Revising and Editing

See the Quick Format Guide for more on adding visuals.

After you have written an early draft, put it aside for a few days — or hours if your deadline is looming. Then read it over carefully. Try to see it through the eyes of a reader, noting both pleasing and confusing spots. Revise to express your thoughts and feelings clearly and strongly to your readers.

For more revising and editing strategies, see Ch. 23.

Focus on a Main Idea, or Thesis. As you read over the essay, return to your purpose: What was so important about this experience? Why is it so memorable? Will readers see why it was crucial in your life? Will they understand how your life has been different ever since? Be sure to specify a genuine difference, reflecting the incident’s real impact on you. In other words, revise to keep your essay focused on a single main idea or thesis.

WORKING THESIS When I went to Georgia for a family reunion, I enjoyed meeting many relatives.
REVISED THESIS my Georgia relatives showed me how powerfully two values — generosity and resilience — unite my family.

Add Concrete Detail. Ask whether you have made events come alive for your audience by recalling them in sufficient concrete detail. Be specific enough that your readers can see, smell, taste, hear, and feel what you experienced. Make sure that all your details support your main idea or thesis. Notice again Robert Schreiner’s focus in his second paragraph on the world outside his own skin: his close recall of the snow, of his grandfather’s pointers about the habits of jackrabbits and the way to shoot them.

See more on outlining.

Follow a Clear Sequence. Reconsider the order of events, looking for changes that make your essay easier for readers to follow. For example, if a classmate seems puzzled about the sequence of your draft, make a rough outline or list of main events to check the clarity of your arrangement. Or add more transitions to connect events and clarify where your account is going.

See more on transitions.

Revise and rewrite until you’ve related your experience and its impact as well as you can. Here are some useful questions about revising your paper:

REVISION CHECKLIST

  • Where have you shown why this experience was important and how it changed your life?
  • How have you engaged readers so they will keep reading? Will they find your paper dramatic, instructive, or revealing? Will they see and feel your experience?
  • Why do you begin your narration as you do? Is there another place in the draft that would make a better beginning?
  • If the events are not in chronological order, how have you made the organization easy for readers to follow?
  • In what ways does the ending provide a sense of finality?
  • Do you stick to a point? Is everything relevant to your main idea or thesis?
  • If you portray any people, how have you made their importance clear? Which details make them seem real, not just shadowy figures?
  • Does any dialogue sound like real speech? Read it aloud. Try it on a friend.

See more editing and proofreading strategies.

After you have revised your recall essay, edit and proofread it. Carefully check the grammar, word choice, punctuation, and mechanics — and then correct any problems you find. Here are some questions to get you started:

EDITING CHECKLIST

Find the relevant checklist sections in the Quick Editing Guide for more help. See also the Quick Format Guide beginning.

Is your sentence structure correct? Have you avoided writing fragments, comma splices, or fused sentences? A1, A2
Have you used correct verb tenses and forms throughout? When you present a sequence of past events, is it clear what happened first and what happened next? A3
When you use transitions and other introductory elements to connect events, have you placed any needed commas after them? C1
In your dialogue, have you placed commas and periods before (inside) the closing quotation mark? C3
Have you spelled everything correctly, especially the names of people and places? Have you capitalized names correctly? D1, D2

Also check your paper’s format using the Quick Format Guide. Follow the style expected by your instructor for features such as the heading, title, running head, page numbers, margins, and paragraph indentation.

When you have made all the changes you need to make, save your file, print out a clean copy of your paper or attach the file — and submit it.