3.5: The Writing Process Step 4- Revising

Idea to Essay: Collected Strategies and Readings for the College Writer 4e · LibreTexts

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    When you revise, you take a second look at your ideas. Take a moment and think about the word “revision”. Notice that it includes the prefix re–, meaning “back or again,” and the root word “vision.” So, revision literally means “to look at again.” Once you have written your essay, you need to look at it again to make sure that you have successfully explained your main idea for your readers. Some people may trip themselves up by merely proofreading their writing for grammar and punctuation errors. Any experienced writer will tell you that, although grammar and punctuation are important, they are secondary to quality content. So, your first step is to examine your essay carefully and evaluate your content which means to evaluate the ideas and explanations in your essay. You might add, cut, move, or change information in order to make your ideas clearer, more accurate, more interesting, or more convincing.  

    Revising and editing are not the same things. When you revise an essay, you are looking for and then correcting larger-scale problems. In other words, you are evaluating and improving, if necessary, the way that your whole essay is organized or developed in terms of your topic. Editing involves examining the essay at the sentence and word levels and correcting errors in sentence construction, grammar, word choice, and spelling. It is best to accomplish revision and editing as two separate, distinct steps, for each process involves looking at different aspects of the essay.  

    Tips for Revising

    • Read the essay out loud. This can help you to hear whether ideas are expressed clearly or explained fully.  In our heads, we read what we meant to say, but when reading out loud we read what we actually wrote which might not be correct.  

    • Sometimes reading from the end to the beginning of the essay, sentence by sentence, can be effective as well.  

    • Look for ideas that don’t fit in a paragraph – unity – each paragraph must discuss only one point.  Move anything that doesn’t fit to a paragraph where it does fit in or create a new paragraph if needed and expand on the information.  

    • Look for places where ideas need more explanation.  Places where you assumed the reader knew what you meant so did not explain fully and completely.  Read as if you are unfamiliar with the information and question whether it would be enough to make sense to that reader.  You may feel like you are overexplaining, but that is because you know your topic.  The reader may not, so explain fully.  

    • Look for places where you were too wordy. Places where you used more words than necessary to get the message accross.  See the “Sentence Sense and Crafting” chapter for an example of the problem with wordiness.  

    • Look for places where you explained the same thing but in different words and delete them and add information that expands on the point with new fresh information and explanation.  

    • Look at the order of your points and decide if it is the most effective or logical order for your essay.  Rearrange as needed.  

    • Look more closely at areas that you know you struggle with like introductions or topic sentences.  

    A specific way to help you look at these aspects of your essay above is to make a post-draft outline.    

    Making a Post-draft Outline  

    Creating a post-draft outline is an excellent revision strategy because it allows you to see the main ideas of each paragraph of your essay. A post-draft outline is the outline of an essay you have drafted, already written up.   Completing a post-draft outline will give you a chance to see what you’ve written and see if you need to make any changes to your organization or content.  

    Start With Your Draft  

    Step 1: Number each paragraph on your printed essay or in your file beginning with your introduction.   

    Step 2:  On a separate sheet of paper, make a numbered list for each paragraph. (For example, #1 = paragraph 1 in your draft, #2 = paragraph 2 in your draft, etc.).  Leaving a few lines between the numbers.  

    Step 3: Write the main idea of each paragraph next to each number in your numbered list. For paragraph 1 that will be your thesis statement.  

    The example below does this for a sample essay on the topic of fruits and vegetables:  

    Example Post-Draft Outline 

    1. Thesis: Our community must make fruits and vegetables more readily available to poor citizens in our community, and using “ugly” fruits and vegetables may be the key.  

    1. Definition of “ugly” fruits and vegetables  

    1. The need for more fresh produce and importance of diet  

    1. Keeping “ugly” fruits and vegetables instead of destroying them  

    1. Making this produce available  

    1. Conclusion: Reminder about the benefits of bringing “ugly” fruits and the resources of volunteers to people who might not otherwise be able to afford produce]  

    Step 4: Evaluate the content of your paragraphs. When you were trying to capture the main idea of each paragraph, were you able to? If not, that paragraph likely needs revision.  

    • For example, on number 6 above, you might write this comment: I think I need two paragraphs here to explain my plan to make more produce available in more detail.  

    Step 5: Evaluate your essay as a whole. Once you have captured the main ideas, look at your outline. Does your organization make sense? Can you think of other topics that need to be covered? Did you repeat yourself anywhere?  

    Here are more examples of the kinds of comments you might make to yourself:   

    • Comment on number 2 and 3: I think I might need to reverse these.  

    • Comment on number 4: I do not think I explained the idea very clearly  

    • Comment on number 5: I think I need a better example of this point.  

    Once you’ve made your notes and revision plans, you’re ready to make changes to your essay. A post-draft outline is a great way to engage in some real revision!  

      

    Getting Help With Essays  

    It is okay to get help with your essay but there are some guidelines that you should follow.  

    • Have a friend look over the essay and point out issues with the above items.  However, be careful of the following: DO NOT let a friend tell you what to write, the words used and ideas expressed need to be your own! Letting a friend or tutor tell you what to write is a form of plagiarism and cheating.  That may lead to a zero when you could have had a passing grade. o Do not get someone to write your essay for you.  This is definitely plagiarism and cheating.  

    • Do not copy and paste information from the internet; this also is plagiarism.  

    • Do not use Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools of any kind to write for you or change your own writing significantly. Be aware that many writing support tools such as Grammarly and Microsoft Co-pilot (and a continually growing list of others) do more than just help with your spelling and grammar by the use of AI. Always double-check your professor's AI policy so that you understand what AI tools you can use and how you can use them. 

    • Get help from a qualified tutor.  Butler offers free tutoring on both campuses.  Refer to the “Transitioning to Your Role of College Student” chapter for information on this.  

    • Use the Online Writing Lab. See the Introduction of the textbook about this service that Butler provides.  

    • Make use of your word processor program’s spell check and grammar check. Be aware that it is not always perfect but can help.  

    • Your professor.  This is probably the best source of help with your essay since this is the person who assigned it and will grade it. Most professors will meet with students who need help.  Ask, don’t be afraid; most professors want you to succeed.  They prefer it!  

    This page titled 3.5: The Writing Process Step 4- Revising was last modified on Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:39:44 GMT and is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by The Butler Community College English Department.