Revising, Proofreading and Editing

Order Description
Revising is not the same task as editing and proofreading. You are revising when you read the entire essay with a critical eye and make substantive changes. Sometimes you will need to remove an
entire section of your essay. Sometimes you will need to add a new paragraph or to add supporting details to an existing paragraph. At other times you will need to rearrange paragraphs to improve
the organization. To revise effectively, apply most or all of the steps outlined on pages 62-63 in Back to the Lake. Only after you revise the essay will you be ready to proofread and edit sentence
and word-level concerns. You are editing and proofreading when you identify errors in grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, word choice, and spelling.To edit and proofread effectively, apply
most or all of the tips outlined on pages 71-74 in Back to the Lake.
Part I: Revise
Read the draft of your essay now with a critical eye toward these important elements:
An Effective Title: Does the title indicate the point of the essay and capture the reader’s attention? If not, try changing the title.
A Clear Focus: Does your essay contain a clear thesis statement? Is the thesis statement too broad or too narrow for the body paragraphs that follow? Writers often find that the best time to edit a
thesis statement is once you have written the body paragraphs.
Sufficient Information for Your Audience: Have you left out important background information or the definition of a special term that your readers need to fully understand your ideas?
Adequate Support for Your Thesis: Have you used sufficient evidence in the form of real-life examples, facts, or material from other sources like quotations? If more supporting detail would
strengthen your essay, add it now.
Organization: Does your essay have a clear beginning, middle, and end? If the assignment calls for a specific type of organization, like part-by-part comparison and contrast, have you been
consistent in the use of that pattern?
Topic Sentences: Does each body paragraph contain an effective topic sentence that indicates the cause or the effect that will be the focus of the paragraph?
Paragraph Support and Paragraph Unity: Does each body paragraph thoroughly develop the topic sentence? Is each body paragraph unified? Are any of the body paragraphs too short? How well do you flow
from one paragraph to the next? Do you need to add transitions?
Once you have made all of the necessary changes to your essay draft, select one paragraph which required the greatest number of revisions and include that paragraph in your assignments (this is
Part I).

Part II: Proofreading and Editing
Read the draft of the essay again, this time concentrating on the sentences: the grammar and word choice.

Sentence Correctness: On your copy of the essay, note any errors of sentence structure, punctuation, word choice, and spelling. If you are unsure about correctness, review the grammar tutorials on
complete sentences, verbs, parallelism and pronouns, and punctuation and capitalization. Also, refer to the appropriate chapters of The Little Seagull Handbook for additional help. Add any required
changes to your essay.

Once you have made all of the necessary changes to your essay draft, select one paragraph which required the greatest number of sentence- and word-level edits and include that paragraph in your
assignments (this is Part II).

Part III: Reflection
Once you have selected two paragraphs to include (Part I and Part II above), write a one-paragraph explanation of the changes you made. How do these changes strengthen your essay? Type this
reflection paragraph (Part III) at the bottom of your document.