Revising is rewriting your drafts to make your ideas clearer, stronger, and more convincing. When revising, you might add, cut, move, or change whole sentences or paragraphs.

Editing is correcting problems with grammar, style, usage, and punctuation. While editing, you usually add, cut, or change words and phrases instead of whole sentences or paragraphs.

Revising (covered in this chapter) and editing (covered in Chapters 16, 17, and 18) are two different ways to improve a paper. Most writers find it difficult to do both at once. It is easier to look first at the ideas in your essay (revising) and then to look at the individual words and sentences (editing).

No one gets everything right in a draft — even professional writers need to revise. The tips below will help you with the revision process.

TIPS FOR REVISING