

Here are a few rules you should keep in mind to make sure that your subjects and verbs agree throughout your paper.   

If you still need some help with this, click here for some more examples of subject-verb agreement.  

Active and Passive Voice 

While you’re working on your paper, you should always make sure to keep your writing in the active voice, and not the passive voice. The difference between the two is that in the active voice, the subject of your sentence is performing the action, while in the passive voice, the subject is receiving the action. That may sound confusing, so here’s an example to show you what they both look like.  

Active Voice Example: The hero saved the day.   

Passive Voice Example: The day was saved by the hero.  

In the first example, the subject of the sentence, the hero, is performing the verb. He is actively saving the day. However, in the second example, the action already happened. It’s in the past; the day was saved.   

In your writing, you want to avoid phrases that sound like the second example. The active voice is typically clearer, which makes it easier for your readers to understand what it is that you’re trying to say.   

While you’re editing your writing, if you come across a sentence that includes a “by the…” phrase, that sentence is probably written in the passive voice. You can fix it by rearranging some of your words.   

For example: The knight was kidnapped by the dragon .  

You see we have a “by the” phrase. That means that this sentence is written in the passive voice, so, what we need to do is reorganize. Who is actually doing something in this sentence? The dragon, he is actively kidnapping the knight. The knight is being useless and doing nothing, so why should he be the star of the sentence? He shouldn’t be; the dragon should be the subject instead. So, he and the knight switch places. If the dragon is the new subject, then we need to update our verb as well.  

So, our new sentence would be: The dragon kidnapped the knight.  

This sentence is written in the active voice, because the subject of the sentence, the dragon, is the one who is doing something.   

If you still need some help with this, click here for some more examples of how to change passive voice sentences into active voice.   

Questions to Keep You on Track   

As you’re revising your paper, feel free to use the questions below to help you through the revision process.   

Print out your own checklist here.

References  

Academic Guides. (n.d.). Writing a Paper: Proofreading .  https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/writingprocess/proofreading .   

Hobart and William Smith Colleges. (n.d.). Academics: Revision Strategies . https://www.hws.edu/academics/ctl/writes_revision.aspx .  

Lumen. (n.d.). Guide to Writing . https://courses.lumenlearning.com/styleguide/chapter/subject-verb-agreement/ .   

Purdue Writing Lab. (n.d.). Changing Passive to Active Voice // Purdue Writing Lab . Purdue Writing Lab. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/changing_passive_to_active_voice.html .  

Student Success. (n.d.). Commas (Eight Basic Uses) . https://www.iue.edu/student-success/coursework/commas.html .  

The Writing Center. (n.d.). Subject-Verb Agreement .  https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/guides/subject-verb-agreement .  

Revising Drafts

Rewriting is the essence of writing well—where the game is won or lost. —William Zinsser

What this handout is about

This handout will motivate you to revise your drafts and give you strategies to revise effectively.

What does it mean to revise?

Revision literally means to “see again,” to look at something from a fresh, critical perspective. It is an ongoing process of rethinking the paper: reconsidering your arguments, reviewing your evidence, refining your purpose, reorganizing your presentation, reviving stale prose.

But I thought revision was just fixing the commas and spelling

Nope. That’s called proofreading. It’s an important step before turning your paper in, but if your ideas are predictable, your thesis is weak, and your organization is a mess, then proofreading will just be putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. When you finish revising, that’s the time to proofread. For more information on the subject, see our handout on proofreading .

How about if I just reword things: look for better words, avoid repetition, etc.? Is that revision?

Well, that’s a part of revision called editing. It’s another important final step in polishing your work. But if you haven’t thought through your ideas, then rephrasing them won’t make any difference.

Why is revision important?

Writing is a process of discovery, and you don’t always produce your best stuff when you first get started. So revision is a chance for you to look critically at what you have written to see:

• if it’s really worth saying,
• if it says what you wanted to say, and
• if a reader will understand what you’re saying.

The process

What steps should i use when i begin to revise.

Here are several things to do. But don’t try them all at one time. Instead, focus on two or three main areas during each revision session:

• Wait awhile after you’ve finished a draft before looking at it again. The Roman poet Horace thought one should wait nine years, but that’s a bit much. A day—a few hours even—will work. When you do return to the draft, be honest with yourself, and don’t be lazy. Ask yourself what you really think about the paper.
• As The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers puts it, “THINK BIG, don’t tinker” (61). At this stage, you should be concerned with the large issues in the paper, not the commas.
• Check the focus of the paper: Is it appropriate to the assignment? Is the topic too big or too narrow? Do you stay on track through the entire paper?
• Think honestly about your thesis: Do you still agree with it? Should it be modified in light of something you discovered as you wrote the paper? Does it make a sophisticated, provocative point, or does it just say what anyone could say if given the same topic? Does your thesis generalize instead of taking a specific position? Should it be changed altogether? For more information visit our handout on thesis statements .
• Think about your purpose in writing: Does your introduction state clearly what you intend to do? Will your aims be clear to your readers?

What are some other steps I should consider in later stages of the revision process?

• Examine the balance within your paper: Are some parts out of proportion with others? Do you spend too much time on one trivial point and neglect a more important point? Do you give lots of detail early on and then let your points get thinner by the end?
• Check that you have kept your promises to your readers: Does your paper follow through on what the thesis promises? Do you support all the claims in your thesis? Are the tone and formality of the language appropriate for your audience?
• Check the organization: Does your paper follow a pattern that makes sense? Do the transitions move your readers smoothly from one point to the next? Do the topic sentences of each paragraph appropriately introduce what that paragraph is about? Would your paper work better if you moved some things around? For more information visit our handout on reorganizing drafts.
• Check your information: Are all your facts accurate? Are any of your statements misleading? Have you provided enough detail to satisfy readers’ curiosity? Have you cited all your information appropriately?
• Check your conclusion: Does the last paragraph tie the paper together smoothly and end on a stimulating note, or does the paper just die a slow, redundant, lame, or abrupt death?

Whoa! I thought I could just revise in a few minutes

Sorry. You may want to start working on your next paper early so that you have plenty of time for revising. That way you can give yourself some time to come back to look at what you’ve written with a fresh pair of eyes. It’s amazing how something that sounded brilliant the moment you wrote it can prove to be less-than-brilliant when you give it a chance to incubate.

But I don’t want to rewrite my whole paper!

Revision doesn’t necessarily mean rewriting the whole paper. Sometimes it means revising the thesis to match what you’ve discovered while writing. Sometimes it means coming up with stronger arguments to defend your position, or coming up with more vivid examples to illustrate your points. Sometimes it means shifting the order of your paper to help the reader follow your argument, or to change the emphasis of your points. Sometimes it means adding or deleting material for balance or emphasis. And then, sadly, sometimes revision does mean trashing your first draft and starting from scratch. Better that than having the teacher trash your final paper.

But I work so hard on what I write that I can’t afford to throw any of it away

If you want to be a polished writer, then you will eventually find out that you can’t afford NOT to throw stuff away. As writers, we often produce lots of material that needs to be tossed. The idea or metaphor or paragraph that I think is most wonderful and brilliant is often the very thing that confuses my reader or ruins the tone of my piece or interrupts the flow of my argument.Writers must be willing to sacrifice their favorite bits of writing for the good of the piece as a whole. In order to trim things down, though, you first have to have plenty of material on the page. One trick is not to hinder yourself while you are composing the first draft because the more you produce, the more you will have to work with when cutting time comes.

But sometimes I revise as I go

That’s OK. Since writing is a circular process, you don’t do everything in some specific order. Sometimes you write something and then tinker with it before moving on. But be warned: there are two potential problems with revising as you go. One is that if you revise only as you go along, you never get to think of the big picture. The key is still to give yourself enough time to look at the essay as a whole once you’ve finished. Another danger to revising as you go is that you may short-circuit your creativity. If you spend too much time tinkering with what is on the page, you may lose some of what hasn’t yet made it to the page. Here’s a tip: Don’t proofread as you go. You may waste time correcting the commas in a sentence that may end up being cut anyway.

How do I go about the process of revising? Any tips?

• Work from a printed copy; it’s easier on the eyes. Also, problems that seem invisible on the screen somehow tend to show up better on paper.
• Another tip is to read the paper out loud. That’s one way to see how well things flow.
• Remember all those questions listed above? Don’t try to tackle all of them in one draft. Pick a few “agendas” for each draft so that you won’t go mad trying to see, all at once, if you’ve done everything.
• Ask lots of questions and don’t flinch from answering them truthfully. For example, ask if there are opposing viewpoints that you haven’t considered yet.

Whenever I revise, I just make things worse. I do my best work without revising

That’s a common misconception that sometimes arises from fear, sometimes from laziness. The truth is, though, that except for those rare moments of inspiration or genius when the perfect ideas expressed in the perfect words in the perfect order flow gracefully and effortlessly from the mind, all experienced writers revise their work. I wrote six drafts of this handout. Hemingway rewrote the last page of A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times. If you’re still not convinced, re-read some of your old papers. How do they sound now? What would you revise if you had a chance?

What can get in the way of good revision strategies?

Don’t fall in love with what you have written. If you do, you will be hesitant to change it even if you know it’s not great. Start out with a working thesis, and don’t act like you’re married to it. Instead, act like you’re dating it, seeing if you’re compatible, finding out what it’s like from day to day. If a better thesis comes along, let go of the old one. Also, don’t think of revision as just rewording. It is a chance to look at the entire paper, not just isolated words and sentences.

What happens if I find that I no longer agree with my own point?

If you take revision seriously, sometimes the process will lead you to questions you cannot answer, objections or exceptions to your thesis, cases that don’t fit, loose ends or contradictions that just won’t go away. If this happens (and it will if you think long enough), then you have several choices. You could choose to ignore the loose ends and hope your reader doesn’t notice them, but that’s risky. You could change your thesis completely to fit your new understanding of the issue, or you could adjust your thesis slightly to accommodate the new ideas. Or you could simply acknowledge the contradictions and show why your main point still holds up in spite of them. Most readers know there are no easy answers, so they may be annoyed if you give them a thesis and try to claim that it is always true with no exceptions no matter what.

How do I get really good at revising?

The same way you get really good at golf, piano, or a video game—do it often. Take revision seriously, be disciplined, and set high standards for yourself. Here are three more tips:

• The more you produce, the more you can cut.
• The more you can imagine yourself as a reader looking at this for the first time, the easier it will be to spot potential problems.
• The more you demand of yourself in terms of clarity and elegance, the more clear and elegant your writing will be.

How do I revise at the sentence level?

Read your paper out loud, sentence by sentence, and follow Peter Elbow’s advice: “Look for places where you stumble or get lost in the middle of a sentence. These are obvious awkwardness’s that need fixing. Look for places where you get distracted or even bored—where you cannot concentrate. These are places where you probably lost focus or concentration in your writing. Cut through the extra words or vagueness or digression; get back to the energy. Listen even for the tiniest jerk or stumble in your reading, the tiniest lessening of your energy or focus or concentration as you say the words . . . A sentence should be alive” (Writing with Power 135).

Practical advice for ensuring that your sentences are alive:

• Use forceful verbs—replace long verb phrases with a more specific verb. For example, replace “She argues for the importance of the idea” with “She defends the idea.”
• Look for places where you’ve used the same word or phrase twice or more in consecutive sentences and look for alternative ways to say the same thing OR for ways to combine the two sentences.
• Cut as many prepositional phrases as you can without losing your meaning. For instance, the following sentence, “There are several examples of the issue of integrity in Huck Finn,” would be much better this way, “Huck Finn repeatedly addresses the issue of integrity.”
• Check your sentence variety. If more than two sentences in a row start the same way (with a subject followed by a verb, for example), then try using a different sentence pattern.
• Aim for precision in word choice. Don’t settle for the best word you can think of at the moment—use a thesaurus (along with a dictionary) to search for the word that says exactly what you want to say.
• Look for sentences that start with “It is” or “There are” and see if you can revise them to be more active and engaging.
• For more information, please visit our handouts on word choice and style .

How can technology help?

Need some help revising? Take advantage of the revision and versioning features available in modern word processors.

Track your changes. Most word processors and writing tools include a feature that allows you to keep your changes visible until you’re ready to accept them. Using “Track Changes” mode in Word or “Suggesting” mode in Google Docs, for example, allows you to make changes without committing to them.

Compare drafts. Tools that allow you to compare multiple drafts give you the chance to visually track changes over time. Try “File History” or “Compare Documents” modes in Google Doc, Word, and Scrivener to retrieve old drafts, identify changes you’ve made over time, or help you keep a bigger picture in mind as you revise.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. 2010. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers , 6th ed. New York: Longman.

Elbow, Peter. 1998. Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process . New York: Oxford University Press.

Lanham, Richard A. 2006. Revising Prose , 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 2015. The St. Martin’s Handbook , 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Ruszkiewicz, John J., Christy Friend, Daniel Seward, and Maxine Hairston. 2010. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers , 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

Zinsser, William. 2001. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction , 6th ed. New York: Quill.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

8.4 Revising and Editing

Learning objectives.

• Identify major areas of concern in the draft essay during revising and editing.
• Use peer reviews and editing checklists to assist revising and editing.
• Revise and edit the first draft of your essay and produce a final draft.

Revising and editing are the two tasks you undertake to significantly improve your essay. Both are very important elements of the writing process. You may think that a completed first draft means little improvement is needed. However, even experienced writers need to improve their drafts and rely on peers during revising and editing. You may know that athletes miss catches, fumble balls, or overshoot goals. Dancers forget steps, turn too slowly, or miss beats. For both athletes and dancers, the more they practice, the stronger their performance will become. Web designers seek better images, a more clever design, or a more appealing background for their web pages. Writing has the same capacity to profit from improvement and revision.

Understanding the Purpose of Revising and Editing

Revising and editing allow you to examine two important aspects of your writing separately, so that you can give each task your undivided attention.

• When you revise , you take a second look at your ideas. You might add, cut, move, or change information in order to make your ideas clearer, more accurate, more interesting, or more convincing.
• When you edit , you take a second look at how you expressed your ideas. You add or change words. You fix any problems in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. You improve your writing style. You make your essay into a polished, mature piece of writing, the end product of your best efforts.

How do you get the best out of your revisions and editing? Here are some strategies that writers have developed to look at their first drafts from a fresh perspective. Try them over the course of this semester; then keep using the ones that bring results.

• Take a break. You are proud of what you wrote, but you might be too close to it to make changes. Set aside your writing for a few hours or even a day until you can look at it objectively.
• Ask someone you trust for feedback and constructive criticism.
• Pretend you are one of your readers. Are you satisfied or dissatisfied? Why?
• Use the resources that your college provides. Find out where your school’s writing lab is located and ask about the assistance they provide online and in person.

Many people hear the words critic , critical , and criticism and pick up only negative vibes that provoke feelings that make them blush, grumble, or shout. However, as a writer and a thinker, you need to learn to be critical of yourself in a positive way and have high expectations for your work. You also need to train your eye and trust your ability to fix what needs fixing. For this, you need to teach yourself where to look.

Creating Unity and Coherence

Following your outline closely offers you a reasonable guarantee that your writing will stay on purpose and not drift away from the controlling idea. However, when writers are rushed, are tired, or cannot find the right words, their writing may become less than they want it to be. Their writing may no longer be clear and concise, and they may be adding information that is not needed to develop the main idea.

When a piece of writing has unity , all the ideas in each paragraph and in the entire essay clearly belong and are arranged in an order that makes logical sense. When the writing has coherence , the ideas flow smoothly. The wording clearly indicates how one idea leads to another within a paragraph and from paragraph to paragraph.

Reading your writing aloud will often help you find problems with unity and coherence. Listen for the clarity and flow of your ideas. Identify places where you find yourself confused, and write a note to yourself about possible fixes.

Creating Unity

Sometimes writers get caught up in the moment and cannot resist a good digression. Even though you might enjoy such detours when you chat with friends, unplanned digressions usually harm a piece of writing.

