Writing process
13 Revising
General
Good writing tends to be largely a matter of good revising (Gastel & Day, 2017). Revising drafts requires taking a step back to see it more from the reader’s perspective. Revising also means making large scale changes to the draft of your writing assignment. Changes during the revising stage typically involve re-developing and redrafting paragraphs, sections in your paper’s main body, and parts of your introduction and conclusion.
While revising, you may have to return to the planning stage (Choosing “A piece of the pie”) if you find that a sub-section of your paper is weak, and you may need to do some more reading, discussing, or brainstorming to generate ideas for drafting additional materials. You may also return to the drafting stage if you find that your assignment lacks organisation in part or overall.
By moving back and forth between the first steps of your writing (planning, drafting, revising), your central argument and supporting arguments will begin to emerge, and you will find that they are gradually strengthened.
Checklist for overall revision
A checklist for revising your work:
- Does your paper fulfil the formal requirements (length etc)?
- Does your paper answer all parts of the assignment brief?
- Does your paper have a clear research question or focus? Does it clearly state the purpose of the investigation?
- Do the individual sections of the paper have the right weight, i.e. is the paper well balanced?
- Is your paper clearly structured? Does the research question or purpose determine the red thread? Is the structure logical?
- Is your text coherent? Does the reader understand the link between each part and paragraph or are there any gaps?
- Have you included convincing evidence for each key point?
- Have you given full explanation of each point?
- Is each claim/ idea/ fact supported by evidence?
- Are quotes well integrated?
- Does every part of the text follow the conventions such as those for abstracts, introductions or conclusion?
Checklist for individual parts
Introduction/ Introductory Paragraph
- Have you provided enough contextual information to introduce your topic to the reader?
- Have you defined key terms?
- Have you narrowed and focused the topic?
- Have you introduced the main sub-sections?
Main Body/ Series of Paragraphs
- Have you created a strong thread of argument throughout your paper connecting the individual points/ paragraphs to your main focus?
- Have you created clear sub-sections? Is each introduced and summed up, with transition sentences linking each sub-section?
- Have you given evidence to support each point, with thorough explanations?
- Have you provided clear in-text citations for all sources?
Conclusion/ Concluding Paragraph
- Is the focus of your paper reiterated and developed at the end of the main body section, just prior to the conclusion?
- Are the main points that you made in the sub-sections of the paper’s main body summed up here?
- Are your conclusions opened out to apply to industry or professional practice if appropriate?
Try these revision techniques:
1) Ask a friend to read the draft and comment on the quality of your main focus and supporting points in the light of the assignment brief.
2) After writing your first draft, give yourself a few days, then look again at the criteria and re-read the draft.
