Easy Revision Strategies for Students: Revision Checklist

Writing Process Revision Checklist

The Revision Checklist is best used in order. But note that you may come back to this checklist, the drafting checklist, or the editing checklist as you revise, since the writing process is fluid. The biggest thing to remember about revision is that we want to focus on higher order changes (organization, content, cohesiveness, consistency, conciseness, etc.) rather than lower order concerns (punctuation, grammar, syntax). Those lower order concerns can come in the editing process. 

Revision Checklist

• The Power of Highlighting

• For my own writing, and in your revision, highlighters can emphasize and color code parts of an assignment or areas for improvement. I came upon this strategy while writing my 80 page thesis (and yes there were lots of tears involved for that amount of pages). I had so many things to revise and edit that I was becoming overwhelmed with where to begin. So I broke it down and started highlighting one thing at a time; take one color and highlight for a specific item throughout (like claim, or reasoning, or support, etc). If I had that item, then I would highlight it. If highlighting by itself was insufficient, I would add a note to the side for specifically what needed to change. Then, go through again with a different color. And so on and so forth until I ran out of colors. Finally, I would make updates, print it again, and continue on the revision cycle until I was satisfied with my final product.
• In order to make sure that you complete all parts of an assignment, you can label each item in the guidelines for a color and self-evaluate by highlighting each item in that color. If that item is not there, leave a comment in the margin about what is missing and how to improve. You can also do this with different parts of a rubric.
• The best part about highlighters is that they are so versatile. You can use them in so many different ways that they are best to always have on hand. Plus, who doesn’t like a rainbow paper over one covered in red pen. 

• Elaboration 

• Elaboration is where many people tend to get stuck. Sometimes it can be more summary than elaboration/analysis. Sometimes elaboration is completely nonexistent. Find your elaboration (maybe using the highlighting above) and then ask yourself these questions.
• Does the analysis just summarize the quote or does it show why the evidence is important and how it supports the main topic?
• Is the elaboration longer than the evidence itself? 
• Have you fully explained how this evidence supports the topic and subsequent thesis?
• Do you have any generalizations or excessive summaries? If so, take these out.
• Have you stated "This evidence is ___ because ___? If so, rephrase so that your sentence is more succinct (aka how can you take out the because).

• Stopping the Plop

• Adding quotes into your paper with no context will not be effective for the final draft. We want the reader to see the writer’s words more than we see the referenced material. In other words, we need to make something new from the information instead of regurgitating it without additional context. Otherwise, we could simply tell the reader to read the original article the evidence came from. 
• Instead, make the evidence more effective by weaving it in with some contextual information from the original. This will make it easier to move into the elaboration as well. 
• So, while you may start your drafting by adding a quote all by itself as its own sentence, during revision, we want to shorten the quote to the most essential 5-7 words that absolutely cannot be changed. Then, you can paraphrase the rest of the text and add whatever context from the original article is needed.
• By making these changes, you avoid the “Author A says, ‘____’” structure and elevate your writing to something far more efficient to get your point across. You become the authority on this writing instead of hiding behind other author’s words, which is ultimately where we want to be. 

• Organization

• Though most people hate to restructure essays or change more than a few words after the initial drafting, it is essential to see if there need to be some overall changes to the essay. This may need some practice and examples to make sense to you, but it is essential to grow as a writer.
• Restructuring may be on the sentence level, paragraph level, or determining if there needs to be a whole new paragraph. It may be syntax or it may be making sure the thesis is clear throughout or it may be a need for transition sentences to move between ideas within a paragraph. 
• There are so many ways to go about revising organization; but ultimately, you should think about if the structure/order helps support the overall thesis and creates a logical progression. 

• Transitions

• Once you have determined your organizational structure and major changes that need to be made (like adding elaboration, evidence, context, or other essential information), you can add in transitions. 
• Now, transitions are not limited to transitional phrases. I challenge you to write full transition sentences in order to connect two ideas. This is especially helpful when moving from one piece of evidence to the next within one paragraph. 
• Essentially, make sure that the reader does not get lost moving from one thing to the next. This will make the writing sound choppy and can lead to misunderstandings over cohesiveness. 
• An easy way to make a transition sentence is to combine a keyword or idea from the previous section to a keyword or phrase from the upcoming section. Once you have both of those keywords, it'll be easier to create a sentence surrounding them. 

• Take a Break

• Simple as it sounds, taking a break from your work can make such a difference in understanding what you have written from a reader’s perspective. Revision writing can be taxing and at some point, everything sounds the same because our heads fill in all the blanks for what we want to say (versus what is actually on the paper). 
• Taking a break offers a different perspective on your writing and is one of the best ways to revise your work after you have made a whole bunch of holistic and small changes. 
• Remember that you may loop back and forth through these different strategies, so feel free to take a break between them to refocus. 

• Clarification

• Look at your writing from the reader’s viewpoint: 
• What extra context is needed to make your point more clear? 
• Do you have enough elaboration to support your point? 
• Are you linking everything back to your thesis?
• Are there any points where there is too much information, which might make the writing unclear? 
• Where can you make things more succinct?

• Cohesion (drop those breadcrumbs)

• Cohesion can also be seen as how all of your writing relates to one main point. Some may also consider this as helping your “flow.” Essentially, you want to make sure that each new piece of information links directly back to your main idea for the paper overall and there is a logical progression amongst the text.
• To do this, “drop breadcrumbs.” With each elaboration or analysis of evidence, link back to the main topic for that paragraph to help readers understand why this evidence is needed and relevant. 
• In addition, you should use your concluding sentence for each paragraph to link to the main thesis or claim of the paper. State why this paragraph is necessary to prove your overall point.
• When you do these two things, you create a logical progression and a reminder to the reader for why you are making the rhetorical choices you are within the paper; this creates cohesion.

Conclusion

You can use these revision strategies on this checklist to guide your revision writing. Incorporating writing checklists revision makes this part of the writing process just a little easier on you. We all know how difficult it can be to look over your work after the initial draft; use this revision checklist to become more confident and self-sufficient in your writing. 

Click here to access the downloadable Writing Checklist Bundle. The bundle includes the drafting, revision, and editing checklists in both print and Google Document versions. They will easily help you move forward in your writing with confidence!

You may also be interested in my individual tutoring services to help guide you through these writing process stages. Click here for more information on tutoring opportunities.

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