Writing Academic English 4th Edition

TheWritingProcess,Step4:Polishing..

Mteryouwritetheroughdraft,thenextstepistoreviseit.Whenyourevise,you

changewhatyouhavewrittentoimproveit.Youcheckit forcontentandorganiza-

tion,includingunity,coherence,andlogic.Youcanchange,rearrange,add,ordelete,

allforthegoalofcommunicatingyourthoughtsina clearer,moreeffective,andmore

interestingway.

Duringthefirstrevision,donottrytocorrectgrammar,sentencestructure,

spelling,orpunctuation;thisisproofreading,whichyouwilldolater.Duringthe

firstrevision,beconcernedmainlywithcontentandorganization.

• Readoveryourparagraphcarefullyforageneraloverview.Focusonthe
  generalaspectsofthepaperand makenotesinthemarginsaboutrewriting
  thepartsthatneedtobeimproved.


• Checktoseethatyouhaveachievedyourstatedpurpose,


• Checkforgenerallogicandcoherence.Youraudienceshouldbeableto
  followyourideaseasilyandunderstandwhatyouhavewritten.


• Checktomakesurethatyourparagraphhasa topicsentenceandthatthe
  topicsentencehasa central(main)focus.


• Checkforunity.Crossoutsentencesthatareoffthetopic.


• Checktomake surethatthetopicsentenceisdevelopedwithsufficient
  supportingdetails.Doeseachparagraphgivethereaderenoughinformation
  tounderstandthemainidea?Ifthemainpointlackssufficientinformation,
  makenotesinthemarginsuchas"addmoredetails"or"addanexample."


• Checkyouruseoftransitionsignals.


• Finally,doesyour paragraphhaveorneeda concludingsentence?Ifyou
  wrotea finalcomment,isit onthetopic?

AppendixA ITheProcessofAcademicWriting '173

Thefourthandfinalstepinthewritingprocessis polishingwhatyouhavewritten.

Thisstepisalsocalledrevisingandediting.Polishingismostsuccessfulifyoudo

it intwostages.First,attackthebigissuesofcontentandorganization(revising).

Thenworkonthesmallerissuesofgrammarandpunctuation(editing).

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MODEL.

Step4A.:

Relli§ing

FirstRoughDraft