Editing Checklist and Tips
When we edit a draft or revise our papers, we need to read it as a reader would - not as writers who stayed up all night working on it, with our heads still swirling with our own ideas. The following checklist will help you to see your work coolly, objectively, and critically. This page also includes special tips for English Language Learners.
Set Aside Time for the Basics
- 陇&苍产蝉辫; Review the assignment guidelines carefully. Remember this describes expectations for a successful paper.
陇&苍产蝉辫; Read your draft more than once, with extra time (and sleep) in between readings.
陇&苍产蝉辫; Offer your draft to another reader to see what they find clear, well-defended, and logical. The Writing Center has trained employees who can help with this step!
Edit Your Central Claims
- 陇&苍产蝉辫; Look closely at the first paragraph, including the thesis. Is the main point of this paper clearly expressed? Where is it?
陇&苍产蝉辫; Create a 鈥渟entence outline鈥� by summarizing each body paragraph in a single statement.
- 鈫� Compare your sentence outline statements with the language in your topic sentences
(the first sentence of each body paragraph). Are the main ideas stated as clearly
as possible?
鈫� Pay attention to the flow of ideas. Can you use transitions or connecting language to guide readers smoothly through each step?
鈫� Ensure that each paragraph essentially works to support each topic sentence, one key statement at a time. Don鈥檛 go off-topic or mix main ideas.
- 鈫� Compare your sentence outline statements with the language in your topic sentences
(the first sentence of each body paragraph). Are the main ideas stated as clearly
as possible?
Edit for Responsible Sourcework
- 陇&苍产蝉辫; Highlight any information supplied by other sources. Double-check all your citations and ensure you are using key terms correctly. Tip: If your paragraphs or topic sentences are mostly information you found from other sources, you may not be developing your own ideas.
陇&苍产蝉辫; Highlight claims and ideas that basically come from your thinking (i.e., ideas not supplied by other authors and sources). Are your own ideas clear? And look critically at any sentences that aren鈥檛 from a source or from your own thinking鈥搘here did they come from.
陇&苍产蝉辫; Make sure you include words that signal whether you are discussing someone else鈥檚 ideas or your own thinking. It may help to arrange these 鈥渞eporting鈥� and 鈥渄iscussion鈥� passages into separate, dedicated steps for added clarity.
Edit for Clear, Direct Language
- 陇&苍产蝉辫; Look for any multi-word phrases that can be replaced by a shorter, more direct word or phrase.
陇&苍产蝉辫; Identify any strings of extra, optional phrases. Ensure that you are placing these bits of information in different spots around the sentence (the beginning, middle, and end) and not all in one place.
Review the page on Style and Clarity for more about this step.
TIPS FOR EDITING YOUR ESSAYS
The Logical Problem of Editing Your Own Writing
The most helpful decision you can make is to share your draft with a real, human reader.
Readers can often see our writing in ways we can鈥檛. Importantly, they often won鈥檛
know what you are hoping to communicate; instead, they have to rely on your writing
to find an answer.
So ask them to report what they understood or to identify moments they found unclear.
Ask them how they interpreted your language (i.e., what a statement 鈥渕eans鈥� to them).
Remember that it鈥檚 possible for others to interpret your writing in ways you don鈥檛
expect鈥攐r to have trouble understanding some moments entirely. This is priceless
feedback.
Two Ways of Reading Your Own Writing
To help improve the clarity and precision of your own writing, try to imagine two different, imaginary 鈥渞eaders鈥� you can bring in to examine your work. The two readers have different priorities, but both readers embrace something critical to good college writing.
Reader One: The Clear Reader
One kind of reader seeks smooth, clear movement through your sentences. This reader wants ideas to be explained so they can understand without too much effort鈥攍ike during an engaging presentation. They prefer direct, straightforward language that doesn鈥檛 waste time with fluff, filler, or needlessly long phrases. Even when the topic is serious or complex, they want the writing to be accessible and understandable. After reading, they should be able to summarize the main points easily.
Tips to help you edit for clarity and directness:
- 陇 Use your own voice鈥攗se words you know. Sometimes just saying your ideas aloud leads to the clearest explanation.
陇&苍产蝉辫; For sentences that seem tied into knots: Explain it to a 6th grader. Explain it three different ways. Explain it as simply or as quickly as you can. Sometimes making a graph or flowchart can help. Sometimes trying again after sleeping works like magic.
