C h a p t e r 3
Revising
Y
ou have finished the prewriting and writing steps. You have studied how to write
good sentences, good paragraphs, and good multi-paragraph papers. Now you
are ready to revise.
During the process of revising, the really tough part of writing takes place. True, you
have worked hard to write your paper, and now you are merely making changes. The
writing that occurs during the revision process, however, makes a mediocre paper
a good paper. Revision adds variety, emphasis, coherence, transition, and detail.
Revision eliminates wordiness, irrelevancies, and inconsistencies. Revision polishes,
hones, and perfects. Thus, most professional writers agree that the real work comes
in the revising.
So what happens in the process of revising? A writer looks at virtually everything
involved in writing: structure, organization, and emphasis. He thinks about ways to
make his paper more interesting, either by content or by structure.
In this section, you look at the parts of revision one at a time. As you revise any
paper, follow not only the suggestions for revision for that particular kind of paper as
outlined in the respective sections of Parts II or III, but make sure you consider each
of these general revision principles as well.
Cross-references are listed in most of the following steps. Thus, if you need addi-
tional information, you will know where to look.
STEP 1: Checking Structure—Multi-Paragraph Papers
If you have written a multi-paragraph paper, ask yourself the following questions to
check its structure:
• Does the multi-paragraph paper begin with an introductory paragraph that
includes an attention-getting device? [See Writing a Multi-Paragraph Paper in
Chapter 2 and attention-getter in the Glossary.]
• Does the paper include a thesis sentence? [See Writing a Multi-Paragraph
Paper in Chapter 2 for a thorough discussion of effective thesis sentences and
their development.]
• Does the thesis sentence state or imply the content of each of the body
paragraphs that follow it?
• Does the thesis sentence establish the order of the body paragraphs?
• Does the theme maintain unity throughout?