revision guides

Recall that one of the main goals of this course is to convince you that writing is a process, one that requires thinking, planning, and multiple drafts. Revision is integral to this process. As you evaluate your writing along the way, keep in mind that your aim is not to revise all issues with a piece of writing at once; instead, view revision, too, as a process. Systematically review the elements of your work, moving from global considerations such as organization, structure and content, through paragraph-level notions of unity and flow, to sentence- and word-level issues such as grammar, syntax, and spelling. The links below provide additional reinforcement on this process.


In-class activities:
The overriding point of peer review is not to tear essays apart but to help improve them for the next draft. Although you will submit your essays to me for grading, you should also consider your classmates as writing colleagues and therefore part of your target audience. This acknowledgement should help as you approach the peer review activities for each assignment. Also remember as you review to be constructive, detailed, and specific. All comments should include a "because" phrase to explain your rationale.  

• Reverse Outlining (in-class activity): focusing on structure and content
• Applying the rubric: working in groups to evaluate essay 1
• Draft one Google Drive exercise: using online tools for document sharing and review
• Paragraph cutting exercise: focusing on the paragraph as a discrete unit
• Paragraph explosion exercise: reordering sentences in a paragraph to consider structure and content
• Sentence-level activity: with a list of phrases to avoid
• Paramedic Method: using concepts from Richard Lanham's Revising Prose
• TEAL paragraph template: assess the structure and development of paragraphs with this helpful acronym

On-line revision guides:

• Purdue OWL
• Constructing an argumentative thesis statement
• Steps for revising 
• Reverse outlining
• Reverse Paramedic Method
• Other links
• Integrating quotations 
• Writing a Thesis and making an argument 

View the "final draft reflection" questions to accompany each major assignment.