As you revise, make sure that your main point (usually expressed as a thesis statement), reasons, and evidence are fully developed. An effective way to do this is to identify and examine each element in your draft, both individually and as a group of related points. If you are working with a printed document, use a highlighter, colored pens or pencils, or sticky notes. If you are working on a digital document, use a highlighting tool to mark the text. You might use different colors to highlight your main point, reasons, and evidence. If you are focusing solely on the evidence in your document, use different colors to highlight evidence from different sources (to help you check whether you are relying too heavily on a single source) or to differentiate the types of evidence you are using (such as quotations, paraphrases, summaries, and numerical data).

When you have finished highlighting your draft, review it to determine whether your reasons support your main points as effectively as you had hoped and whether the evidence you’ve provided to support your reasons is sufficient and varied. If you have relied too heavily on a particular source, for example, your readers might wonder why they shouldn’t simply read that source and ignore your document. If you’ve provided too little evidence, they’ll question the basis for your conclusions.