Mariah stayed close to her outline when she drafted the three body paragraphs of her essay she tentatively titled “Digital Technology: The Newest and the Best at What Price?” But a recent shopping trip for an HDTV upset her enough that she digressed from the main topic of her third paragraph and included comments about the sales staff at the electronics store she visited. When she revised her essay, she deleted the off-topic sentences that affected the unity of the paragraph.

Read the following paragraph twice, the first time without Mariah’s changes, and the second time with them.

Nothing is more confusing to me than choosing among televisions. It confuses lots of people who want a new high-definition digital television (HDTV) with a large screen to watch sports and DVDs on. You could listen to the guys in the electronics store, but word has it they know little more than you do. They want to sell what they have in stock, not what best fits your needs. You face decisions you never had to make with the old, bulky picture-tube televisions. Screen resolution means the number of horizontal scan lines the screen can show. This resolution is often 1080p, or full HD, or 768p. The trouble is that if you have a smaller screen, 32 inches or 37 inches diagonal, you won’t be able to tell the difference with the naked eye. The 1080p televisions cost more, though, so those are what the salespeople want you to buy. They get bigger commissions. The other important decision you face as you walk around the sales floor is whether to get a plasma screen or an LCD screen. Now here the salespeople may finally give you decent info. Plasma flat-panel television screens can be much larger in diameter than their LCD rivals. Plasma screens show truer blacks and can be viewed at a wider angle than current LCD screens. But be careful and tell the salesperson you have budget constraints. Large flat-panel plasma screens are much more expensive than flat-screen LCD models. Don’t let someone make you by more television than you need!

Answer the following two questions about Mariah’s paragraph:

Collaboration

Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

• Now start to revise the first draft of the essay you wrote in Section 8 “Writing Your Own First Draft” . Reread it to find any statements that affect the unity of your writing. Decide how best to revise.

When you reread your writing to find revisions to make, look for each type of problem in a separate sweep. Read it straight through once to locate any problems with unity. Read it straight through a second time to find problems with coherence. You may follow this same practice during many stages of the writing process.

Writing at Work

Many companies hire copyeditors and proofreaders to help them produce the cleanest possible final drafts of large writing projects. Copyeditors are responsible for suggesting revisions and style changes; proofreaders check documents for any errors in capitalization, spelling, and punctuation that have crept in. Many times, these tasks are done on a freelance basis, with one freelancer working for a variety of clients.

Creating Coherence

Careful writers use transitions to clarify how the ideas in their sentences and paragraphs are related. These words and phrases help the writing flow smoothly. Adding transitions is not the only way to improve coherence, but they are often useful and give a mature feel to your essays. Table 8.3 “Common Transitional Words and Phrases” groups many common transitions according to their purpose.

Table 8.3 Common Transitional Words and Phrases

After Maria revised for unity, she next examined her paragraph about televisions to check for coherence. She looked for places where she needed to add a transition or perhaps reword the text to make the flow of ideas clear. In the version that follows, she has already deleted the sentences that were off topic.

Many writers make their revisions on a printed copy and then transfer them to the version on-screen. They conventionally use a small arrow called a caret (^) to show where to insert an addition or correction.

1. Answer the following questions about Mariah’s revised paragraph.

2. Now return to the first draft of the essay you wrote in Section 8 “Writing Your Own First Draft” and revise it for coherence. Add transition words and phrases where they are needed, and make any other changes that are needed to improve the flow and connection between ideas.

Being Clear and Concise

Some writers are very methodical and painstaking when they write a first draft. Other writers unleash a lot of words in order to get out all that they feel they need to say. Do either of these composing styles match your style? Or is your composing style somewhere in between? No matter which description best fits you, the first draft of almost every piece of writing, no matter its author, can be made clearer and more concise.

If you have a tendency to write too much, you will need to look for unnecessary words. If you have a tendency to be vague or imprecise in your wording, you will need to find specific words to replace any overly general language.

Identifying Wordiness

Sometimes writers use too many words when fewer words will appeal more to their audience and better fit their purpose. Here are some common examples of wordiness to look for in your draft. Eliminating wordiness helps all readers, because it makes your ideas clear, direct, and straightforward.

Sentences that begin with There is or There are .

Wordy: There are two major experiments that the Biology Department sponsors.

Revised: The Biology Department sponsors two major experiments.

Sentences with unnecessary modifiers.

Wordy: Two extremely famous and well-known consumer advocates spoke eloquently in favor of the proposed important legislation.

Revised: Two well-known consumer advocates spoke in favor of the proposed legislation.

Sentences with deadwood phrases that add little to the meaning. Be judicious when you use phrases such as in terms of , with a mind to , on the subject of , as to whether or not , more or less , as far as…is concerned , and similar expressions. You can usually find a more straightforward way to state your point.

Wordy: As a world leader in the field of green technology, the company plans to focus its efforts in the area of geothermal energy.

A report as to whether or not to use geysers as an energy source is in the process of preparation.

Revised: As a world leader in green technology, the company plans to focus on geothermal energy.

A report about using geysers as an energy source is in preparation.

Sentences in the passive voice or with forms of the verb to be . Sentences with passive-voice verbs often create confusion, because the subject of the sentence does not perform an action. Sentences are clearer when the subject of the sentence performs the action and is followed by a strong verb. Use strong active-voice verbs in place of forms of to be , which can lead to wordiness. Avoid passive voice when you can.

Wordy: It might perhaps be said that using a GPS device is something that is a benefit to drivers who have a poor sense of direction.

Revised: Using a GPS device benefits drivers who have a poor sense of direction.

Sentences with constructions that can be shortened.

Wordy: The e-book reader, which is a recent invention, may become as commonplace as the cell phone.

My over-sixty uncle bought an e-book reader, and his wife bought an e-book reader, too.

Revised: The e-book reader, a recent invention, may become as commonplace as the cell phone.

My over-sixty uncle and his wife both bought e-book readers.

Now return once more to the first draft of the essay you have been revising. Check it for unnecessary words. Try making your sentences as concise as they can be.

Choosing Specific, Appropriate Words

Most college essays should be written in formal English suitable for an academic situation. Follow these principles to be sure that your word choice is appropriate. For more information about word choice, see Chapter 4 “Working with Words: Which Word Is Right?” .

• Avoid slang. Find alternatives to bummer , kewl , and rad .
• Avoid language that is overly casual. Write about “men and women” rather than “girls and guys” unless you are trying to create a specific effect. A formal tone calls for formal language.
• Avoid contractions. Use do not in place of don’t , I am in place of I’m , have not in place of haven’t , and so on. Contractions are considered casual speech.
• Avoid clichés. Overused expressions such as green with envy , face the music , better late than never , and similar expressions are empty of meaning and may not appeal to your audience.
• Be careful when you use words that sound alike but have different meanings. Some examples are allusion/illusion , complement/compliment , council/counsel , concurrent/consecutive , founder/flounder , and historic/historical . When in doubt, check a dictionary.
• Choose words with the connotations you want. Choosing a word for its connotations is as important in formal essay writing as it is in all kinds of writing. Compare the positive connotations of the word proud and the negative connotations of arrogant and conceited .
• Use specific words rather than overly general words. Find synonyms for thing , people , nice , good , bad , interesting , and other vague words. Or use specific details to make your exact meaning clear.

Now read the revisions Mariah made to make her third paragraph clearer and more concise. She has already incorporated the changes she made to improve unity and coherence.

1. Answer the following questions about Mariah’s revised paragraph:

2. Now return once more to your essay in progress. Read carefully for problems with word choice. Be sure that your draft is written in formal language and that your word choice is specific and appropriate.

Completing a Peer Review

After working so closely with a piece of writing, writers often need to step back and ask for a more objective reader. What writers most need is feedback from readers who can respond only to the words on the page. When they are ready, writers show their drafts to someone they respect and who can give an honest response about its strengths and weaknesses.

You, too, can ask a peer to read your draft when it is ready. After evaluating the feedback and assessing what is most helpful, the reader’s feedback will help you when you revise your draft. This process is called peer review .

You can work with a partner in your class and identify specific ways to strengthen each other’s essays. Although you may be uncomfortable sharing your writing at first, remember that each writer is working toward the same goal: a final draft that fits the audience and the purpose. Maintaining a positive attitude when providing feedback will put you and your partner at ease. The box that follows provides a useful framework for the peer review session.

Questions for Peer Review

Title of essay: ____________________________________________

Date: ____________________________________________

Writer’s name: ____________________________________________

Peer reviewer’s name: _________________________________________

• This essay is about____________________________________________.
• Your main points in this essay are____________________________________________.
• What I most liked about this essay is____________________________________________.

These three points struck me as your strongest:

These places in your essay are not clear to me:

a. Where: ____________________________________________

Needs improvement because__________________________________________

b. Where: ____________________________________________

Needs improvement because ____________________________________________

c. Where: ____________________________________________

The one additional change you could make that would improve this essay significantly is ____________________________________________.

One of the reasons why word-processing programs build in a reviewing feature is that workgroups have become a common feature in many businesses. Writing is often collaborative, and the members of a workgroup and their supervisors often critique group members’ work and offer feedback that will lead to a better final product.

Exchange essays with a classmate and complete a peer review of each other’s draft in progress. Remember to give positive feedback and to be courteous and polite in your responses. Focus on providing one positive comment and one question for more information to the author.

Using Feedback Objectively

The purpose of peer feedback is to receive constructive criticism of your essay. Your peer reviewer is your first real audience, and you have the opportunity to learn what confuses and delights a reader so that you can improve your work before sharing the final draft with a wider audience (or your intended audience).

It may not be necessary to incorporate every recommendation your peer reviewer makes. However, if you start to observe a pattern in the responses you receive from peer reviewers, you might want to take that feedback into consideration in future assignments. For example, if you read consistent comments about a need for more research, then you may want to consider including more research in future assignments.

Using Feedback from Multiple Sources

You might get feedback from more than one reader as you share different stages of your revised draft. In this situation, you may receive feedback from readers who do not understand the assignment or who lack your involvement with and enthusiasm for it.

You need to evaluate the responses you receive according to two important criteria:

• Determine if the feedback supports the purpose of the assignment.
• Determine if the suggested revisions are appropriate to the audience.

Then, using these standards, accept or reject revision feedback.

Work with two partners. Go back to Note 8.81 “Exercise 4” in this lesson and compare your responses to Activity A, about Mariah’s paragraph, with your partners’. Recall Mariah’s purpose for writing and her audience. Then, working individually, list where you agree and where you disagree about revision needs.

Editing Your Draft

If you have been incorporating each set of revisions as Mariah has, you have produced multiple drafts of your writing. So far, all your changes have been content changes. Perhaps with the help of peer feedback, you have made sure that you sufficiently supported your ideas. You have checked for problems with unity and coherence. You have examined your essay for word choice, revising to cut unnecessary words and to replace weak wording with specific and appropriate wording.

The next step after revising the content is editing. When you edit, you examine the surface features of your text. You examine your spelling, grammar, usage, and punctuation. You also make sure you use the proper format when creating your finished assignment.

Editing often takes time. Budgeting time into the writing process allows you to complete additional edits after revising. Editing and proofreading your writing helps you create a finished work that represents your best efforts. Here are a few more tips to remember about your readers:

• Readers do not notice correct spelling, but they do notice misspellings.
• Readers look past your sentences to get to your ideas—unless the sentences are awkward, poorly constructed, and frustrating to read.
• Readers notice when every sentence has the same rhythm as every other sentence, with no variety.
• Readers do not cheer when you use there , their , and they’re correctly, but they notice when you do not.
• Readers will notice the care with which you handled your assignment and your attention to detail in the delivery of an error-free document..

The first section of this book offers a useful review of grammar, mechanics, and usage. Use it to help you eliminate major errors in your writing and refine your understanding of the conventions of language. Do not hesitate to ask for help, too, from peer tutors in your academic department or in the college’s writing lab. In the meantime, use the checklist to help you edit your writing.

Editing Your Writing

• Are some sentences actually sentence fragments?
• Are some sentences run-on sentences? How can I correct them?
• Do some sentences need conjunctions between independent clauses?
• Does every verb agree with its subject?
• Is every verb in the correct tense?
• Are tense forms, especially for irregular verbs, written correctly?
• Have I used subject, object, and possessive personal pronouns correctly?
• Have I used who and whom correctly?
• Is the antecedent of every pronoun clear?
• Do all personal pronouns agree with their antecedents?
• Have I used the correct comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs?
• Is it clear which word a participial phrase modifies, or is it a dangling modifier?

Sentence Structure

• Are all my sentences simple sentences, or do I vary my sentence structure?
• Have I chosen the best coordinating or subordinating conjunctions to join clauses?
• Have I created long, overpacked sentences that should be shortened for clarity?
• Do I see any mistakes in parallel structure?

Punctuation

• Does every sentence end with the correct end punctuation?
• Can I justify the use of every exclamation point?
• Have I used apostrophes correctly to write all singular and plural possessive forms?
• Have I used quotation marks correctly?

Mechanics and Usage

• Can I find any spelling errors? How can I correct them?
• Have I used capital letters where they are needed?
• Have I written abbreviations, where allowed, correctly?
• Can I find any errors in the use of commonly confused words, such as to / too / two ?

Be careful about relying too much on spelling checkers and grammar checkers. A spelling checker cannot recognize that you meant to write principle but wrote principal instead. A grammar checker often queries constructions that are perfectly correct. The program does not understand your meaning; it makes its check against a general set of formulas that might not apply in each instance. If you use a grammar checker, accept the suggestions that make sense, but consider why the suggestions came up.

Proofreading requires patience; it is very easy to read past a mistake. Set your paper aside for at least a few hours, if not a day or more, so your mind will rest. Some professional proofreaders read a text backward so they can concentrate on spelling and punctuation. Another helpful technique is to slowly read a paper aloud, paying attention to every word, letter, and punctuation mark.

If you need additional proofreading help, ask a reliable friend, a classmate, or a peer tutor to make a final pass on your paper to look for anything you missed.

Remember to use proper format when creating your finished assignment. Sometimes an instructor, a department, or a college will require students to follow specific instructions on titles, margins, page numbers, or the location of the writer’s name. These requirements may be more detailed and rigid for research projects and term papers, which often observe the American Psychological Association (APA) or Modern Language Association (MLA) style guides, especially when citations of sources are included.

To ensure the format is correct and follows any specific instructions, make a final check before you submit an assignment.

With the help of the checklist, edit and proofread your essay.

Key Takeaways

• Revising and editing are the stages of the writing process in which you improve your work before producing a final draft.
• During revising, you add, cut, move, or change information in order to improve content.
• During editing, you take a second look at the words and sentences you used to express your ideas and fix any problems in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure.
• Unity in writing means that all the ideas in each paragraph and in the entire essay clearly belong together and are arranged in an order that makes logical sense.
• Coherence in writing means that the writer’s wording clearly indicates how one idea leads to another within a paragraph and between paragraphs.
• Transitional words and phrases effectively make writing more coherent.
• Writing should be clear and concise, with no unnecessary words.
• Effective formal writing uses specific, appropriate words and avoids slang, contractions, clichés, and overly general words.
• Peer reviews, done properly, can give writers objective feedback about their writing. It is the writer’s responsibility to evaluate the results of peer reviews and incorporate only useful feedback.
• Remember to budget time for careful editing and proofreading. Use all available resources, including editing checklists, peer editing, and your institution’s writing lab, to improve your editing skills.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Revision Techniques

Skills: Revision Techniques

Re- vision  is about needing to re- see  your text, even if you’ve already spent hours conceptualizing and drafting it. Experienced self-editors know that they need to create some distance from their papers and complete proof-read in multiple stages, each time paying attention to just a handful of specific issues.

Get Some Distance

Set your paper aside for a few hours (or even a few days) and read it with fresh eyes. Imagine yourself in your reader’s shoes (whether that be a professor, an employer, or an admissions committee member). Would you understand everything? Did you provide enough explanation? Is the order of ideas clear?

Reverse Outline

A reverse outline is where you summarize each paragraph based on what you actually see there. Ignore what you  meant  to write; instead, make notes on what you  actually  wrote.

Some people reverse outline by making bullet points. Other people use notecards or sticky notes so that they can play with the structure afterwards.

