8.4 Revising and Editing
Key Takeaways
- Revising and editing are the stages of the writing process in which you improve your work before producing a final draft.
- You add, cut, move, or change information during revising 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 to improve your editing skills, including editing checklists, peer editing, and your institution’s writing lab.
This is from “Revising and Editing,” section 8.4 of the book Successful Writing (v. 1.0). For details on it (including licensing), click here.
“About to write something on planning theory. #urbanplanning #nigeltaylor #postit #notes #handwriting #essay #phd” by demoshelsinki is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
“MS Word feature set” by Rob Enslin is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
