A REVISING PROCESSREVISING & EDITING

STRUCTURE• Introduction

• Thesis Statement (last sentence of Intro)

• Assertion

• 3 sub-topics

• 3 Body Paragraphs - TEST

• Topic sentences contain sub-topic keywords & connect back to thesis

• Summary statements contain keywords & connect back to thesis

• Conclusion

• Rephrase thesis statement (first sentence of Conclusion)

THESIS STATEMENT• Assertion

• Main idea/ topic

• What is your message about your topic?

• Avoid be verbs. What do you want to say other than that they exist?

• 3 sub-topics

• 3 keywords or key phrases

• How do these relate to your assertion?

• Ideally, these are in the same order as body paragraphs.

CONTENT• Introduction

• Capture reader’s attention/ give background info

• Ease reader into thesis

• Body Paragraphs

• Minimum 8 sentences each

• Minimum 3 substantial pieces of Evidence

• Are three body paragraphs balanced in quantity of evidence? (Check visual space)

• Does each sentence support your topic sentence and thesis?

• Conclusion

• Answer the “So what?”

• Broad, global application of message

BASIC REQUIREMENTS• Follow MLA Format

• Heading

• Last name & page numbers

• Correct spacing

• In-text citations & Works Cited

• No Contractions!

• No 2nd person “you”

• No 1st person “ I”

• No “I think,” “I believe,” “In my opinion”

• No “In summary,” “In conclusion”

• No abbreviations. If necessary, be sure to introduce properly.

READ ALOUD

• Does it make sense to you?

• Does it make sense to someone else?

• Have someone else summarize for you to check understanding.

• Is your argument logically sound?

• Does it flow?

LANGUAGE ENRICHMENT

• Look for vague, ineffective words. Replace them with specific, descriptive words.

• Eliminate or reduce these:

• be verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been)

• get, go, have, do

• things & stuff

• people, -one, -body, -where

• Change passive verbs to active verbs.

• Check lists for parallelism.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE

• Isolate each sentence (Read aloud backwards)

• Is it a sentence?

• Is it a fragment? Run-on? Comma splice? Fused sentence?

• Is it a compound sentence? Is it a complex sentence?

• What is the subject? What is the verb?

• Do the subject and verb agree?

MECHANICS• Capitalization

• End punctuation

• Spelling

• Word choice

• Pronoun-antecedent agreement!!!

• Commas