How to Edit Your Writing
From your Literature: Classic Guide

So you have a draft of your essay, but you really want your paper to be good? You want to make sure that your ideas come across clearly and concisely? Try these steps of revising your essay.

Time Required: varies

1. Decide what your thesis is. Is there a way that you can state your main idea more clearly?
2. After your thesis is clearly stated, look at the support that you use to substantiate your claims about the work(s). Make sure that you have included concrete instances drawn from the text that you are writing about.
3. Next, look at how you have organized the paper. Have you considered all of the major elements such as images or characters? Have you developed a relationship between the points that you are making in your essay?
4. If you haven't drawn a clear correlation between your points, you may need to rearrange them, revise your materials, or substitute better evidence to support your thesis.
5. Check all your quotations to make sure each supports your thesis and that you have properly used signal phrases, indentations (necessary for longer quotations), and citations in parentheses.
6. If you quote, paraphrase, or summarize secondary sources, check to make sure that you have cited and documented each source thoroughly and accurately following MLA guidelines.
   

Tips:

1. Leave plenty of time before the paper is due for editing. Catching organizational problems can often dramatically improve your grade.
2. Ask a friend to read your paper to you or read the paper yourself out loud to a friend.
3. Ask your teacher to take a look at the paper. Or take advantage of the Writing Center.

Related Information:

• Become a Critical Reader
• Write a Literary Book Review
• Evaluate Sources
• Keep a Reading Log
• Top Picks
  

More How To's from your Guide to Literature: Classic