Train Your Attention

Our minds benefit from attending to only one or two things at a time. Plan on making several  focused passes  through your paper where you pay attention to one thing as you read.

For example:

Spend a focused pass paying attention to  one thing  that you know you need to work on: topic sentences; citing sources; comma splices; verb tense; concision; etc. Read your paper aloud Use ctrl+F (or command +F) to search for repetitive words in your document.

As you can see, the editing process takes time, so block off  time  to read and re-read your text. Writers improve their writing techniques one thing at a time.

Share your paper with another person.

They can provide the fresh perspective you may need. Our writing center consultants are available for this very purpose!  Check our schedule!

Other resources

OWL Purdue: Where to Begin (with Proofreading) : this handout walks a writer through some general strategies for proofreading. Be sure to check the related pages in the sidebar for more strategies about how to locate patterns.

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Writing Center

How to revise drafts, now the real work begins....

After writing the first draft of an essay, you may think much of your work is done, but actually the real work – revising – is just beginning. The good news is that by this point in the writing process you have gained some perspective and can ask yourself some questions: Did I develop my subject matter appropriately? Did my thesis change or evolve during writing? Did I communicate my ideas effectively and clearly? Would I like to revise, but feel uncertain about how to do it?

Also see the UMN Crookston Writing Center's  Revising and Editing Handout .

How to Revise

First, put your draft aside for a little while.  Time away from your essay will allow for more objective self-evaluation. When you do return to the draft, be honest with yourself; ask yourself what you really think about the paper.

Check the  focus  of the paper.  Is it appropriate to the assignment prompt? Is the topic too big or too narrow? Do you stay on track throughout the entire paper? (At this stage, you should be concerned with the large, content-related issues in the paper, not the grammar and sentence structure).

Get  feedback .  Since you already know what you’re trying to say, you aren’t always the best judge of where your draft is clear or unclear. Let another reader tell you. Then discuss aloud what you were trying to achieve. In articulating for someone else what you meant to argue, you will clarify ideas for yourself.

Think honestly about your thesis.  Do you still agree with it? Should it be modified in light of something you discovered as you wrote the paper? Does it make a sophisticated, provocative point? Or does it just say what anyone could say if given the same topic? Does your thesis generalize instead of taking a specific position? Should it be changed completely?

Examine the  balance  within your paper.  Are some parts out of proportion with others? Do you spend too much time on one trivial point and neglect a more important point? Do you give lots of details early on and then let your points get thinner by the end? Based on what you did in the previous step, restructure your argument: reorder your points and cut anything that’s irrelevant or redundant. You may want to return to your sources for additional supporting evidence.

Now that you know what you’re really arguing, work on your  introduction and conclusion . Make sure to begin your paragraphs with topic sentences, linking the idea(s) in each paragraph to those proposed in the thesis.

Proofread.  Aim for precision and economy in language. Read aloud so you can hear imperfections. (Your ear may pick up what your eye has missed). Note that this step comes LAST. There’s no point in making a sentence grammatically perfect if it’s going to be changed or deleted anyway.

As you revise your own work, keep the following in mind:

Revision means rethinking your thesis. It is unreasonable to expect to come up with the best thesis possible – one that accounts for all aspects of your topic – before beginning a draft, or even during a first draft. The best theses evolve; they are actually produced during the writing process. Successful revision involves bringing your thesis into focus—or changing it altogether.

Revision means making structural changes. Drafting is usually a process of discovering an idea or argument. Your argument will not become clearer if you only tinker with individual sentences. Successful revision involves bringing the strongest ideas to the front of the essay, reordering the main points, and cutting irrelevant sections. It also involves making the argument’s structure visible by strengthening topic sentences and transitions.

Revision takes time. Avoid shortcuts: the reward for sustained effort is an essay that is clearer, more persuasive, and more sophisticated.

Think about your purpose in writing: Does your introduction clearly state what you intend to do? Will your aims be clear to your readers?

Check the organization. Does your paper follow a pattern that makes sense? Doe the transitions move your readers smoothly from one point to the next? Do the topic sentences of each paragraph appropriately introduce what that paragraph is about? Would your paper be work better if you moved some things around?

Check your information. Are all your facts accurate? Are any of our statements misleading? Have you provided enough detail to satisfy readers’ curiosity? Have you cited all your information appropriately?

Revision doesn’t necessarily mean rewriting the whole paper. Sometimes it means revising the thesis to match what you’ve discovered while writing. Sometimes it means coming up with stronger arguments to defend your position, or coming up with more vivid examples to illustrate your points. Sometimes it means shifting the order of your paper to help the reader follow your argument, or to change the emphasis of your points. Sometimes it means adding or deleting material for balance or emphasis. And then, sadly, sometimes revision does mean trashing your first draft and starting from scratch. Better that than having the teacher trash your final paper.

Revising Sentences

Read your paper out loud, sentence by sentence, and look for places where you stumble or get lost in the middle of a sentence. These are obvious places that need fixing. Look for places where you get distracted or even bored – where you cannot concentrate. These are places where you probably lost focus or concentration in your writing. Cut through the extra words or vagueness or digression: get back to the energy.

Tips for writing good sentences:

Use forceful verbs – replace long verb phrases with a more specific verb. For example, replace “She argues for the importance of the idea” with ‘she defends the idea.” Also, try to stay in the active voice.

Look for places where you’ve used the same word or phrase twice or more in consecutive sentences and look for alternative ways to say the same thing OR for ways to combine the two sentences.

Cut as many prepositional phrases as you can without losing your meaning. For instance, the sentence “There are several examples of the issue of integrity in  Huck Finn ” would be much better this way: “ Huck Finn  repeated addresses the issue of integrity.”

Check your sentence variety. IF more than two sentences in a row start the same way (with a subject followed by a verb, for example), then try using a different sentence pattern. Also, try to mix simple sentences with compound and compound-complex sentences for variety.

Aim for precision in word choice. Don’t settle for the best word you can think of at the moment—use a thesaurus (along with a dictionary) to search for the word that says exactly what you want to say.

Look for sentences that start with “it is” or “there are” and see if you can revise them to be more active and engaging.

By Jocelyn Rolling, English Instructor Last edited October 2016 by Allison Haas, M.A.

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• Knowledge Base
• College essay

How to Revise Your College Admissions Essay | Examples

Published on September 24, 2021 by Kirsten Courault . Revised on December 8, 2023.

Revision and editing are essential to make your college essay the best it can be.

When you’ve finished your draft, first focus on big-picture issues like the overall narrative and clarity of your essay. Then, check your style and tone . You can do this for free with a paraphrasing tool . Finally, when you’re happy with your essay, polish up the details of grammar and punctuation with the essay checker , and don’t forget to check that it’s within the word count limit .

Remember to take a break after you finish writing and after each stage of revision. You should go through several rounds of revisions and ask for feedback on your drafts from a teacher, friend or family member, or professional essay coach. If you don’t have much time , focus on clarity and grammar by using a grammar checker .

You can also check out our college essay examples to get an idea of how to turn a weak essay into a strong one.

Table of contents

Big picture: check for overall message, flow, and clarity, voice: check for style and tone, details: check for grammar and punctuation, feedback: get a second opinion, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about college application essays.

In your first reading, don’t touch grammatical errors; just read through the entire essay to check the overall message, flow, and content quality.

Check your overall message

After reading your essay, answer the following questions:

• What message do I take away from my essay?
• Did I answer the prompt?
• Does it end with an insight, or does it just tell a story?
• Do I use stories and examples to demonstrate my values? Do these values match the university’s values?
• Is it focused on me, or is it too focused on another person or idea?

If you answer any of these questions negatively, rewrite your essay to fix these problems.

Check transitions and flow

Underline every paragraph’s topic and transition sentence to visualize whether a clear structure and natural flow are maintained throughout your essay. If necessary, rewrite or rearrange these topic and transition sentences to create a logical outline. Then, reread the entire essay to check it flows naturally.

Also check that your application essay’s introduction catches the reader’s attention and that you end the essay with an effective payoff that builds on what comes before.

Check for content quality

Highlight any parts that are unclear, boring, or unnecessary. Afterward, go back and clarify the unclear sections, embellish the boring parts with vivid language to help your essay stand out , and delete any unnecessary sentences or words.

Make sure everything in the essay is showing off what colleges are looking for : your personality, interests, and positive traits.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

To ensure you use the correct tone for your essay, check whether there’s vulnerability, authenticity, a positive and polite tone, and a balance between casual and formal. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the essay sound like me? Do my word choices seem natural?
• Is it vulnerable? Do I write about myself in a way that demonstrates genuine self-reflection?
• Is the tone conversational but respectful?
• Is it polite and respectful about sensitive topics?

Read it aloud to catch errors

Hearing your essay read aloud can help you to catch problems with style and voice that you might miss when reading it silently. For example, you may overuse certain words, have unparallel sentence structures , or use vocabulary that sounds unnatural.

You should read your essay aloud several times throughout the revision process. This can also help you find grammar and punctuation errors. You can try the following:

• Read it aloud yourself.
• Have someone read it aloud for you.
• Put it into a text-to-speech program.
• Record yourself and play it back.

After checking for big-picture and stylistic issues, read your essay again for grammar and punctuation errors.

Run spell check

First, run spell check in your word processor to find any obvious spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes.

Punctuation, capitalization, and verb errors

Spell check might miss some minor errors in punctuation and capitalization . With verbs , check for correct subject-verb agreement and verb tense .

Sentence structure

Check for common sentence structure mistakes such as sentence fragments and run-ons. Throughout your essay, ensure you vary your sentence lengths and structures for an interesting flow.

Check for parallel structure in more complex sentences. Maintain clarity by fixing any dangling or misplaced modifiers .

Consistency

Be consistent with your use of contractions, acronyms, and verb tenses.

Whenever you reuse an essay for another university, make sure you replace any names from or references to the previous university.

You should get feedback on your essay before you submit your application. Stick to around two to three readers to avoid too much conflicting advice.

Ask for feedback from people who know you well, such as teachers or family members. It’s also important to get feedback on the content, tone, and flow of your essay from someone who is familiar with the college admissions process and has strong language skills.

You might want to consider getting professional help from an essay coach or editor. Editors should only give advice and suggestions; they should never rewrite your essay for you.

Have your readers or editors answer these feedback questions:

• Is the introduction catchy and memorable?
• Do I include specific stories that demonstrate my values?
• Are there smooth transitions between paragraphs?
• What message did you take away from my essay?
• What parts were unclear, boring, or unnecessary?
• Does the essay sound like me?
• Is it vulnerable? Does it demonstrate genuine self-reflection?
• Does it have the appropriate tone?
• Is my humor (if any) funny?

Everyone needs feedback—asking for help doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. A fresh pair of eyes might notice things you have missed.

Get help from a teacher, guidance counselor, or mentor

You can ask for feedback from a teacher who is familiar with your writing, preferably your English teacher , who can help you with narrative, flow, and grammar:

• Familiar with your writing
• Has good knowledge of narrative essays, grammar, and style techniques
• May be overwhelmed with other students asking for help
• May not be familiar with the college essay writing style

You can also ask your school’s guidance counselor , who should have specialist knowledge of what admissions officers look for in a college admissions essay:

• Has good knowledge of the college application process
• Most likely overwhelmed with other students asking for help
• May not be familiar with your writing or personal background

Ask your teacher or guidance counselor for help at least one to two months before the submission deadline, as many other students will also want their help. Give them at least three weeks to review your essay.

You can also ask another adult, such as a mentor or coach who supervises your extracurricular activities:

• Knows your background well
• Might not be a strong writer

Ask family or friends to check for authenticity

Family and friends can be a good resource for checking that your essay sounds like you. However, for more comprehensive feedback, seek help from family with a strong writing or English educational background. You can also ask older siblings or cousins who have successfully completed the college admissions process.

• Familiar with your background, personality, and key life moments
• Can help you identify whether your essay has authenticity and vulnerability
• May be unqualified to edit your essay
• May give subjective advice to avoid hurting your feelings
• May be difficult for you to receive unfavorable feedback from someone close to you

Hire an essay coach or editor

After receiving feedback from your close network, you can also get help from an essay editor who can give you objective expert feedback.

• Has specialized knowledge of college admissions essays
• Can give objective, high-quality feedback on your content, tone, and grammar
• Unfamiliar with your background and personality

Explore our essay editing service

Incorporate feedback after a break

After receiving feedback, take a break for a few hours or get a good night’s sleep. Then, come back refreshed to incorporate feedback.

Depending on your writing, you may undergo multiple rounds of revision. Save each draft of your essay in a separate document, in case you want to borrow phrases or ideas from a previous draft.

If you want to know more about academic writing , effective communication , or parts of speech , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Academic writing

• Writing process
• Transition words
• Passive voice
• Paraphrasing

 Communication

• How to end an email
• Ms, mrs, miss
• How to start an email
• I hope this email finds you well
• Hope you are doing well

 Parts of speech

• Personal pronouns
• Conjunctions

When revising your college essay , first check for big-picture issues regarding message, flow, tone, style , and clarity. Then, focus on eliminating grammar and punctuation errors.

Teachers and guidance counselors can help you check your language, tone, and content . Ask for their help at least one to two months before the submission deadline, as many other students will also want their help.

Friends and family are a good resource to check for authenticity. It’s best to seek help from family members with a strong writing or English educational background, or from older siblings and cousins who have been through the college admissions process.

If possible, get help from an essay coach or editor ; they’ll have specialized knowledge of college admissions essays and be able to give objective expert feedback.

Depending on your writing, you may go through several rounds of revision . Make sure to put aside your essay for a little while after each editing stage to return with a fresh perspective.

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Editing and Revising

Writing is a process, and an integral part of that process is revision. Revision is best thought of as re-vision or re-seeing: looking at a text from a new perspective, which means re-thinking even its most fundamental precepts. This might involve reconsidering your position on a controversial topic, re-evaluating the quality of the evidence used to support your claims, or re-defining your audience and or purpose.

Editing is a little bit like cleaning up the kitchen after cooking a big meal. Your essay’s “cleanliness” includes smooth transitions between paragraphs, logical organization of your thoughts and presentation of information, overall clarity, proper documentation for sources used in the writing, and effective language usage (standard grammar, punctuation, and spelling).

Revising and editing are inextricably connected. A text must be both revised and edited well in order to be successful. If an essay, for example, is revised extensively, but not edited, problems such as grammar errors will make the essay’s meaning difficult to comprehend and stand in the way of its success.

The reverse is also true. Consider the poor writer who tirelessly edits an essay whose ideas are not fully formed. The result is a very polished text—perfect grammar, clear sentence structures, no spelling errors—that no one can comprehend, despite its orderliness, because its basic meaning is unclear, undeveloped, or unsubstantiated.

The Revision Process

After you have written a complete draft having a beginning, middle, and end, it’s time to re-see what you’ve written and think about what you’ve said, how you’ve said it, and why. Believe it or not, revising can be fun. You’ve already chosen your topic, defined its scope, conveyed your thesis, presented your information or position, supported your claims with evidence (which might have required a great deal of research), addressed potential counter-arguments, and arrived at a satisfying conclusion. That’s a lot of work, starting from scratch, getting over the terror of the blank page, and committing your thoughts to paper. You’ve already done the hard work. Now it’s time to read, re-read, review, reflect, and revise.

The revision process is recursive, which means that writers will go through several stages of the process at different times .

One method of revision is the post-draft outline. It helps you identify the organization of your writing so that you can improve it.

Post-Draft Outlining

This revision strategy requires you to outline a draft that you have already completed. This breaks down the essay into its parts to allow you to see if your organization is sound, if you have repeated your points, whether your introduction and/or conclusion need work, if there are points you need to make that you haven’t yet, etc. A good way to set this up is to count the paragraphs in your draft and write that many numbers on a separate piece of paper like this:

Then in one sentence, as briefly as possible, state the point of each paragraph. You are not looking for the topic sentence. You are trying to boil down what the paragraph is about. If your topic sentence actually reflects what the paragraph is about, that’s fine. It should, just don’t trust that it will. If it doesn’t, you will want to revise it.

