Sometimes it means adding or deleting material for balance or emphasis. Have I chosen the best coordinating or subordinating conjunctions to join clauses? Sometimes writers get caught up in the moment and cannot resist a good digression. You also need to train your eye and trust your ability to fix what needs fixing. Determine if the suggested revisions are appropriate to the audience. Avoid passive voice when you can. Plasma screens show truer blacks and can be viewed at a wider angle than current LCD screens. Listen for the clarity and flow of your ideas. When
Cut through the extra words or vagueness or digression; get back to the energy. You know what you are trying to say, but it may not be clear to everyone else. Some professional proofreaders read a text backward so they can concentrate on spelling and punctuation. Can I find any spelling errors? The life cycle of an organization is important to consider when making decisions about the organization’s structure and design. One of the reasons why word-processing programs build in a reviewing feature is that workgroups have become a common feature in many businesses. Now return once more to your essay in progress. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2007. Anson, Chris and Robert Schwegler. These words and phrases help the writing flow smoothly.
Here are some common examples of wordiness to look for in your draft. Effective formal writing uses specific, appropriate words and avoids slang, contractions, clichés, and overly general words. Screen resolution means the number of horizontal scan lines the screen can show. When the writing has coherence, the ideas flow smoothly. Some writers are very methodical and painstaking when they write a first draft.
In order to trim things down, though, you first have to have plenty of material on the page. 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. So far, all your changes have been content changes. Do not hesitate to ask for help, too, from peer tutors in your academic department or in the college’s writing lab. How do you get the best out of your revisions and editing? Writing for Success by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. 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. New York: Longman, 2002. 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. Web designers seek better images, a more clever design, or a more appealing background for their web pages. Check the focus of the paper: Is it appropriate to the assignment? 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, The Writing Center
Have I written abbreviations, where allowed, correctly? Chapter 8: The Writing Process: How Do I Begin? That’s called proofreading. Read it straight through a second time to find problems with coherence. If this happens (and it will if you think long enough), then you have several choices. Revised: As a world leader in green technology, the company plans to focus on geothermal energy.
Better that than having the teacher trash your final paper.
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. Use forceful verbs—replace long verb phrases with a more specific verb. Now here the salespeople may finally give you decent info. 2.
11.2 Steps in Developing a Research Proposal, 11.4 Strategies for Gathering Reliable Information, 11.5 Critical Thinking and Research Applications, 11.6 Writing from Research: End-of-Chapter Exercises, 12.1 Creating a Rough Draft for a Research Paper, 12.2 Developing a Final Draft of a Research Paper, 12.3 Writing a Research Paper: End-of-Chapter Exercises, Chapter 13: APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting, 13.4 Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Style, 13.5 APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting: End-of-Chapter Exercises, Chapter 14: Creating Presentations: Sharing Your Ideas, 14.2 Incorporating Effective Visuals into a Presentation, 14.4 Creating Presentations: End-of-Chapter Exercises. Does the writing say what you want it to say? 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. Title of essay: ____________________________________________, Date: ____________________________________________, Writer’s name: ____________________________________________, Peer reviewer’s name: _________________________________________. Many writers make their revisions on a printed copy and then transfer them to the version on-screen. A report as to whether or not to use geysers as an energy source is in the process of preparation. Read carefully for problems with word choice. You examine your spelling, grammar, usage, and punctuation. 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.
Both are very important elements of the writing process. Large flat-panel plasma screens are much more expensive than flat-screen LCD models. What I most liked about this essay is____________________________________________. Readers notice when every sentence has the same rhythm as every other sentence, with no variety. That’s OK. For more information on the subject, see our handout on proofreading. You might get feedback from more than one reader as you share different stages of your revised draft. Elbow, Peter. Now read the revisions Mariah made to make her third paragraph clearer and more concise. Are tense forms, especially for irregular verbs, written correctly? Many times, these tasks are done on a freelance basis, with one freelancer working for a variety of clients. Try making your sentences as concise as they can be. Remember to budget time for careful editing and proofreading. The purpose of peer feedback is to receive constructive criticism of your essay. 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’. Sentences with constructions that can be shortened. Also, don’t think of revision as just rewording. For more information visit our handout on. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial. For example, replace “She argues for the importance of the idea” with “She defends the idea.”. Sentences that begin with There is or There are. If not, what would make it better. I wrote six drafts of this handout. The goal is for you to become a good writer, independent of other peoples help, and so you need to be able to answer the above questions yourself. Find out where your school’s writing lab is located and ask about the assistance they provide online and in person. Micro Revising Paying attention to sentences, words, punctuation, and grammar-including ways to create emphasis and eliminate wordiness. 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. Or is your composing style somewhere in between?
You need to evaluate the responses you receive according to two important criteria: Then, using these standards, accept or reject revision feedback. Is there anything you need to add or cut out? Another tip is to read the paper out loud. If a better thesis comes along, let go of the old one. Chapter 11: Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?
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.”. A spelling checker cannot recognize that you meant to write principle but wrote principal instead. Table 8.3 “Common Transitional Words and Phrases”, Chapter 4 “Working with Words: Which Word Is Right?”, Next: 8.5 The Writing Process: End-of-Chapter Exercises, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Editing and proofreading your writing helps you create a finished work that represents your best efforts. Be sure that your draft is written in formal language and that your word choice is specific and appropriate. Is the antecedent of every pronoun clear? 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. 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).
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. Sometimes it means revising the thesis to match what you’ve discovered while writing. Monday 10 am-8 pm EDT Tuesday 10 am-10 pm EDT Wednesday 8 am-8 pm EDT Thursday 10 am-8 pm EDT Friday 10 am-4 pm EDT Saturday Closed Sunday 3 pm-7 pm EDT, © 2020 The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License. Exchange essays with a classmate and complete a peer review of each other’s draft in progress. Sometimes it means shifting the order of your paper to help the reader follow your argument, or to change the emphasis of your points. If the outline makes sense, then the essay will make sense. The one additional change you could make that would improve this essay significantly is ____________________________________________. You are proud of what you wrote, but you might be too close to it to make changes. You may follow this same practice during many stages of the writing process. The 1080p televisions cost more, though, so those are what the salespeople want you to buy. Plasma flat-panel television screens can be much larger in diameter than their LCD rivals. 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. 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 . Proofreading requires patience; it is very easy to read past a mistake. Although it is tempting to correct them immediately, it is probably better to wait until you have finished revising the writing.