陇&苍产蝉辫; Watch your sentence length. Shorter sentences written in plain (but not sloppy or informal) language are easier to understand鈥攁nd easier to edit.
陇 Think in terms of actors and actions: 鈥淲hat (or who) does what?鈥� Plain subjects and verbs will create more direct and lively sentences. For example, instead of saying 鈥淪leep quantity is associated with better academic outcomes for students,鈥� try this: 鈥淪tudents who get more sleep often perform better in school.鈥�
Reader Two: The Careful Reader
The second type of reader is slower and more careful, more like a lawyer reading a
contract before a client signs it. This reader wants to be sure that language is unmistakably clear.
This reader is eager to find moments that are misleading, vague, or factually incorrect,
so they take great care to understand every word and its role in the sentence. They
physically slow down to help them read more cautiously and double-check their understanding as they go.
After finishing the text, this reader wants to feel confident that the words on the
page entirely capture what the author 鈥渕eans.鈥�
Tips to help you edit for precise, error-free sentences:
- 陇&苍产蝉辫; Slow down the pace of your reading, or take one phrase at a time. Every word matters.
陇&苍产蝉辫; Identify words or phrases that could mean more than one thing. Could another reader see that same language and arrive at a different understanding? What if they wanted to do that鈥搃n order to prove your claim wrong, for instance?
陇&苍产蝉辫; Take special note of words or phrases that naturally point or connect to something else. For example, if you use the connecting word 鈥渨hich,鈥� draw a line in your mind to the closest idea to the left. 鈥淲hich鈥� should usually refer to that idea. Similarly, if you use the phrase 鈥渞esulting in鈥︹�� after a comma, draw a line back to what caused that result. If you can鈥檛 find it or it鈥檚 on the other side of a long sentence, there is likely a problem.
陇&苍产蝉辫; It is often helpful to temporarily remove any grammatically optional elements from the sentence so you can see its core structure or the relation between elements. Besides noticing big gaps between connected ideas, this method helps you see the simple grammar error in a sentence like this:
"After a decline from 2000-2010, the proportion of families with two working parents have increased relative to single-earner households."
Special Tips for ELL Writers
English Language Learners (ELL's) often face the same classic challenges as native
speaking writers. First, they are learning how to use language that's new to them,
especially discipline-specific words and phrases. Second, while ELL's already know
a lot about grammar, they naturally produce more errors as their sentences become more
complicated. Even "simple" errors can be hard to notice inside of the long essays
that are required in college.
Try these tips:
- 陇&苍产蝉辫; It鈥檚 often easier to spot errors in isolated sentences. So try to use a sentence-by-sentence approach as you read for accuracy. One method is 鈥淏ackwards Editing,鈥� which means reading the last sentence of the essay first, then moving backwards, one sentence at a time. This strategy reduces your tendency to read quickly and miss small errors. It also helps you check that each sentence is clear, on its own.
陇&苍产蝉辫; Check for one just type of error at a time. For instance, read through it once as you focus exclusively on verb tenses. Then, read again looking only at articles (a, an, the), then prepositions, and so on.
陇&苍产蝉辫; If your top goal is to avoid errors, consider writing shorter sentences. Grammar tends to get more complicated as you combine more elements together, so it鈥檚 easier to see and fix errors in shorter sentences. As you gain confidence, you can combine these highly accurate statements into longer sentences.
陇&苍产蝉辫; Time and energy are real constraints. So divide your attention between important 鈥渁nchors鈥� and the less important sentences that support or explain those anchors. Anchors could include the thesis, topic sentences, definitions, and important clarifying statements near the ends of paragraphs. If your readers can understand your anchor statements clearly, they have a better chance at understanding your overall essay. Spend more time on anchor statements so that your thinking is essentially clear to readers, then you can tidy up supporting sentences after that.
陇&苍产蝉辫; Take note of the outcomes of your editing. Do you notice any recurring issues? Do you see more errors with verbs or with nouns? Maybe you tried to use a word in a creative way鈥攄id it work? Remember that you are 鈥渞esearching鈥� new language, so think of your sentences as little 鈥渆xperiments.鈥� This kind of curiosity is powerful. Write down your discoveries in a dedicated language notebook and make an effort to integrate what you've learned.
陇&苍产蝉辫; Remember that the Writing Center tutors, including an ELL Specialist, are trained to help multilingual writers of all backgrounds with their writing projects!