A possible outlined draft (this one for a paper on homeschooling) might look something like this:

• Parents want what’s best for their children: Is homeschooling best?
• (Introduction)
• Homeschooling is growing for many reasons (religious, etc.).
• Homeschooling gives parents the freedom to set the educational environment
• (Activities, peers, etc.).
• Not all children need to be homeschooled, but children should have that option
• (Conclusion).

This is a clear outline, and so it indicates that the paper is strong in terms of organization. The reader can tell that distinct points are being made in the paper, that the paper is logically organized, and that there is a clear introduction and conclusion. This outline is for a very short paper (six paragraphs), but the same process can be applied to longer texts.

Now consider this outline, written for a different paper, also on homeschooling:

• Two groups of homeschoolers: religious and other
• Can’t get religion in school
• Parents want to pass on their faith to their children
• Homeschools put kids at disadvantage—no state/federal guidelines
• What do you think about the paper this outline was written from?
• What sense do you get from paragraphs two and three about the big point the author is trying to make?
• Is the author against homeschooling? For it?
• Can you identify a thesis here? What is the paper’s main point?

If you are struggling, you should be: This outline shows that the paper has several problems.

First, as readers, we think we will be reading a paper about two types of homeschoolers, religious and other, as described in the first paragraph. However, in the remainder of the paragraphs the author only discusses religious homeschoolers. As readers, we have to shift gears: Now we think the paper is going to be about why religious parents might want to homeschool their kids.

And then, all of a sudden, we are hit with the idea that homeschooling harms children.

Quite likely, this author did not recognize the disorganization of the paper, or that they had changed the angle on the topic, the central focus, several times. When writers are too close to their own work (which is almost always), it is easy to overlook that information is missing or misplaced. We’ve all started writing and ended up wandering, digressing beyond the point of no return. We can be forgiven for that—but outlining totally strips down the essay, so we can see its bare bones, meaning that even though we are close to the work, we can readily identify its strengths and weaknesses.

You can also apply outlining to a single paragraph, rather than a whole paper.

Let’s look at this one:

Many people are unaware of a growing trend in American society. This trend is parents taking the initiative and dedication towards ensuring that their children are given a quality education. Homeschooled children are growing in numbers every year. It’s clear that there are many advantages to having children learn at home.

This paragraph has five sentences, so your outline will have five points. When you summarize sentences, do it in as few words as possible:

• Growing trend in U.S.
• Trend = parents want a good education for children
• Solution = homeschool
• Homeschooled children increasing in number each year
• Why? Many advantages…

This outline shows a clear logical progression from point 1 to point 2 and so on. This outline demonstrates that the above is a well-constructed paragraph.

Now it’s your turn to practice. Below you will find a paragraph. Grab a piece of scrap paper and outline it sentence by sentence:

Homeschooling is often associated with two groups: religious and non-religious. Religious groups want their children to embrace their religion. To this end they take them to church on Sunday, involve them in church activities during the week, and teach them from the scripture. Religious homeschoolers want to be in charge of their children’s education while emphasizing their belief in religion. Religion and education are mixed together to build the children’s character, morals, and values. Religion is the faith that they hold above anything else. Religion is a subject that they can’t receive at public schools.

Here is one possible outline of this paragraph:

• Homeschooling = religious and non-religious groups
• Want kids to have religion
• Have religious activities all week
• Parents in charge of education and religion
• Both mixed is good for child
• Religion very important
• Can’t get it in school
• What do you think about this paragraph?
• Is it structured like the last paragraph we looked at?
• What are the similarities and differences between them?

It’s repetitive (paragraphs two and six say roughly the same thing), and it uses the word religion/religious too many times (nine times). Also, the topic sentence suggests that the paragraph is going to talk about two groups (religious and not), but it only talks about one.

• How could this paragraph be revised?
• Would reordering the sentences help?
• What about changing the topic to just religious homeschooling?

There are countless ways to revise this paragraph; your choices will depend on the focus that you, the author, want to take.

Here’s one attempt at revising this paragraph:

While parents choose to homeschool for several reasons, many do so to instill their religious beliefs in their children. By homeschooling, they are able to involve their children in church activities and teach them from the scripture throughout the week. This gives parents the opportunity to shape both their children’s religious and academic education, thereby building in their children a strong moral character. Given that religion cannot be received in the public schools, homeschooling allows these parents the ability to pass on their faith.

Note how many of the “religion” words were removed, without changing the focus of the topic, which is a religious angle on homeschooling. This makes the paragraph less repetitive.

The focus has also been changed from two homeschooling groups to just religious homeschooling. In other words, now the topic sentence fits the paragraph.

Paramedic Method of Revision

The Paramedic Method of Revision is a technique that targets wordiness and helps streamline your writing so it is clear and concise. To start, we will need to review prepositions (See Table 1 for examples). A good test that identifies most prepositions is whether they can fit into the following sentence:

The squirrel ran ___ the tree (up, over, with, under, around, at, below, from, to).

Prepositions

Is “president” a preposition? What about “and” or “this”? Why not? “The squirrel ran this the tree” is not a possible sentence. Neither is “The squirrel ran president the tree” or “The squirrel ran and the tree.” See how this test helps us to identify prepositions? “President,” “this,” and “and” do not fit into that blank, and so we know that they are not prepositions.

One note: There are a few prepositions that sound a bit odd in this sentence (for example, of), but they are prepositions just the same.

The next thing we need to identify are forms of the verbs, “to be” and “to have.”

These verbs are really common and have many forms. For instance, “being” and “is,” “had” and “having”—can you think of other forms of these verbs?

Here are some more:

BE: was, were, wasn’t, am, are, been, be

HAVE: has, hasn’t, hadn’t, have

With our memories jogged about prepositions and the verb forms of “to be” and “to have,” we can now look at the Paramedic Method of Revision , which involves a series of steps:

Step 1. Identify Overused Prepositions and Vague or Passive Be and Have Verbs

Identify all the forms of “to be” and “to have” (is, were, being, to be, had, having, hasn’t, etc…):

• The little girl was found safe at the mall down the street after having been declared missing for ten days.

Now you try

• The dog was having too much fun when his owners were away from home.

Here’s the answer

Next, identify all the prepositions, like this:

• The dog with the black spots on his back lives over the tracks from my house.

Now you try one. Identify all the prepositions:

• Go over the bridge, down Main Street, up Markham Blvd, and turn into the third driveway.
• So at this point in the revision strategy, we’ve marked all the versions of “to be” (was, were, am, be,…), “to have” (have, had, having, has, ….) and the prepositions (from, to, over, under, around, below,…), like this:

The latest book of the month is a fascinating gem which will be cherished for years.

Step 2: Revise Identified Words

Try to delete the highlighted words. How? First, insert verbs that actually do something:

• “I am a race-car driver” -> “I drive race cars.”

Often, you will find the verb you need (in this case “drive”) posing as an adjective or noun (in this case “driver”) somewhere in the sentence. Find it and make it a verb.

How do you revise the overuse of prepositions? Well, often, prepositions are acting as adjectives, so make them into one. How would you change this: “The boy with the blue hair”?

• “The boy with the blue hair” -> “The blue-haired boy.”

The result is junk-free writing, real words carrying real meaning. There’s an added bonus here too. It has been proven in psychological tests that the clearer the writing, the more people understand it (i.e. the fewer unnecessary words). By using this technique, your point will be clearer.

There’s nothing wrong with prepositions, or the verb form of BE and HAVE. The problem is that most writing is packed full of them, which can create unspecific meanings. Give some other words a chance, and express yourself with more accuracy and intent.

Let’s go back to one of our earlier examples. Try to re-write this sentence, getting rid of as many of the marked words as possible:

• The little girl was found safe at the mall down the street after being declared missing for ten days.

What’s the problem? For starters, there are lots of prepositional phrases. Did you notice a waltzing rhythm as you were reading? At the mall, down the street, … It’s also a passive sentence, meaning that there’s no real subject for the verb “found.” Who found her? We don’t know from this sentence because it is passive, but when you’re the author, you should make sure this information is known. For this example, let’s say the police found the girl.

Here’s one revision:

• Police discovered the little girl safe ten days later at the local mall.

Solution : active verb, no more distracting rhythm.

Let’s look at another example. First identify the BE/HAVE forms and the prepositions:

• They had an argument at the house of their neighbor.

Here’s the marked-up version:

Is there a hidden verb lurking somewhere that could replace “had”?

How about “argument”?

Couldn’t we change this to “argued”?

Here’s our first revision:

• They argued at the house of their neighbor. Now, can we do anything about those prepositions? We may not be able to get rid of both, but we can get rid of one:
• They argued at their neighbor’s house.

We started with a ten-word sentence and revised it to a clean six words. How’s that for eliminating wordiness?

Reading your essay aloud is perhaps the single-most effective way to revise it. It’s an especially effective method for those writers who fear they don’t have good command of basic writing principles because all you have to do is listen–hear what the sentence sounds like. This encourages you to revise the sentence as you would speak it, and since most of us speak well, even if we have writing problems, it’s a way of addressing problems that we wouldn’t otherwise likely identify or know how to correct.

Now the twist: Read your paper backwards, starting with the last sentence first, then the next-to-last, etc. This seemingly odd suggestion is a useful one because reading your essay backwards dissociates each sentence from the larger meaning of the text, enabling you to focus just on the sentence and whether or not it makes sense on its own. Because the basic unit of each paragraph is the sentence, you want to make sure that each sentence you write is capable of standing on its own in terms of meaning and clarity. If you discover a sentence that doesn’t make sense on its own, in isolation from its context, then chances are it won’t make sense in the context of your paragraph (and, hence, your paper) either.

After you’ve made changes to sentences that need revision, read your paper aloud again, this time straight through from top to bottom. Listen to the sentences as if you were listening to music. Does anything sound clunky? Monotonous? Redundant? This will give you a chance not only to revise individual words, but also to revise for sound. This is a very good way to improve sentence variety. For example, if you have three sentences in a row that are roughly the same length (which sounds monotonous when you read them aloud), try combining two of them to make one longer sentence. The result is two sentences of different lengths, which will make for a more pleasant reading experience for your audience.

Take a Break From Writing

This sounds like yet another easy assignment. It is, but only if you haven’t procrastinated much and have left enough time between writing your draft and submitting your final essay to take a break from your paper.

Most writers are too close to what they have written to effectively revise it, and putting your work aside for several days give you a chance to create some distance from what you’ve written, allowing you to return to it, even a few short days later, with fresh eyes.

Your Readers and Your Thesis

Have you kept your promise to your readers? A thesis is a lot like a promise, a promise you make to your readers about the journey your essay will take them on. You likely started thinking about your thesis long before you began drafting your essay, and at that point it was tentative. As you gathered information, researched your topic, and crafted a compelling angle, your thesis changed according to the direction your draft was taking at every stage.

Then came time to commit. In your rough draft, you had to stake your claim. The next step was to get comments from your instructor and peer reviewers in your class. Their critical commentary helped you think about ways to improve your essay.

You’ve diligently applied the above revision methods to your paper. But did your thesis get the full attention it deserves?

The thesis is one of the most important parts of any text. It is a one- or two-sentences passage that describes your essay’s main point, as well as its purpose. Your thesis answers the question that is implied by your desire to write the paper. Hence, the above analogy to a promise made to your readers. Your thesis lets readers know what your paper will discuss, and why—and if it’s a persuasive essay, your thesis also lets your readers know by what means you’ve come to the conclusions you have, i.e., why you hold the position you do, the evidence that has led you there.

The Editing Process

Now that you’ve revised your work, you have a collection of ideas you’re proud of, in a form that seems logical. What could possibly be left to do? Oh, yes, the aforementioned “clean-up.”

Don’t let your best ideas become obscured by sloppy writing. Editing is the last act you will perform on your essay before you submit it for evaluation. Take your time, and don’t underestimate the importance of this part of the process! Leave at least one whole work session (an hour or two at least, depending on the length of your essay).

Running spell-check and grammar-check does not constitute editing. You can do these things, but be aware that there are likely a number of spelling, punctuation and grammar errors that the automated programs will not catch.

Here are some ways to make sure you turn in your paper in the best shape possible:

Read Aloud Part 2

Reading your essay aloud, whether to a specific person or just to yourself, is useful for both revision and editing. The value this gesture potentially brings to editing is that it allows you to hear, literally, all kinds of problems with language. You might now know, for example, that the subject and verb of a sentence disagree, but you can hear if something sounds awry. Take this simple example:

• One of the doors are open.

Reading this sentence aloud, you can tell immediately that it doesn’t sound right. Why? You probably thought, perhaps unconsciously that “doors” is the subject of the sentence, so you wrote “doors are open.” But, in fact, “one” is the subject of the sentence, and it’s singular, so the verb must follow:

• One of the doors is open.

Chances are you could correct this sentence without even naming the problem. The other aspect of your essay that reading aloud can help with is identifying unnecessary and vague words and phrases. If your sentence sounds like a mouthful it probably is! Can you say what you’re trying to say in fewer words? Try re-working an especially long sentence to see if you can communicate your intended meaning more succinctly.

If you notice that some of your sentences use “I” or “in my view,” be especially careful to make sure that what you are offering is more than just your opinion. In an informative piece, this might be a fact; in a persuasive piece, this might be an argument that is supported with evidence gathered in your research.

Vague language is one of the most common problems with rough drafts. After all, you know what you mean. Read aloud for overly general, non-specific language. Here’s an example, taken from a thesis statement:’

• My essay will explain my views on capital punishment.

This is vague because it says nothing about what your views are, or why you hold them.

Consider this revised statement: – Capital punishment is unjust because it fails to deter crime.

Your reader will know your position and know why you hold it. What follows is the (correct) assumption that your paper will be an argument against capital punishment.

Many writers also want to add that there are pros and cons to their arguments, advantages and disadvantages, and while this impulse is understandable (and may be helpful to you in the draft stage), it doesn’t typically advance your thesis—and because you are taking a position on a controversial topic, readers will assume there are inherent pros and cons. The best strategy is to name, very specifically, the chief positions being debated. An example using the above topic, capital punishment, might look like this:

Some lawmakers have argued that capital punishment deters crime, while other stakeholders, including victims’ families, hold that incarceration is just as effective at deterrence as the death penalty.

When you are editing your essay, make sure that your words are as precise as they can be. Don’t say “people” when you mean “residents of Delaware County who pay taxes.” Don’t hesitate to use a thesaurus if you think your word choice could use improvement, but you can’t think of the most precise word.

Check for Redundancy

As you are reading aloud, be aware of any passages that sound monotonous or sing-songy. This is a sign that you are on your way to lulling your readers to sleep with repetitive sentence patterns. An easy way to correct this is to combine shorter sentences to make one longer sentence, as well as to break up long sentences into two shorter sentences. Sentence combining allows you to combine sentences that are closely related in order to enhance clarity, underscore connections among ideas, and reduce choppiness. Look through your draft for sentences that are explanation or connection.

Remember: Punctuation changes always change the rhythm of a sentence—just make sure that new punctuation doesn’t get in the way of what you’re trying to say.

Here’s an example of several sentences that could be improved by this method: – Olin loves to play tennis. He doesn’t like wearing traditional “tennis whites.” He prefers tournaments that allow players to wear bright colors on the court.

Edited version: – Olin loves to play tennis, but he doesn’t like wearing traditional “tennis whites”; he prefers tournaments that allow players to wear bright colors on the court.

Check out the APA Style’s tips on avoiding redundancy too .

Avoid Clichés

Writers often resort to clichés as a kind of short-cut to meaning, especially if they think the reader will “get” the intended meaning; however, the meaning of a cliché is subjective–”it’s raining cats and dogs” will not mean the same amount of rain to everyone, and the meaning of a cliché is also rooted in cultural knowledge; not all readers will understand it. Clichés are therefore not appropriate for academic and professional writing that aims to be specific and inclusive.

