Revision

Revision is the area where most of your writing should occur. You can begin once you have your first draft done. From then on out, you’ll be adding sections, deleting others, beefing some up, rearranging your organization, and fixing up your words till you get them just right.

Revision is for people who believe that ‘If it’s worth writing, it’s worth writing well enough to earn at least an A-.’

This diagram tells you when your paper needs revision and gives you two options for how to go about it:

click here if you don't see the rotating block or a picture above

If your paper has any spots (words, sentences, paragraphs, pages, or 12 whole pages) that feel boring, confusing, irritating, or anything else in that vein, then you have some weak writing, and you should decide what to do with it. You have three choices. You can revise either by adding to the spot, taking away from it (which sometimes means deleting it entirely), or both.

Adding-to revision could include more metaphors, details, information, description, concrete details, quotes, or whatever else you can think of.

Taking-away revision includes simplifying, deletion, moving it to another spot, and throwing your computer out the window.

Give-and-Take revision includes changing your words to create rhythm, improving any diction, or sometimes trading something for something from somewhere else somehow.

After your spot has passed through the revision process, test it again to see if it still belongs at point A or if it’s ready to move on to point B. Point B is for writing that’s good enough for now. You may raise your standards at any time and put parts of your paper back at point A for another go-round.

If you’re getting stuck at this point, you might want to simply rewrite the spot. It often comes out better the second time (as you may discover someday when your computer crashes and you lose your whole document).