Taking any essay or writing assignment from the rough draft stage to the final product isn't just about checking for grammar and spelling errors, it's about attending to all the traits of good writing.  Do your ideas need to be reorganized or does a piece of evidence fit better in a different paragraph? Are there details that need to be added and others cut out? How can you write more effectively for your intended audience? These are just a few of the questions you're faced with as you sit down to craft a truly exellent final paper. For now, thought, here are some suggestions as you embark on this process, as well as a few other pages on other revision and editing related topics.

• Revision & Editing Related Topics:
  
  
  • Proofreading Checklist
  • Editing Marks & Symbols
  • Commonly Mixed Pairs
    
    
• Revision & Editing Suggestions:
  
  
  • Peer Review:
    • Alway have others (friends, family, or other teachers) read over your work and give you suggestions (encourage them to be honest and critical)
      
      
  • Read Your Work Outloud:
    • Read with a pencil in hand so you can mark any mistakes or problems as you go.
    • Each of us reads more slowly outloud than quietly to ourselves, so all those little mistakes often jump out at us as we slowly read our work outloud.
    • Each of us knows how to talk properly, so reading an essay or assignment outloud is a good way to catch awkward sentences, or those things that just don't sound right.

• Writing Resources at Western Washington University