Revising and Editing

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

As you read over your first draft, keep in mind that your purpose was to make the person you interviewed come alive for your reader.

Focus on Your Main Idea or Thesis. Once you have finished a draft, you may still feel swamped by too much information. Will readers find your essay overloaded? Will they understand the dominant impression you want to convey? To be certain that they will, first polish and refine your thesis.

WORKING THESIS Del Sampat is a true believer in freedom of the press.
REVISED THESIS Del Sampat, news editor for the Campus Times, sees every story he writes as an opportunity to exercise and defend the freedom of the press.

REVISION CHECKLIST

  • Are the details focused on a dominant impression you want to emphasize? Are all of them relevant? How do you convey the impression to readers?
  • How do the parts of the conversation you’ve reported reveal the subject’s unique personality, character, mood, or concerns?
  • Does your paper need a stronger beginning? Is your ending satisfactory?
  • Should some quotations be summarized or indirectly quoted? Should some explanation be enlivened by adding specific quotations?
  • When the direct quotations are read out loud, do they sound as if they’re from the mouth of the person you’re portraying?
  • Where might you need to add revealing details about the person’s surroundings, personal appearance, or mannerisms?
  • Have you included your own pertinent observations and insights?
  • Does any of your material strike you now as irrelevant or dull?

See more editing and proofreading strategies.

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

After you have revised your essay, edit and proofread it. Carefully check the grammar, word choice, punctuation, and mechanics — and then correct any problems you find.

EDITING CHECKLIST

Is it clear what each he, she, they, or other pronoun refers to? Does each pronoun agree with (match) its antecedent? A6
Have you used the correct case (he or him) for all your pronouns? A5
Is your sentence structure correct? Have you avoided writing fragments, comma splices, or fused sentences? A1, A2
Have you used quotation marks, ellipses (to show the omission of words), and other punctuation correctly in all quotations? C3