Examples of Cliches

Guidelines for Unbiased Language

When writing about people, whether they are the authors you are citing in your paper, the subjects you are studying in your research, or any individual or group of people, inclusive language is key to connecting with your readers without alienating anyone. Since the 1960s, the pronoun phrases “he or she,” “his or her,” and “him or her” have been used for referring to an unidentified person. Yet “he or she” assumes all people self-identify as either male or female while ignoring those who potentially self-identify as transgender and gender-nonconforming. These students would use “ze” or “they” as their pronouns. Using unbiased language therefore means avoiding use of “he or she” or any other binary phrasing such as “the opposite sex” that implies there are only two genders, excluding all others.

Using the specific “identified pronoun” for your readers is important. If you are writing to one person or about one person whom you know identifies as “she,” “he,” “ze,” or “they,” use the specific identified pronoun for your specific audience. However, in many academic and professional writing situations, the audience will be people you do not know personally. To write inclusively therefore means using a non-binary, gender neutral pronoun: they/their/them.

For example, the sentence “Students sharpen their pencils” is both grammatically correct and gender-neutral. Click a topic below for more information about “Singular They” and other tutorials on using unbiased language from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , (7th ed.):

Singular They

Avoid Over-Quoting

Quoting refers to using a source without altering it in any way; passages are used from a source word-for-word. In college writing, quotations are used sparingly since too many quotations can make a paper sound like a summary of another person’s work rather than your original work. Your own ideas can become diluted in a sea of other authors’ words with too many quotes. Quotations additionally include quotation marks and in-text citations, which can slow down the reading. Quotations also interject another author’s voice in your paper, and the switch from your voice to another’s can also slow down the reading.

Guidelines for When to Quote

• When you are critiquing or agreeing with someone’s exact words. For instance, if you wanted to argue that a movie reviewer’s comments were biased, you would want to quote the exact words of the reviewer, so your reader would understand your comment.
• When you want to include dialogue in your paper. For example, if you wanted to highlight a point someone made in an interview, you would want to quote the exact words spoken in the interview.
• When the original author’s words are so eloquent, profound, or unique (such as research results) that you cannot find a way to paraphrase and maintain the same meaning or impact of the original passage, you would want to quote those words.

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The Ultimate Guide to Rewriting and Revising Essays for College Students

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Writing with artificial intelligence, structured revision – how to revise your work.

• © 2023 by Joseph M. Moxley - Professor of English - USF , Julie Staggers - Washington State University

Learn how to revise your writing in a strategic, professional manner Use structured revision practices to revise your work in a strategic, professional manner.  Learn about why structured revision is so useful to teams & collaborative writing.

• Table of Contents

Related Concepts: What is Academic Dishonesty? ; Academic Writing – How to Write for the Academic Community ; Editing ; Plagiarism ; Proofreading ; Revision ; Rhetorical Analysis ; Rhetorical Reasoning ; Rhetorical Stance ; Standard Written English ; Style

Structured Revision – How to Revise

Some situations require substantive revision whereas others require moderate or light revision. For instance,

• if you are writing an essay for class and it constitutes a major part of your grade, then you may need to spend considerable time revising it
• if you are writing a proposal to a client for a big job, you know you cannot rest until your writing demonstrates that you understand the clients’ perspective
• if you are writing an email to a friend, your discourse is likely to be more informal than if you are writing to an academic or professional audience .

Because every situation is difficult, there is no one single way to revise documents. However, this doesn’t mean you need to treat every writing task as if it’s a space walk. There are, in practice, a number of discourse conventions that define the discourse practices of writers in academic and professional writing contexts .

Step 1: Engage in Rhetorical Reasoning

Your first step when developing a plan for revising a document is taking an honest look at the rhetorical situation :

What is the Rhetorical Situation ?

As a first step in rhetorical analysis question

• Who your audience ?
• What do you hope to achieve by writing this document?
• What is your purpose ? thesis? research question?

. composing and interpretation are dynamic, rhetorical, social processes.

, question is. What do they need from you? What is your purpose? thesis? What is your context? Is this

• a personal situation
• a workplace situation
• a school situation
• an applied or basic research situation ?

By engaging in audience analysis, you can learn the discourse conventions your audiences expects you to adopt in order to communicate with them. that characterize the works of discourse community. For instance,

• the evaluative criteria might focus on tone as it reflects sincerity, honesty, candor, authenticity, trustworthiness
• writers, speakers, knowledge workers adopt
• the evaluative criteria might focus on Information Literacy Perspectives & Practices , research methods , and citation.

Step 2: Inspect the Document @ the Global Level

After you have reflected on the exigency, the call to write , you are ready to analyze the document at a higher-level of abstraction — the Global Level , or, what some people call the rhetorical level.

Begin your inspection by focusing only on the top-level elements , such as

• Letter of Transmittal
• Executive Summary
• Statement of the Problem
• Research Methods
• Results (optional)
• Recommendations
• Implementation Schedule
• Budget (guesstimate)
• Call to Action

At this point, you’re looking for problems in the document’s organizational schema.

At a glance, does the title, introduction, and headings (along with the table of contents if one exists) answer these questions for the intended reader, listener, user . . . of the document: 

• What is this document about?
• What organizational problem or need is being address?
• What is the occasion for this report?
• What type of document is this?
• What will the document accomplish?
• Where in the document can I find answers to the questions I might logically have?

If you cannot answer these questions based on a quick skim, make notes about the problems you see.

At the global level , you’re likely to encounter

Rhetorical Problems

• Structural Problems,
• Language Problems, and
• Critical & Analytical Thinking Problems.

For rhetorical problems , check to see if….

Structural Problems

For section-level problems , check to see if the…

Language Problems

For language-level problems , check to see if….

Critical & Analytical Thinking Problems @ the Global Level

For critical & analytical thinking problems , check to see if

Critical & Analytical Thinking Problems

For Critical & Analytical Thinking Problems , check to see if

• Do the proposed solutions make sense given the problem statement?
• Is the recommendation a realistic solution?
• Does the Gantt chart and other planning documents seem reasonable?

Step 3: Inspect the Document @ the Section Level

Next, critique the document section-by-section.

The intended readers for the document should be able to skim a section and answer these questions for that section : 

• What is this section about?
• What is the function of this section?
• What topics does this section address?
• How does this section connect to the sections before/after it?

If you cannot answer these questions, make notes about the problems you see.

At the section level , you’re likely to encounter

• rhetorical problems
• structural problems, and
• language problems , as outlined below:

To find rhetorical problems, ask these questions:

• Does the opening mislead readers?
• Do the headings mislead readers?
• Are the visuals and data appropriate for the target audience?
• Does color or design mislead readers by focusing their attention on less important information?

To find structural problems, ask these questions:

• Is this section one that conventional report structure would place in this location? Is this where a reader would expect to find this section?
• Does the heading adequately and accurately reflect the section’s contents (e.g. does the heading say the section is going to address a topic that the section does not actually address?)
• Are topics unbalanced?
• Do key topics need to be addressed in more depth because readers will find them challenging?
• Is color used consistently?

Keep an eye out for parallelism problems . Look at headings, opening paragraphs , subheadings, topic sentences , transitions , and visuals .

Language Problems concern how  a  text  is  composed  — its  diction ,  grammar , use of  mechanics ,  sentence structure , and  style of writing .  concern The Elements of Style , especially brevity , clarity , flow , simplicity , and unity

To find language problems, ask these questions:

• Is the diction appropriate for the target audience(s)?
• Is the style of writing appropriate given the rhetorical situation ?
• Are key terms used consistently across sections?

Step 4: Inspect the Document at the Paragraph Level

Read the document paragraph-by-paragraph, placing check marks as you go.

Your goal is to analyze whether the paragraphs in the document are well formed and structured.

• Do the paragraphs conform to the reader’s expectations for the genre and media of the document?
• Are the paragraphs unified?
• Is there a logical progression across paragraphs, informed by the given to new contract?
• Does the document use the rhetorical moves you believe it needs to help readers better understand paragraph unity and paragraph transitions?
• Are the paragraphs following a coordinate order, deductive order, or Inductive order? Would you recommend a different order to improve flow?
• What recommendations, if any, would you make regarding paragraph transitions ?

Step 5: Inspect the Document at the Sentence Level

Sentence-level perspective.

As you re-read your work or the work of others, place check marks next to:

• Sentences you find tedious
• Sentences you have to read more than once
• Sentences you don’t quite feel right about

Are there any problems in the document with brevity ; clarity ; flow, coherence, unity; and simplicity ?

What about grammar and mechanics ?

How to Revise Co-Authored Projects

Revising a document you wrote yourself can be hard work. Revising a document written by a group can be even more difficult:

• Once any text exists, it’s hard to get rid of either because writers don’t want to “lose” their hard work or are afraid of cutting important information by mistake.
• Documents – and especially formal reports – address multiple types of readers, whose needs and ways of interacting with the document differ.
• Documents that have been written by a team will have more problems with consistency than documents written by individuals.
• Writers may disagree about what changes to make.

Structured revision helps a team prioritize its revision efforts. It also allows the team to make strategic decisions about what work can be done and should be done given the time available and the relative importance of the project. 

Ideally, when conducted for a team project, individuals will independently conduct structured revisions before sharing insights with one another. This approach can help you answer the following questions:

• What are the most significant problems in the document – and where are they located?
• How much time do we have for revisions and editing?
• Should we spend on our time on the top-level design of the document, the content of a particular section, or sentence-level problems?

Porter,  J. E., Sullivan, P. , and Johnson-Eilola, J.  (2009).  Professional Writing Online 3.0 , 3 rd ed. New York: Pearson.

Brevity - Say More with Less

Clarity (in Speech and Writing)

Coherence - How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow - How to Create Flow in Writing

Inclusivity - Inclusive Language

The Elements of Style - The DNA of Powerful Writing

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An Essay Revision Checklist

Guidelines for Revising a Composition

Maica / Getty Images

• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Revision  means looking again at what we have written to see how we can improve it. Some of us start revising as soon as we begin a rough  draft —restructuring and rearranging sentences as we work out our ideas. Then we return to the draft, perhaps several times, to make further revisions.

Revision as Opportunity

Revising is an opportunity to reconsider our topic, our readers, even our purpose for writing . Taking the time to rethink our approach may encourage us to make major changes in the content and structure of our work.

As a general rule, the best time to revise is not right after you've completed a draft (although at times this is unavoidable). Instead, wait a few hours—even a day or two, if possible—in order to gain some distance from your work. This way you'll be less protective of your writing and better prepared to make changes. 

One last bit of advice: read your work aloud when you revise. You may hear problems in your writing that you can't see.

"Never think that what you've written can't be improved. You should always try to make the sentence that much better and make a scene that much clearer. Go over and over the words and reshape them as many times as is needed," (Tracy Chevalier, "Why I Write." The Guardian , 24 Nov. 2006).

Revision Checklist

• Does the essay have a clear and concise main idea? Is this idea made clear to the reader in a thesis statement early in the essay (usually in the introduction )?
• Does the essay have a specific purpose (such as to inform, entertain, evaluate, or persuade)? Have you made this purpose clear to the reader?
• Does the introduction create interest in the topic and make your audience want to read on?
• Is there a clear plan and sense of organization to the essay? Does each paragraph develop logically from the previous one?
• Is each paragraph clearly related to the main idea of the essay? Is there enough information in the essay to support the main idea?
• Is the main point of each paragraph clear? Is each point adequately and clearly defined in a topic sentence and supported with specific details ?
• Are there clear transitions from one paragraph to the next? Have key words and ideas been given proper emphasis in the sentences and paragraphs?
• Are the sentences clear and direct? Can they be understood on the first reading? Are the sentences varied in length and structure? Could any sentences be improved by combining or restructuring them?
• Are the words in the essay clear and precise? Does the essay maintain a consistent tone ?
• Does the essay have an effective conclusion —one that emphasizes the main idea and provides a sense of completeness?

Once you have finished revising your essay, you can turn your attention to the finer details of editing and proofreading your work.

Line Editing Checklist

• Is each sentence  clear and complete ?
• Can any short, choppy sentences be improved by  combining  them?
• Can any long, awkward sentences be improved by breaking them down into shorter units and recombining them?
• Can any wordy sentences be made more  concise ?
• Can any  run-on sentences  be more effectively  coordinated  or  subordinated ?
• Does  each verb agree with its subject ?
• Are all  verb  forms correct and consistent?
• Do  pronouns  refer clearly to the appropriate  nouns ?
• Do all  modifying words and phrases  refer clearly to the words they are intended to modify?
• Is each word  spelled  correctly?
• Is the  punctuation  correct?
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Revision Strategies

View in pdf format.

• Ideas take precedence over style . The first step is to check that the content of the paper is logically sequenced . The paper should walk the reader step by step through your reasoning. Before you worry about making something “sound better,” first make sure that you have presented the best progression of ideas. During the pre-writing phase, it is often helpful to play with the order of your ideas and see what sequence makes the most sense. During revision, revisit your earlier thinking about the order of ideas.
• Changing one idea can affect many ideas. Altering one link in the chain of thought can cause a larger chain reaction than we might expect. It is always important to follow ideas to their logical end – and this is why writers sometimes hate revising. If one thing can change, everything might change. Your final product may bear little resemblance to your first draft. Try to embrace the possibility of restructuring and refinement rather than fear changes. You’ll end up with a stronger paper.
• There is no one, right procedure. Each paper is its own self-contained engine, designed to respond to a specific prompt. Different parts of different papers will malfunction, requiring different attention and different tools. However, making sure you have a logical chain of ideas is the best place to start. And remember that revision takes time, so leave enough time for rethinking and rewriting.

Despite the case-by-case nature of the process, there are a few general guidelines you can follow to quickly identify and solve some of the most common problems needing revision.

Revising the Introduction

A lot of us get into the habit of “tacking on” our introduction and conclusion after writing the body of the paper. After all, the most important part of the introduction is the thesis, and so long as that is clearly articulated, we can worry about the rest of the introduction later. While the thesis is undeniably a key element, that does not mean that the rest of the first paragraph is just a container for the thesis. The rest of the introduction must point toward the thesis, either by introducing relevant information the reader needs to know up front and/or by qualifying the thesis's degree of specificity . The introduction is a sort of zoom lens that tells the reader where the chain of logic in the body will start.

Consider the following introductory paragraph:

In The Rhetoric of Fiction , literary theorist Wayne Booth tries to explain some frustrating dynamics that had gone unaccounted for in literary theory. Reacting to New Critical theory, Booth defends an analytical system that links the narrator’s method of delivery and the thematic content of the story. Chief among these concepts are the “implied author,” a guiding force the audience perceives to be directing the progress of the narrative, and a continuum of narratorial reliability based on the difference between the implied author and the views of the narrator. Some works of literature are almost impossible to judge without examining this relationship, as in Vladimir Nabokov’s The Vane Sisters, where we are presented with an ethically deficient character who seems unaware of his immorality. The relationship between the narrator’s behavior and the audience’s expectations of him in Nabokov’s The Vane Sisters reinforces Wayne Booth’s theory of the necessity of an implied author to direct the reader's judgment.

The first thing to observe here is the thesis. To paraphrase, the idea behind the paragraph is “This paper will restate and validate Wayne Booth’s theory, using Nabokov’s story as an example. Booth is right, and here’s why.” Wayne Booth, however, has already done this job, in a huge book, no less. So why repeat it as the subject of your own paper? After some reconsideration, the writer decides to develop and refine the thesis to examine a slightly different question.

Revised Thesis

The dissonance between the narrator’s apparent cruelty toward Cynthia Vane and the sympathy we develop toward her create an ambiguity in judging the narrator's ethics, one best worked out in light of Wayne Booth’s concepts of the implied author, a continuum of narratorial reliability, and ethical motive behind narrative distance.

The thesis now has a narrower focus, and not only is the idea now more original (This paper will explain a problematic aspect of the Nabokov story, using some of Booth's theoretical concepts), but the relationship between the two halves of the thesis has been reversed . The first thesis promised a proof of the existing theory through a close reading of the story; the second promises a close reading that results from engaging the theory.

