Revising & Editing Academic Writing

RevisingReal revision is more than making a few minor adjustments. It requires being open to the idea that parts of your paper (and sometimes the entire paper) might need to be re-thought and re-written.

Remember:You do NOT work best under pressure.You are NOT the most brilliant the first

time around.Your paper is NOT perfect the way it is.Sometimes you must kill your darlings.

The basics:

Dealing with the Big Picture

Paragraphs

Editing& ProofreadingEditing is the process of fixing minor problems related to style.

Proofreading is the correction of mistakes in punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

Tips:

Parallelism:

Common usage errors: Accept/ except Affect/effect there/their/they’re we’re, where/were your/you’re to/too/two It/it’s

Commas: Indicate a pause is needed in a sentence. Separate clauses, phrases, and items in a

list.

Where would you put the comma?

The rule:

Where would you put the comma?

The rule:

Where would you put the commas?

The rule:

How would you correct the following comma splice?

The rule:

Sources Adapted from“Revising Drafts.” The

Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/revision.html

and “Conquering the Comma.” Purdue University Online Writing Lab. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/692/1/