Essay Revision and Editing Guidelines

After your essay is written, you find yourself one-step away from its accomplishment. And though the biggest and the most time-consuming job is done, there is still some work to do. Your next steps are revision and editing of your paper.

A well-written essay must contain neither grammatical nor typographical mistakes. As a writer you must avoid confusing statements or sentences, which make the reader puzzle out what they are about. Avoid tautology and plague words. Your paper must come easily and look naturally at a glance.

Revision takes time

If you have a lot of time, you can work on your paper more properly. Do not hesitate to take breaks between revisions, look through your essay several times. More often than not, it is hard to tell if there are any mistakes right after writing is completed or even during the same day. Don’t be afraid to let your paper lie for a couple of days and return to it with a fresh look.

While revising, take notice of the following:

• Does the plot of your essay reveals the statement of the topic?
• Do all of the ideas make sense?
• Is the line of thought structured logically?
• Does anything look confusing?
• Are there any sentences that seem hard to read or to understand?
• Are there any sentences that do not fit the plot and need to be removed?

Answer these questions. If you said “Yes” to one or more of them, your essay needs to be edited.

Now it’s time to edit

Editing refers to replacing some parts of an essay. Sometimes you need just to put some sentences in other words. Try to look at your paper not as a writer but as your target audience:

• What are the strongest and weakest points of your essay?
• Are there any statements that do not cover the topic?
• Put questions to each paragraph and think if all the sentences answer them properly.
• How can your essay or some particular statements be improved or reworded?

The aforementioned guidelines suppose that you have enough time for the revision and editing process. If not, plan your writing in advance. Follow each word and every thought you write down. The fewer mistakes you make while writing, the stricter your ideas are, the less time you will need to revise and edit your essay.

Always remember to double-check your paper before submitting it.

Hope that the advices in this article from the authors of College writers will help you.