But does the rest of the introduction that preceded the original thesis still work for this new one? We can find out by asking the following questions:

• Look at the paragraph in terms of the logical progression of ideas. In the first version, the writer introduces the theory by providing a bit of history, then transitions mid-paragraph into a description of some of the concepts within it, before finally introducing the Nabokov story as the focus of the paper. This could work in introducing the new thesis, but…
• Consider alternative progressions . Because the new thesis already contains a list of concepts more relevant to the conflict in the story, it may be better to use the introduction to give background about the story rather than the theory . The idea chain could begin with introducing Nabokov and giving a bit of context about the relationships in the story – a simple case of substitution. Whatever you decide to do…
• Revisit after revising . Always go back and make sure that the changes you make hold up under logical scrutiny and reflect the goal of the paper once you've completed a revision.

A revised introduction might look like this:

Vladimir Nabokov’s short story, The Vane Sisters , ends with an unusual fictional situation: the narrator being at a loss for words. After several pages of following our protagonist through his unapologetically mean treatment of Cynthia Vane, his final sputtering seems both out-of-character for him and noncommittal for Nabokov. We are left unsure of fundamental facts that impede our understanding of the story – specifically, if this ethically deficient character fails to change by the end, what is the point? Nabokov has crafted an elegant but problematic story where we as readers have far more insight into the narrator's personality than he has himself, leaving it up to us to “finish” the story. The dissonance between the narrator’s apparent cruelty toward Cynthia Vane and the sympathy we develop toward her create an ambiguity in judging the narrator’s ethics, one perhaps best worked out in light of Wayne Booth’s concepts of the implied author, a continuum of narratorial reliability, and ethical motive behind narrative distance.

The writer’s shift from a focus on Booth to a focus on the text requires that the material introducing the thesis accords with the focus of the thesis itself, so that it both forecasts and reinforces the thesis.

Revising Body Paragraphs

Revising body paragraphs needs to take place on two levels . Each paragraph is made up of a series of small ideas that make up a mini-progression, but each paragraph is also part of the overall progression of the paper. When revising, remember that success on one level does not ensure success on the other .

Let's look at an example body paragraph to see how it can be revised:

The narrator of The Vane Sisters is engaging, if cruel. He has a sharp wit and is literarily aware, making his writing intelligent and maddeningly referential. However, he weaponizes this wit against now-deceased Cynthia and suicidal Sybil, characters who ultimately deserve our sympathy. Consider his comic but critical rendering of Sybil's French exam booklet: “that limp notebook […] a kind of passport to a casual Elysium (where pencil points do not snap and a dreamy young beauty with an impeccable complexion winds a lock of her hair on a dreamy forefinger, as she meditates over some celestial test)” (618). He later also derides Cynthia, his professed friend, though not exactly beautiful: “The interval between her thick black eyebrows was always shiny, and shiny too were the fleshy volutes of her nostrils. The coarse texture of her epiderm looked almost masculine, and, in the stark lamplight of her studio, you could see the pores of her thirty-two-year-old face fairly gaping at you" (619). Because Cynthia is ultimately deserving of our sympathy, it is clear that Nabokov wants us to judge his narrator as ethically deficient.

The paragraph seems coherent enough, and the writer has wisely started the paragraph by clarifying a discrepancy in the thesis: what is the nature of the “dissonance” between these two characters? The writer then builds on three links to the initial claim: 1) a claim that the reader should sympathize with the Vane Sisters, 2) examples from the text of the narrator’s poor treatment of them, and 3) a claim about how Nabokov wants us to think of his narrator. The logical chain, however, seems a bit messy.

First, and most obviously, the narrator has not yet mentioned Wayne Booth, though given the function of the paragraph, he may not be necessary. However, we still want promise as readers that he will be relevant somewhat soon. Second, both quotations are somewhat long, and neither is really explained or put to any use to merit the length. Third, the sisters’ deaths, new information, go unqualified while the narrator’s style does. And fourth, we still don’t know why the sisters deserve our sympathy.

Each of these points corresponds to a question you might ask yourself to evaluate body paragraphs:

• Are there any holes or irrelevances in the chain? By breaking your paragraphs down into ideas, you can see if there are holes in the logical chain that force the reader to leap to a conclusion you think you've proven. For example, what are the circumstances of the sisters’ deaths? Will they impact our level of sympathy? Also, Booth’s theories may not be important now, but the writer might want to guarantee that they soon will be. Paragraphs may also contain irrelevant details that take up space that could be used to fill in significant holes. One might, for example, point out the paragraph’s second sentence, and ask, is the commentary about the narrator’s intellectual style integral to the argument of this paragraph?
• Does your chain hold up to counterexamples? By playing devil’s advocate with yourself, you can determine if your ideas hold up or not. Coming up with counterarguments also provides an opportunity to deepen your consideration of a given section of your proof, and may help you develop your argument and increase your paper’s effectiveness. A counterargument for this paragraph is “Maybe Cynthia doesn't deserve our sympathy. How are we to be sure?”
• Do your sources actively support your thinking or just fill space? If you’re going to quote directly from the text, it means that the author has said something so well that paraphrasing it will devalue it, or that there’s a passage you would like to unpack for the reader. Quotations should be a part of your chain of reasoning, like everything else. If they feel separated or detached, you may want to reconsider what you are using them for. In this paragraph: Is anything gained by including the whole quotation instead of just select phrases? In fact, no – the writer merely wants to provide an example of style, but the quotations wind up bringing up more questions than they answer.
• Does the conclusion of the paragraph allow for a natural transition and invoke the thesis? The last couple of sentences in a paragraph should accomplish three different things: conclude the chain of reasoning in the paragraph, refer back to the thesis, and prepare the next step in the larger argument. In this paragraph, the writer concludes effectively. However, there is no mention of Wayne Booth, meaning only a part of the thesis has been invoked, and there is no evident “next step.”

In light of these concerns, how might the paragraph be refocused or revised? First, the writer must decide if it is more important in the first paragraph to establish why we ought to feel sympathy for the Vane sisters rather than comment on the narrator’s style. The writer can spend less time quoting and more time analyzing the relationship of the characters. Narrowing the focus based on the proposed counterargument also allows the writer to conclude with a promise of bringing Booth’s theory into the paper in the next paragraph, after having proven where our sympathy ought to be. This last move ensures not only that the paragraph has a strong internal argument but also that it is positioned in a larger context.

The Conclusion and “Finishing”

When drafting conclusions, the general tendency is to restate the thesis and to try to extend the significance of the argument in some way. After having revised the paper, though, you may find you have a deeper or more interesting understanding of the topic based on a more nuanced thesis. You want your last words to reflect the work you have done in reexamining the rest of the paper, so draw on your new understanding when revising your conclusion. Take the time to reflect on a meaningful moment in your revision. Does something seem newly important? Does the thesis imply something controversial? Are there lingering questions to address? How have my revisions made the topic seem fresh?

Experimenting with these questions, however, may lead you to further redefine the parameters of your paper, thus sending you back into the revision cycle yet again. No draft is ever perfect . Pace yourself by doing some lighter editing in between spurts of revision thinking, and be open to declaring when the work is done. Consider showing your draft to a friend, a classmate, a professor, or a writing tutor for feedback from an objective reader. Remember that you might not have a solution to every problem, so be sure to keep track of frustrating points as you revise to run by another reader.

You alone will be able to gauge when you have finished revising, but in general, you should be able to point to a nuanced and specific thesis , a rigidly structured and well-supported body in the form of a cohesive, logical chain , and a conclusion that highlights an interesting facet of the topic .

by Michael Harwick

Works referenced.

Booth, Wayne. The Rhetoric of Fiction. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.

Nabokov, Vladimir. “The Vane Sisters.” The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov. Ed. Dmitri Nabokov. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.

For more information about composing the components of a persuasive essay, you may wish to consult other Writing Center materials, including Introductions and Thesis Statements, Developing Your Thesis , and Conclusions .

The author acknowledges the help of Sharon Williams, Caitlin Fitzsimons ’11, Andrew Peart ’10, and Amy Tannenbaum ’10 for feedback on this document.

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What is revision.

In an effort to make our handouts more accessible, we have begun converting our PDF handouts to web pages. Download this page as a PDF: Revision handout PDF Return to Writing Studio Handouts

Revision is not merely proofreading or editing an essay. Proofreading involves making minor changes, such as putting a comma here, changing a word there, deleting part of a sentence, and so on. Revision, on the other hand, involves making more substantial changes.

Literally, it means re-seeing what you have written in order to re-examine (and possibly change and develop) what you have said or how you have said it. One might revise the argument, organization, style, or tone of one’s paper.

Below you’ll find some helpful activities to help you begin to think through and plan out revisions.

Revision Strategies

Memory draft.

Set aside what you’ve written and rewrite your essay from memory. Compare the draft of your paper to your memory draft. Does your original draft clearly reflect what you want to argue? Do you need to modify the thesis? Should you reorganize parts of your paper?

This technique helps point out what you think you are doing in comparison to what you are actually doing in a piece of writing.

Reverse Outline

Some writers find it helpful to make an outline before writing. A reverse outline, which one makes after writing a draft, can help you determine whether your paper should be reorganized. To make a reverse outline and use it to revise your paper: Read through your paper, making notes in the margins about the main point of each paragraph.

Create your reverse outline by writing those notes down on a separate piece of paper. Use your outline to do three things:

• See whether each paragraph plays a role in supporting your thesis.
• Look for unnecessary repetition of ideas.
• Compare your reverse outline with your draft to see whether the sentences in each paragraph are related to the main point of that paragraph, per the reverse outline. This technique is helpful in reconsidering the organization and coherence of an essay. By figuring out what each paragraph contributes to your paper, you will be able to see where each fits best within it.

Anatomy of a Paragraph

Select different colored highlighters to represent the different elements that should be found in an argumentative essay. Make a key somewhere on the first page, noting what each color represents. You might consider attributing a color to thesis, argumentative topic sentence, evidence, analysis, and fluffy flimflam. Now, color code your essay. When you’re finished, diagnose what you see, paying attention to where you’ve placed your topic sentences, whether you’re using enough evidence, and whether you could expand or streamline your analysis.

This strategy is helpful for visual learners and authors who feel overwhelmed by the length of their draft or scope of their revision project. It also helps to illustrate the organization and development of an argument.

Unpacking an Idea

Select a certain paragraph in your essay and try to explain in more detail how the concepts or ideas fit together. Unpack the evidence for your claims by showing how it supports your topic sentence, main idea, or thesis.

This technique will help you more deliberately explain the steps in your reasoning and point out where any gaps may have occurred within it. It will help you establish how these reasons, in turn, lead to your conclusions.

Exploding a Moment

Select a certain paragraph or section from your essay and write new essays or paragraphs from that section. Through this technique, you might discover new ideas—or new connections between ideas—that you’ll want to emphasize in your paper or in a new paper in the future.

3×5 Note Card

Describe each paragraph of your draft on a separate note card. On one side of the note card, write the topic sentence; on the other, list the evidence you use to back up your topic sentence. Next, evaluate how each paragraph fits into your thesis statement.

This technique will help you look at a draft on the paragraph-level.

Writing Between the Lines

Add information between sentences and paragraphs to clarify concepts and ideas that need further explanation.

This technique helps the writer to be aware of complex concepts and to determine what needs additional explanation.

This technique helps you look at your subject from six different points of view (imagine the 6 sides of a cube and you get the idea).

Take the topic of your paper (or your thesis) and proceed through the following six steps:

• Describe it.
• Compare it.
• Associate it with something else you know.
• Analyze it (meaning break it into parts).
• Apply it to a situation with which you are familiar.
• Argue for or against it.

Write a paragraph, page, or more about each of the six points of view on your subject.

Talk Your Paper

Tell a friend what your paper is about. Pay attention to your explanation. Are all of the ideas you describe actually in the paper? Where did you start in explaining your ideas? Does your paper match your description? Can the listener easily find all of the ideas you mention in your description?

This technique helps match up verbal explanations to written explanations. Which presents your ideas most clearly, accurately, and effectively?

Ask Someone to Read Your Paper Out Loud for You

Ask a friend to read your draft out loud to you. What do you hear? Where does your reader stumble, sound confused, or have questions? Did your reader ever get lost in your text? Did your ideas flow in a logical order and progress from paragraph to paragraph? Did the reader need more information at any point?

This technique helps a writer gain perspective on an essay by hearing first-hand the reaction of a fellow student to it.

Ask Someone without Knowledge of the Course to Read Your Paper

You can tell if your draft works by sharing it with someone unfamiliar with the context. If she can follow your ideas, your professor will be able to as well.

This technique will help you test out the clarity of your paper on those not acquainted with the course material.

Return to the Prompt

This technique may seem obvious, but once you’ve gotten going on an assignment, you may get carried away from what the instructions have asked you to do. Double check the prompt. Have you answered all of the questions (or parts of questions) thoroughly? Is there any part you may have neglected or missed?

This technique will help you keep in mind what the questions are asking and to determine whether you have addressed all of their components effectively.

Last revised: 08/2016 |  Adapted for web delivery: 03/2021

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10 Tips on How to Revise Effectively and Ace your Exams

(Last updated: 19 October 2023)

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We have helped 10,000s of undergraduate, Masters and PhD students to maximise their grades in essays, dissertations, model-exam answers, applications and other materials. If you would like a free chat about your project with one of our UK staff, then please just reach out on one of the methods below.

Revision plays a crucial role in achieving exam success, that’s why developing effective revision strategies can make all the difference. Here are 10 tips to help you revise effectively and maximise your exam performance:

Start Early

It’s never too early to start revising. The earlier you start your revision, the better. Avoid procrastination, and give yourself ample time to review and absorb the material, allowing for a gradual, stress-free learning process.

Create a Revision Timetable

A revision timetable helps you manage your time efficiently, ensuring you cover all subjects and topics. Allocate specific time slots for each subject and adjust your schedule based on your progress.

Break Down Information

Breaking down information into smaller, manageable chunks makes it easier to process and remember. Use bullet points, lists, and flashcards to summarise key points and concepts.

Use Active Revision Techniques

Active revision techniques, such as teaching the material to someone else, creating mind maps, or testing yourself with quizzes, can help reinforce your understanding and improve recall.

Vary Your Revision Methods

Keep your revision sessions engaging by using a variety of methods. Switch between reading, writing, creating visual aids, and interactive activities to maintain your focus and motivation.

Stay Organised

Keep your study materials organised and easily accessible. Use folders, binders, and digital tools to categorise your notes, resources, and practice papers.

Take Regular Breaks

Revision can be mentally taxing, so it's crucial to take regular breaks to rest and recharge. Follow the Pomodoro Technique which involves 25-minute focused work sessions followed by a five-minute break.

Stay Healthy

Maintain a healthy lifestyle during your revision period. Prioritise sleep, eat nutritious meals, stay hydrated, and incorporate regular exercise to boost your energy levels and concentration.

Stay Positive

A positive mindset can significantly impact your revision and exam performance. Keep your end goals in sight, acknowledge your progress, and be kind to yourself during this challenging period.

Seek Feedback and Clarify Doubts

Don't hesitate to ask for feedback on your revision efforts and exam practice. Discuss any uncertainties or challenges with your teachers, tutors, or classmates. Clarifying doubts and addressing misconceptions early can enhance your understanding and improve your overall exam performance.

Revise Smart, Succeed Big

In conclusion, effective revision requires planning, organisation, and a variety of active learning techniques. By following these tips and staying motivated, you can maximise your potential and achieve your desired exam results.

If you need further assistance with your revision or exam preparation, we can help. Our experienced academics can provide personalised tutoring support, helping you develop effective revision strategies, and build confidence in your exam-taking abilities. Contact us today to enhance your exam performance and reach your academic goals.

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How To Revise Effectively In A Short Time

Studying at the last minute can be a stressful and daunting task, but it's not uncommon for students to find themselves in this situation. Whether it's due to unexpected circumstances or procrastination, many students have had to cram for an exam or revise for an assignment in a short amount of time. However, the key to succeeding in this situation is to approach it with the right mindset and effective study strategies. In this article, we will share with you some tips and techniques that will help you to revise effectively in a short time and achieve the best possible results. So, if you're facing the challenge of studying at the last minute, don't panic - read on to learn how to revise quickly and efficiently and ace that exam or assignment!

