3.4 Reviewing and revising
Once you have written your document, take the time to review and revise what you have written. This will not be just a matter of ‘polishing things up a bit’. It involves stepping back and critically and rigorously reviewing and, where necessary, rewriting your text.
TIP: GOOD WRITING IS GOOD RE-WRITING
Virtually all good writing involves rewriting. It is very rare for any writer to get things perfectly right (or even good enough) on the first attempt. A clear document should appear to have been effortlessly written. But to create such prose usually requires several stages of drafting.
A lot of student work suffers because of a failure to review and revise. For many students this will be due to problems with time management. So, you should plan to include time for reviewing and revising your work. Some students also do not seem to be in the habit of reviewing and revising their work. If this applies to you, you should cultivate the habit. It will repay you.
3.4.1 What does reviewing and revising your work involve?
Reviewing and revising is more than just re-reading and editing your document, though those are both essential parts of the reviewing and revising process. It involves reading your document to see if it achieves what you want it to achieve and making any changes necessary to enable it to do so.
Always bear your reader in mind when you review your work. That is, think about how your reader will approach your text. Will they understand what you have written? Will they be persuaded by it? Try to avoid being content with having expressed yourself just how you want to express yourself. That will be important, but it is only half the story, because it may yet be that your reader will not understand or be sympathetic to how you see things. You need to aim at helping the reader to understand, and even to be persuaded by, what you say.
3.4.2 Give yourself some distance
It can be hard to step back and detach yourself from your work. This can be because you have become emotionally attached to your creation. But it can also be because you have simply become too used to your text and your eyes ‘skate over’ things. If you can give yourself that critical distance, and reapproach your text with an objective and critical eye, it will help you. If possible, it is best to give yourself a clear break between finishing a draft and then critically reviewing it, so that you can approach things with ‘fresh eyes’.
TIP: READING ALOUD IS ALLOWED (AND RECOMMENDED)
Reading your draft document aloud to yourself can be a useful way of forcing yourself to read every single word. It is also a handy way to pick up grammatical errors or inconsistencies (like changes in tense) and long sentences (which leave you breathless when read aloud). Most word processors now have a ‘read aloud’ function that can help with the editing stage.
3.4.3 Edit with depth
In reviewing your work, pay attention to both the big picture and the details. That is, make sure the structure works and is clear, and everything hangs together well. But also go through each sentence and make sure each one is grammatically correct and as clear as it can be.
Of course, you will never cash every typo, but the moor of these you can correct before submitting your document, the beta.
Yes, that sentence contains examples of what to avoid. The words ‘cash’, ‘moor’ and ‘beta’ are correctly spelt but they are the wrong words in that sentence – and a spell check will not pick that up.
3.4.4 Your work may need several reviews
The revising process may need to be repeated, especially for longer documents. Be prepared to go through a number of distinct drafts. Of course, there must be a point at which you let go of your document. It is possible to keep on tinkering with a document with diminishing returns for your efforts. But too many students let their work go too early. Err on the side of doing one too many revisions rather than one too few.
TIP: GIVE YOURSELF TIME TO EDIT AND REVISE
Never submit your first draft. Always build in time for editing and revision in your work plan to give yourself enough time to improve your work before submission.
3.4.5 Stage your revisions
When reviewing and revising your document there are various things to look for. For long documents, it can often help to have different stages of revision. In the different stages you are looking for different things.
STAGED REVISION
Here is one approach to this sort of staged revision process:
- Finalise the basic content of the conclusion and the introduction.
- Check that your overall structure makes sense. Are the sections in a logical order? Do any sections need combining or splitting?
- Revise the draft to make sure your arguments do in fact establish the points you intend them to establish. Fill in logical gaps and remove repetition. Make sure your text addresses the audience it is intended to address.
- Revise your draft to ensure continuity. This is where you can provide appropriate flags and signposts.
- Revise your draft to make sure the individual paragraphs are clearly separated, and address distinct points.
- Revise your individual sentences to ensure your grammar and punctuation are correct and your expression is clear and engaging.
- Revise your draft to make sure the referencing is correct, the bibliography provided (if required) and the document is in the required or appropriate format.
