A Guide to Revising and Editing - 10 Tips on How to Revise a Paper or Essay

The question of how to revise a paper or revise an essay comes up often in this line of work. Rewriting is another common service among students who have received a poor grade on their work but have been given an opportunity to improve before being assigned a final grade.

The rules of improving your writing share a lot of similarities with other self-improvement goals. You need to be honest about your assets and your deficits, without getting arrogant or defensive. But those things are lifelong work and you probably need to improve your writing before you retire. Below is an excellent revising and editing checklist that will help teach you how to revise an essay with more ease.

1. Take a break before you start editing or rewriting. Giving yourself at least a full day will give you the best results, but do the best you can. You may not have time to wait an entire day once you are done writing, though. In that case, before you start editing work on another class, take a walk or a shower, or have a meal. Switching activities or your environment briefly will help you clear your mind a bit before editing. Without this step, there is a tendency for the brain to fill in what you meant to say and what you remember, rather than registering what actually made it to the page.
2. Print out a hard copy or your paper. Changing the medium and presentation of the paper is a big help. If you cannot print your essay, then transfer it to a different electronic medium, like another computer, phone, or tablet. Either of these will help you see the paper with fewer of the limits of habit. If you don’t have access to another personal device, try a school computer lab or save the paper in Publisher or some other format. If none of these is an option, change the font, including the size and change the margins on your paper.
3. Go from big to small. Look at the broad organization of your essay rather than individual sentences. Skim it, looking at it from a mental distance and check for a good flow from one paragraph to the next. This means looking at what each paragraph is about. Does one chapter talk about rain, the next discuss cats, and the third rain again? If so, do you need change the paragraphs around? Maybe you need them to be in that order, but they need better transitions for the reader. Do this before you start worrying about your commas.
4. Make sure your essay matches your thesis. Is your thesis about how cats are the greatest pet in the world? Make sure the content of your paper is not that dogs are lousy pets. This kind of logical error is common for younger writers, do not be embarrassed! The good news is that it is often easy to fix once you learn to see it. Try this: bold your thesis statement and then copy and paste it every couple of paragraphs. As you read through your paper, look at the thesis statement again and ask yourself if and how that paragraph develops or supports it.
5. Read the sentences aloud and slowly. This will help you avoid filling in words that you have dropped. When you read silently, you tend to read quickly and to, for lack of a better word, autofill. Reading aloud will slow you down, which will help you see things that you might have missed.
6. Read from the back to the front. Reading the sentences out of order can help you make sure that each sentence is grammatically sound and logical on its own. Sometimes, it can help you improve the organization of your essay. Even reading it backward, you should see how the sentences and paragraphs link together.
7. Read the paper aloud in different voices. Try reading it aloud as though you are angry, tired, happy, etc. This is another good method to override your autofill. If it works for you, take it further and incorporate gestures. The gestures do not even have to match, in fact, overly dramatic gestures can help you stay focuses and turn off the tendency to read automatically. If you are comfortable with it, have someone else read it aloud to you. Listen carefully and take notes when if you think of things, but do not read along with your own copy – make sure you are listening.
8. Learn how to use the grammar checker like a pro. When a spelling or grammar checker finds an error in your paper, look it up and learn more about it. If you notice that the checker repeatedly finds the same thing like misplaced commas, split infinitives, or passive voice, then it is time to do a bit of studying on how to properly use those things. For example, split infinitives and passive voice are not always incorrect, and it is important to know when the grammar checker is right or wrong. This will improve your paper immediately and your writing over time.
9. Avoid dramatic declarations. They can feel like powerful writing because they are emotive, but they tend to be false, error laden, transparent, and, worst of all, annoying to a grader. Outside of a debate format where goading or a little bit of antagonism is sometimes welcome or encouraged, big statements do not belong in academic works.
10. If this all seems like something you have done and it’s still not working, consider hiring a professional to edit or rewrite your paper. This can be especially useful with projects you have labored over for a long time. After working on something for too long it can become almost impossible to see it with fresh eyes. In that case, it can be in your best interests to pass it along.

Editing and rewriting are skill sets that need to be developed. Just as you do not become a better cook without cooking and eating new things, you do not become a better editor without trying new techniques and sometimes tasting others’ wares.