Prioritise the Most Important Topics

To revise effectively in a short time , it's crucial to focus on the topics that are most likely to come up in the exam. Make a list of all the topics you need to cover and divide them into high, medium, and low priority. This way, you can ensure that you cover the most important topics first.

To determine the most important topics for an exam, you can review the syllabus or exam guide, look at past papers, consult your teacher or tutor, or use online resources like Save My Exams . 

Eliminate Distractions

Distractions can seriously hamper your productivity, especially when you're revising at the last minute. It's essential to eliminate all distractions to make the most of your limited time. Turn off your phone, avoid social media, and find a quiet place to study. This way, you can focus on the task at hand and maximise your productivity.

Practise Past Papers

When revising at the last minute, practising past papers is a great way to prepare for the exam. It will give you an idea of the type of questions that are likely to come up and help you identify any areas that you need to work on. Try to practise as many past papers as possible, and make sure you review your answers carefully.

Review Your Notes

Your notes are a valuable resource when it comes to revising efficiently . Take the time to review your notes and make sure you understand everything. If there are any areas that you're unsure about, make a note of them and ask your teacher or tutor for help.

If you're struggling to organise your notes or feel like they're incomplete, using revision notes from online resources for students can be a great supplement. For example, Save My Exams revision notes can provide an additional perspective on the material, helping you to fill in any gaps or better understand key concepts. 

Use Visual Aids

Visual aids can be a powerful tool when it comes to revising quickly. Use diagrams, flowcharts, and mind maps to help you remember key concepts and ideas. This way, you can make your revision more engaging and memorable.

Create a Summary Sheet

A summary sheet is a great way to condense all your revision notes into one place. It can be a useful resource to refer to when you need to revise quickly. Make sure your summary sheet includes all the key concepts, formulas, and ideas that you need to know.

Use Active Learning Strategies

Active learning and revision strategies are a great way to make your last-minute revision more engaging and effective. Try to engage with the material actively, rather than just passively reading it. Use flashcards, write summaries, or create quizzes to test your knowledge.

Take Breaks

It's important to take regular breaks to give your brain a chance to rest and recharge. Try to take a short break every hour or so, and use this time to stretch your legs, get some fresh air, or do something else that you enjoy.

Get Enough Sleep

Finally, getting enough sleep is essential when it comes to last-minute revision. Make sure you get at least 7-8 hours of sleep every night, as this will help you to concentrate and retain information more effectively. Avoid staying up late to revise, as this can be counterproductive.

How To Revise Last Minute Summary

Revising last minute can be a bit of a challenge, but by using these study strategies on how to revise in a short time , you can make the most of your time and achieve success in your exams. Remember to prioritise the most important topics, eliminate distractions, practise past papers, review your notes, use visual aids, create a summary sheet, use active learning strategies, take breaks, and get enough sleep. You've got this!

Head of Humanities & Social Sciences

Jenna studied at Cardiff University before training to become a science teacher at the University of Bath specialising in Biology (although she loves teaching all three sciences at GCSE level!). Teaching is her passion, and with 10 years experience teaching across a wide range of specifications – from GCSE and A Level Biology in the UK to IGCSE and IB Biology internationally – she knows what is required to pass those Biology exams.

20,000 + revision notes, 100,000 + practice questions and model answers, past papers and mark schemes...all tailored to your exams.

The Best Methods of Revising an Essay

Natalie smith.

Revising your essay is a multi-faceted process. Often, students confuse revising with proofreading. Although looking for errors is part of the revision process, revising also involves checking the paper for organization, revising the writing style for clarity, and making sure that the essay is appropriate for the audience. Every author has their own preferred method for revising their work; however, a few methods of revision are more successful than others.

Explore this article

• Put the Draft Down and Revisit It Later
• Peer Critiques
• Move from The General to The Specific
• Read The Paper Out Loud

1 Put the Draft Down and Revisit It Later

When you are immersed in the writing process, it can be difficult to find grammatical errors, problems with organization, or other faults in your work. As a result, many authors find it beneficial to avoid revising as they are writing and instead to write the entire rough draft and to set it aside for two or three days. When you revisit the paper, you will have created distance between yourself and the essay, allowing you to critically evaluate your writing and enabling you to find and correct errors more easily.

2 Peer Critiques

Composition instructors often incorporate the use of peer critiques as part of the revision process. Your colleagues can often identify and correct errors in your writing or problems with your logic or organization more quickly than you can. In addition, professional writers and workers who write as part of their job often have a peer read over their work before they submit it. As a result, peer critiques foster good work habits.

3 Move from The General to The Specific

Another strategy for revising is to move from general, or large-scale issues, to smaller issues. This method of revision goes over the essay in several passes. First, for example, you might read the paper to critique your strategy toward the audience. Then, you might evaluate the organization of your paper. Third, look at the use of sources. Fourth, revise each sentence for clarity. Finally, read the paper carefully to look for errors in grammar and syntax. This general to specific strategy can save time because you are addressing the largest issues first. There is no point finding and correcting all of the grammatical errors if you have to rewrite the entire paper because of problems with the strategy toward the audience.

4 Read The Paper Out Loud

Another proven strategy for revising an essay is to read the entire paper out loud to yourself. Work slowly, reading the paper sentence by sentence. This strategy often helps writers who have problems with grammatical errors and awkward phrasing because the ear can sometimes catch these errors more quickly than the eye. In addition, reading out loud forces you to slow down and consider each sentence. Some writers prefer to read each sentence starting at the end of the essay and work toward the beginning. Taking the sentences out of context in this manner helps some writers focus on each sentence.

• 1 Purdue Online Writing Lab: Steps for Revising Your Paper
• 2 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Revising Drafts
• 3 Brooklyn College: Revising Your Paper

About the Author

Natalie Smith is a technical writing professor specializing in medical writing localization and food writing. Her work has been published in technical journals, on several prominent cooking and nutrition websites, as well as books and conference proceedings. Smith has won two international research awards for her scholarship in intercultural medical writing, and holds a PhD in technical communication and rhetoric.

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How to Write an Argumentative Essay- Steps with Examples

Being a student and writing essays is not something everybody enjoys, but in my personal opinion as a writer, anyone can find contentment and pleasure in writing, especially when it comes to argumentative essays. While they may seem tricky to navigate, they offer this unique opportunity to express your opinions and make your voice heard. Consider this a growing process—once you overcome the challenges of writing argumentative essays, you will learn the art of agreeing or disagreeing with popular opinions and defending your stance. As far as the essay is concerned, I will show you how to master this process on how to write an argumentative essay.

When is an Argumentative Essay Written?

You will likely be required to write argumentative essays throughout your academic life, from high school to university. These assignments will present opportunities to develop and showcase your critical thinking and persuasive writing skills. Here are some scenarios where you might encounter the need to write argumentative essays:

Academic Assignments

Often assigned in school or college courses to help students develop critical thinking and persuasive writing skills. These assignments encourage students to research thoroughly, form coherent arguments, and present their viewpoints convincingly.

Debates and Discussions

Serve as the basis for presenting and defending viewpoints in academic or competitive settings. Argumentative essays provide a structured way to organize thoughts and evidence, helping participants articulate their arguments effectively during debates.

Opinion Pieces

Commonly used in newspapers, magazines, and online publications to influence public opinion on current issues. These essays allow writers to present their stance on controversial topics, backed by evidence and reasoning, to sway readers' views.

Policy Proposals

Utilized in government and policy-related fields to propose and defend specific policy changes or solutions to societal problems. Argumentative essays in this context present well-researched arguments to persuade policymakers and stakeholders of the necessity and viability of the proposed changes.

Persuasive Speeches

Prepared as a foundation for delivering persuasive speeches. Writing an argumentative essay helps speakers organize their thoughts and evidence logically, providing a solid framework for their oral presentations.

What is the Structure of an Argumentative Essay?

An argumentative essay uses factual evidence and logical support to convince the reader of a particular point of view. Here's a breakdown of the structure and what goes into each part of an argumentative essay:

Basic Argumentative Essay Structure

1.Introduction

Purpose: Introduce the topic, present the thesis, and set up the argument.

Hook: A sentence to grab the reader’s attention.

Background Information: Brief context about the topic.

Thesis Statement: The main argument or claim.

2.Body Paragraphs

Purpose: Present arguments and evidence to support the thesis and refute opposing arguments.

Topic Sentence: Introduces the main idea of the paragraph.

Evidence and Analysis: Present facts, statistics, quotes, or examples to support the argument.

Counterarguments and Rebuttals: Address opposing views and explain why they are invalid or less significant.

3.Conclusion

Purpose: Summarize the arguments, restate the thesis in light of the evidence presented, and offer final thoughts.

Restate Thesis: Reiterate the main argument.

Summarize Key Points: Highlight the main points made in the body paragraphs.

Final Thought: A closing statement that underscores the importance of the topic

How to Write an Argumentative Essay [4 Steps with Examples]

As an experienced writer, I've come to understand the structure of argumentative essays quite well. But what I found truly challenging when I first started was nailing the right approach. Many beginners, myself included at one point, fall into traps like letting personal biases creep in or thinking that being argumentative means being aggressive. Trust me, that's not the case at all!

In this section, I'm going to lay out an effective approach on how to write an argumentative essay step by step for beginners. I'll break it down in a way that I wish someone had done for me when I was starting out. Plus, I'll share some insider tips on tools like WPS Office that I've come to rely on to streamline my writing process. So let's learn how to write an argumentative essay with a few examples.

1.Brainstorming

When I sit down to craft an argumentative essay, my first step is to engage in a comprehensive brainstorming session. This is your opportunity to let your creativity run wild and explore every angle of your topic. Write down every idea that comes to you, whether it supports or opposes your topic. Remember, at this stage, there are no bad ideas.

Now, while there's nothing wrong with the classic pen and paper approach, I've found that using WPS Office takes my brainstorming to a whole new level. It's not just about having a digital notepad; the AI features often toss out ideas that I might never have thought of on my own. It's like having a creative partner who never gets tired! Let me show you how I use it:

Let's say our topic is "Are Electric Cars Better for the Environment?"

Step 1: Open WPS Office and type "@AI" on a blank document to activate WPS AI.

Step 2: Click on the "Brainstorm" option and enter your prompt. Make sure it's detailed and clearly explains what you want. Here's an example of an effective prompt:

"Generate a list of arguments both for and against the idea that electric cars are better for the environment. Consider factors like emissions, manufacturing processes, battery disposal, and energy sources"

Step 3: WPS AI will generate several arguments on both sides. If you want more, simply click "Rewrite”.

Jot down any valuable arguments before hitting "Rewrite", as you might not see the same ones again.

With these arguments in hand, you'll likely find yourself leaning towards one side of the debate. Armed with a variety of points and counterpoints, you'll be well-equipped to write an effective argumentative essay. Remember, a strong argumentative essay is built on a foundation of thorough preparation and diverse ideas.

2.Preparing

Now that we've generated our initial arguments and counterarguments, it's time to dive deeper into research to strengthen our position. Let's continue with our example topic: "Are Electric Cars Better for the Environment?"

Let's continue with our example topic: "Are Electric Cars Better for the Environment?" Our next step is to select the most impactful supporting arguments and conduct in-depth research to substantiate them with solid evidence. Simultaneously, we'll identify the strongest counterarguments and explore ways to address or neutralize them through our research.

All of this might seem a little overwhelming, but with the help of WPS AI, the research phase becomes significantly more manageable. As we gather research papers, we can upload them to WPS Office and quickly gain insights using the AI features.

Here's how to leverage WPS AI for efficient research:

Step 1: Open your research paper PDFs in WPS Office, then click on the WPS AI widget in the top right corner.

Step 2: In the WPS AI panel that appears on the right side of your screen, click "Upload" to add your PDF.

Step 3: Once processed, WPS AI will provide you with key insights from the PDF at a glance.

Step 4: For more specific information, click on the "Inquiry" tab and use the WPS AI chatbot to ask further questions about the PDF contents.

As you conduct your research, begin organizing your findings into an outline. Remember to structure your outline according to the elements we discussed in previous sections. This will ensure your outline contains all the necessary components for an effective argumentative essay.

3.First Drafting

Now that we have our research and outline ready, it's time to start writing our first draft. This is where your essay really starts to take shape. Don't worry about perfection at this stage—the goal is to get your ideas down coherently.

Using the outline we prepared during our research, you'll find it easier to organize your thoughts for your essay. To make things simpler, use WPS Office editing tools. When I write my essay, I always ensure it is properly formatted, giving it a cleaner look and helping me focus better.

Now, simply start your draft on WPS Office with an introduction, followed by a body paragraph, and conclude with a strong summary that reviews your main points and leaves the reader with something to think about.

Once you have your draft ready, make use of WPS Office's AI features, which can help you improve writing, shorten or elongate your paragraphs, and much more. Let's say you've written your first body paragraph, and it's a bit too long. So, let's shorten it with WPS AI:

Step 1: Select the paragraph you want to shorten, then click on the WPS AI icon in the hover menu.

Step 2: From the list of options, simply click on "Make shorter" to shorten your paragraph.

Step 3: WPS AI will display the shorter version on a small screen. Click on "Replace" to replace the original text with the shorter version.

4.Revising & Proofreading

Congratulations on completing your first draft! However, there is one crucial step remaining: revising and proofreading.  Revising and proofreading are where good essays become great essays.

A method I find most effective for revising my essay is reading it aloud. This technique helps in identifying awkward phrasing and run-on sentences that may go unnoticed when reading silently. As you read, ask yourself:

Does my introduction effectively grab the reader's attention and clearly state my thesis?

Do my body paragraphs each focus on a single main idea that supports my thesis?

Have I provided enough evidence to support each of my arguments?

Have I addressed potential counterarguments?

Does my conclusion effectively summarize my main points and leave a lasting impression?

You might find that you need to make some structural changes. For instance, you might realize that your second body paragraph would be more effective if it came first. Don't be afraid to move things around!

Once you have made the necessary changes to your essay, the next step is to ensure it does not have any grammatical errors. For this, I use WPS AI's spell check feature. With just a single click, WPS AI spell check ensures that my essay is complete and ready to be submitted!

Bonus Tips: How to Polish your argumentative Essay with WPS AI

WPS Office is already a premium choice among students, offering all the features needed to write a perfect essay. With WPS Office, students can write better without payment issues, annoying ads, or difficulty navigating the tools. It's a free tool with advanced features, including WPS AI, which supports the entire writing process.

1.Check for Grammar and Spelling:

WPS AI carefully scans your essay for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, ensuring that your writing is polished and professional. This feature not only helps you avoid common errors but also enhances the readability and credibility of your work.

2.Seek Style and Tone Adjustments:

WPS AI offers suggestions to improve the style and tone of your writing, making it more engaging and suitable for your target audience. Whether your essay requires a formal academic tone or a more conversational approach, WPS AI tailors its recommendations to fit your needs, ensuring your writing is coherent and compelling.

Here's an example of WPS AI's 'Improve Writing' feature in action, enhancing the formality and persuasiveness of my body paragraph for the reader.

3.Writing Assistance:

From the initial brainstorming phase to the final touches, WPS AI provides comprehensive writing assistance. It helps you structure your arguments logically, develop clear and concise thesis statements, and refine your conclusions. WPS AI also offers suggestions for enhancing clarity and coherence, making the writing process smoother and more efficient.

With the assistance of WPS AI's 'Continue Writing' feature, we can extend our essays by seamlessly incorporating additional sections that complement the existing content's flow and tone.

FAQs about Writing an Argumentative Essay

1. what’s the difference between an expository essay and an argumentative essay.

An argumentative essay is typically more extensive and requires independent research to establish a unique claim regarding a specific topic. It includes a thesis statement that presents a debatable assertion, which must be supported by objective evidence. In contrast, an expository essay strives for objectivity but does not propose an original argument. Instead, it aims to clarify and explain a topic straightforwardly, such as a process or concept. Generally, expository essays are shorter and do not rely as heavily on research.

2. When do I need to cite sources?

In a college environment, accurately citing sources is vital for essays, research papers, and other academic assignments, but this requirement does not extend to exams or in-class tasks. Proper citations are needed for direct quotes, paraphrased material, and summaries, and it is necessary to provide complete source information in a bibliography or reference list. Following the specified citation style, such as APA or MLA, is essential for maintaining academic integrity. Whenever you utilize information or ideas from another work in college-level writing, proper citation is required to acknowledge the original source.

3. What is an Argumentative essay?

An argumentative essay is a type of writing that asserts a specific stance on a debatable issue, backing it up with reasoning and evidence. The main objective is to convince the reader to accept or seriously consider the author's viewpoint. This essay usually contains a clear thesis statement and develops arguments while addressing opposing views to reinforce its position. Ultimately, it seeks to encourage critical engagement with the topic at hand.

Excel the Art of Persuasion With WPS Office

Argumentative essays are possibly the most thought-provoking when it comes to writing, presenting a higher difficulty level. Despite the challenge on how to write an argumentative essay, they are also the most fun to write, as they allow you to express your opinions in a highly opinionated form. WPS Office strives to enhance your writing experience, and as a writer, I can vouch for this. WPS Office not only offers advanced tools like WPS AI to help refine and improve your writing skills but also provides options to make your work as presentable as you want it to be. Download WPS Office today to experience the difference.

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How To Tackle The Weirdest Supplemental Essay Prompts For This Application Cycle

Writing the college essay

How do you write a letter to a friend that shows you’re a good candidate for the University of Pennsylvania? What reading list will help the Columbia University admissions committee understand your interdisciplinary interests? How can you convey your desire to attend Yale by inventing a course description for a topic you’re interested in studying?

These are the challenges students must overcome when writing their supplemental essays . Supplemental essays are a critical component of college applications—like the personal statement, they provide students with the opportunity to showcase their authentic voice and perspective beyond the quantitative elements of their applications. However, unlike the personal essay, supplemental essays allow colleges to read students’ responses to targeted prompts and evaluate their candidacy for their specific institution. For this reason, supplemental essay prompts are often abstract, requiring students to get creative, read between the lines, and ditch the traditional essay-writing format when crafting their responses.

While many schools simply want to know “why do you want to attend our school?” others break the mold, inviting students to think outside of the box and answer prompts that are original, head-scratching, or downright weird. This year, the following five colleges pushed students to get creative—if you’re struggling to rise to the challenge, here are some tips for tackling their unique prompts:

University of Chicago

Prompt: We’re all familiar with green-eyed envy or feeling blue, but what about being “caught purple-handed”? Or “tickled orange”? Give an old color-infused expression a new hue and tell us what it represents. – Inspired by Ramsey Bottorff, Class of 2026

What Makes it Unique: No discussion of unique supplemental essay prompts would be complete without mentioning the University of Chicago, a school notorious for its puzzling and original prompts (perhaps the most well-known of these has been the recurring prompt “Find x”). This prompt challenges you to invent a new color-based expression, encouraging both linguistic creativity and a deep dive into the emotional or cultural connotations of color. It’s a prompt that allows you to play with language, think abstractly, and show off your ability to forge connections between concepts that aren’t typically linked—all qualities that likewise demonstrate your preparedness for UChicago’s unique academic environment.

How to Answer it: While it may be easy to get distracted by the open-ended nature of the prompt, remember that both the substance and structure of your response should give some insight into your personality, perspective, and characteristics. With this in mind, begin by considering the emotions, experiences, or ideas that most resonate with you. Then, use your imagination to consider how a specific color could represent that feeling or concept. Remember that the prompt is ultimately an opportunity to showcase your creativity and original way of looking at the world, so your explanation does not need to be unnecessarily deep or complex—if you have a playful personality, convey your playfulness in your response; if you are known for your sarcasm, consider how you can weave in your biting wit; if you are an amateur poet, consider how you might take inspiration from poetry as you write, or offer a response in the form of a poem.

The goal is to take a familiar concept and turn it into something new and meaningful through a creative lens. Use this essay to showcase your ability to think inventively and to draw surprising connections between language and life.

Harvard University

Prompt: Top 3 things your roommates might like to know about you.

What Makes it Unique: This prompt is unique in both form and substance—first, you only have 150 words to write about all 3 things. Consider using a form other than a traditional essay or short answer response, such as a bullet list or short letter. Additionally, note that the things your roommate might like to learn about you do not necessarily overlap with the things you would traditionally share with an admissions committee. The aim of the prompt is to get to know your quirks and foibles—who are you as a person and a friend? What distinguishes you outside of academics and accolades?

How to Answer it: First and foremost, feel free to get creative with your response to this prompt. While you are producing a supplemental essay and thus a professional piece of writing, the prompt invites you to share more personal qualities, and you should aim to demonstrate your unique characteristics in your own voice. Consider things such as: How would your friends describe you? What funny stories do your parents and siblings share that encapsulate your personality? Or, consider what someone might want to know about living with you: do you snore? Do you have a collection of vintage posters? Are you particularly fastidious? While these may seem like trivial things to mention, the true creativity is in how you connect these qualities to deeper truths about yourself—perhaps your sleepwalking is consistent with your reputation for being the first to raise your hand in class or speak up about a cause you’re passionate about. Perhaps your living conditions are a metaphor for how your brain works—though it looks like a mess to everyone else, you have a place for everything and know exactly where to find it. Whatever qualities you choose, embrace the opportunity to think outside of the box and showcase something that admissions officers won’t learn about anywhere else on your application.

University of Pennsylvania

Prompt: Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge.

What Makes it Unique: Breaking from the traditional essay format, this supplement invites you to write directly to a third party in the form of a 150-200 word long letter. The challenge in answering this distinct prompt is to remember that your letter should say as much about you, your unique qualities and what you value as it does about the recipient—all while not seeming overly boastful or contrived.

How to Answer it: As you select a recipient, consider the relationships that have been most formative in your high school experience—writing to someone who has played a large part in your story will allow the admissions committee some insight into your development and the meaningful relationships that guided you on your journey. Once you’ve identified the person, craft a thank-you note that is specific and heartfelt—unlike other essays, this prompt invites you to be sentimental and emotional, as long as doing so would authentically convey your feelings of gratitude. Describe the impact they’ve had on you, what you’ve learned from them, and how their influence has shaped your path. For example, if you’re thanking a teacher, don’t just say they helped you become a better student—explain how their encouragement gave you the confidence to pursue your passions. Keep the tone sincere and personal, avoid clichés and focus on the unique role this person has played in your life.

University of Notre Dame

Prompt: What compliment are you most proud of receiving, and why does it mean so much to you?

What Makes it Unique: This prompt is unique in that it invites students to share something about themselves by reflecting on someone else’s words in 50-100 words.

How to Answer it: The key to answering this prompt is to avoid focusing too much on the complement itself and instead focus on your response to receiving it and why it was so important to you. Note that this prompt is not an opportunity to brag about your achievements, but instead to showcase what truly matters to you. Select a compliment that truly speaks to who you are and what you value. It could be related to your character, work ethic, kindness, creativity, or any other quality that you hold in high regard. The compliment doesn’t have to be grand or come from someone with authority—it could be something small but significant that left a lasting impression on you, or it could have particular meaning for you because it came from someone you didn’t expect it to come from. Be brief in setting the stage and explaining the context of the compliment—what is most important is your reflection on its significance and how it shaped your understanding of yourself.

Stanford University

Prompt: List five things that are important to you.

What Makes it Unique: This prompt’s simplicity is what makes it so challenging. Stanford asks for a list, not an essay, which means you have very limited space (50 words) to convey something meaningful about yourself. Additionally, the prompt does not specify what these “things” must be—they could be a physical item, an idea, a concept, or even a pastime. Whatever you choose, these five items should add depth to your identity, values, and priorities.

How to Answer it: Start by brainstorming what matters most to you—these could be values, activities, people, places, or even abstract concepts. The key is to choose items or concepts that, when considered together, provide a comprehensive snapshot of who you are. For example, you might select something tangible and specific such as “an antique telescope gifted by my grandfather” alongside something conceptual such as “the willingness to admit when you’re wrong.” The beauty of this prompt is that it doesn’t require complex sentences or elaborate explanations—just a clear and honest reflection of what you hold dear. Be thoughtful in your selections, and use this prompt to showcase your creativity and core values.

While the supplemental essays should convey something meaningful about you, your values, and your unique qualifications for the university to which you are applying, the best essays are those that are playful, original, and unexpected. By starting early and taking the time to draft and revise their ideas, students can showcase their authentic personalities and distinguish themselves from other applicants through their supplemental essays.

Which program are you applying to?

Accepted Admissions Blog

Everything you need to know to get Accepted

August 19, 2024

HEC Paris MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines [2024-2025], Class Profile

While the number of essays HEC Paris wants you to submit as part of its MBA application might initially be daunting, you should view them as a wonderful opportunity to share aspects of your whole self in telling your story. The adcom is looking to gain insight into your hopes, dreams, and accomplishments and into who you are as a person. They want to see that you are a well-rounded individual. They look beyond what you’ve done to assess how you think and respond, even how you imagine. 

Most importantly, HEC requires you to communicate complex thoughts and experiences directly. Don’t worry about waxing poetic here – you can approach the shorter essays in particular in a straightforward and succinct way. (But take care not to go over the word limit!) Jump right into your point or story, and use clear sentences without  (e.g., “had the opportunity to”). Don’t hesitate to use direct, declarative sentences. This writing approach has an added benefit: it conveys confidence.

Before you start writing your essays, sit down and brainstorm. Sketch out ideas for all of the school’s essays so that when you go to write them, you can tell a full story. After putting the puzzle pieces of your story together in an outline, step back to assess how the facets add up as a whole, and adjust topics as necessary to avoid redundancy and ensure a well-rounded presentation – one that will make the adcom feel they must invite you for an interview!

Ready to get to work on your HEC application essays? Read on.

HEC application essay tips

Hec application deadlines, hec class profile.

Why are you applying to the HEC MBA Program now? What is the professional objective that will guide your career choice after your MBA, and how will the HEC MBA contribute to the achievement of this objective? (500 words maximum)

This is a traditional goals question , with a couple of twists. Your best bet is to answer these questions in order and in a direct fashion. Don’t overthink it. Tell the adcom why you want an MBA now, what your goals are, and why you want to attend HEC. Follow this approach: 

• First, the “why now” part should be explicitly addressed, even if it seems obvious. Doing so briefly is fine; your overall essay should ultimately make this case.
• Second, your “professional objective” is essentially your long-term career vision. The question implies that this vision or goal will drive your preceding steps, so present your shorter-term goals in that context: show how they pave the way for you to pursue and achieve your ultimate professional objective.
• Be brief but specific when discussing the HEC MBA. Tie aspects of its program directly to the achievement of your goals, and detail the two or three elements of the program that are most meaningful to you.

Finally, connect the dots. If well done, this essay will convey how your goals grow organically from your experience and are achievable given your previous experience and an MBA from HEC.

What do you consider your most significant life achievement? (250 words maximum)

Because you’re applying to a professional degree program, it can be tempting to write primarily or exclusively about your work experiences and goals – don’t. Here, HEC wants to learn about you as a person, so don’t tell them about the biggest deal or project you completed. Imagine, for example, that you state that boosting your organization’s bottom line (by whatever amount) is your greatest life achievement. The adcom might wonder about your values or whether you really have a life! On the other hand, if you can say that at work you saved jobs or lessened negative environmental impacts or were instrumental in developing a new medical advancement, that would be more substantial and could possibly fit the bill. Or, if moving to another country and building your career there has been your biggest achievement, that’s fine – but talk about the situation in a way that gives context to the impact on your life, rather than focusing on the work itself. 

For most people, this story will be personal. I think about clients who have persevered through, managed, and overcome major family crises. For others, it will involve impact with community, religious, and/or social organizations or groups; for yet others, it could involve a major milestone, such as a national sports ranking or photo exhibit or music performance.

Whatever topic you select, you have only 250 words, so simply narrate the story , and include the results or impact. It would be fine to have a sentence or two of reflection on why the experience is so meaningful to you, but don’t make a long explanation. The reason should be clear from the content.

Leadership and ethics are inevitably intertwined in the business world. Describe a situation in which you have dealt with these issues and how they have influenced you. (250 words maximum)

It feels like we hear about a new scandal in the business world on a daily basis, so that ensuring students have a fundamental grasp on business ethics is becoming increasingly important for MBA programs. HEC wants to make sure you have a strong moral compass when it comes to business, so even though you might not have had the level of seniority that would impact a major business crisis at this point in your career, no doubt you’ve had myriad opportunities to do the right thing when presented with an alternative. 

Again, keep the structure of your essay simple: tell the story, and end with a brief discussion of how the experience has influenced you. Don’t feel the need to present an overly dramatic story; many such situations are gray, not black and white. It might feel like a challenge to identify an experience that encompasses both leadership and ethics. However, addressing an ethics challenge will almost inherently require leadership (even if informal), whether on your part or someone else’s. When you explain how the situation influenced you , don’t just state generalities; give a specific example.

Imagine a life entirely different from the one you now lead, what would it be? (250 words maximum)

This essay is another opportunity to reveal a different side of yourself. I would use this as a chance to talk about something you are passionate about, such as a hobby or interest. If you’re not sure how to answer this, think about what you loved to do when you were a kid or something you have always wanted to learn or do.

Describe an imagined life that reflects something meaningful to you . Make it vivid, and show your passion . Note that the question does not ask what you would do if you were not in your current life/role; it asks you to imagine a life. Use that openness to express your creativity. In doing so, however, avoid being abstract. Weave in and employ your actual knowledge and experience; for example, if you love sports and are an avid athlete, you could build your imagined life in a way that portrays your knowledge and passion there. The reader should learn something interesting about you and your prospective contribution to the social milieu of the HEC program. 

Please choose from one of the following essays: (250 words maximum)

a) What monument or site would you advise a first-time visitor to your country or city to discover, and why? b) Certain books, movies or plays have had an international success that you believe to be undeserved. Choose an example and analyze it. c) What figure do you most admire and why? You may choose from any field (arts, literature, politics, business, etc.).

All these options are equally good, so choose the one that resonates most with you – the one that you want to answer. This is another opportunity to showcase your interests and passions. The “why” part is key. Avoid platitudes, be specific, and present focused, fresh insights.

Is there any additional information you would like to share with us?(900 words max)

This question invites you to explain anything that needs explaining (e.g., a gap in employment, choice of recommender, a bad grade) as well as to present new material that will enhance your application. If you choose to do the latter, make sure that what you offer contributes to a clear and full picture of your candidacy. The school gives you a lot of words to work with, but don’t think that you must use all 900! As with any essay, convey what you need to without excess. 

Source: HEC Paris website

The school notes, “The HEC Paris MBA attracts the best candidates from all over the world. Due to the large number of applications that we receive, we encourage you to apply as early as possible, especially if you require on-campus housing or need a student visa.”

***Disclaimer: Information is subject to change. Please check with HEC directly to verify its essay questions, instructions and deadlines.***

Here is a look at HEC’s Class of 2025 (data taken from the Paris HEC brochure ).

Number of participants: 235

Nationalities: 49

Average age: 30

International participants: 95%

Average years of work experience: 6

Average GMAT: 690

Geographic Origins:

• Asia and Oceania: 56%
• Europe: 16%
• Latin America: 11%
• Africa and Middle East: 9%
• North America: 8%

For expert guidance with your HEC Paris MBA application, schedule a free consultation with an experienced admissions consultant. We’ve helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to top MBA programs and look forward to helping you, too!

Kara Keenan Sweeney has more than 15 years of experience in MBA admissions, having worked for some of the world’s top business school programs, including Columbia Business School, INSEAD, and The Lauder Institute’s joint degree MA/MBA program with The Wharton School and the MA/JD program with Penn Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Kara has guided, coached, and counseled thousands of MBA and EMBA applicants, reviewed innumerable applications, sat on admissions committees, and interviewed countless applicants, including while running Wharton’s Team Based Discussions both virtually and in person. Want Kara to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! 

Related Resources:

• How to Get into HEC Paris MBA , podcast Episode 565
• Optional and Open-Ended Essay Questions: What’s the Best Strategy?
• Should I Use AI for My MBA (Grad/College) Applications? 

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