You are almost
there. If you are at the rewriting
stage, you have completed the two of the three most difficult aspects of the
writing process. Now diligently follow
the rewriting steps (revising, editing, and proofreading) in order to produce
an essay that will make you proud and earn you a decent grade. The first draft is far from a completed
essay. Those who call themselves writers
toil through several drafts to come up with a final product. Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian novelist,
avoided looking at his published works because he wanted to revise them. The Irish writer Oscar Wilde once said that
it took him all morning to put in a comma, and it took him all afternoon to
take it out. Those two authors are
somewhat extreme cases.
Nevertheless,
you should finish your essay ahead of time so you can revise, edit, and
proofread it. When you finish your
composition and start the rewriting process at a later time, perhaps a day or
two later, you will be surprised how easily you can catch your own errors. By catching your own mistakes, you can help
from losing points. Reading your
composition out aloud is another way of catching your own mistakes because
hearing what you wrote allows you to discern what your readers are
reading.
Revision
Revision is the first step.
In this stage, you undertake major changes to your writing. Cut out paragraphs that lack focus or stray
from the topic. Move paragraphs around,
so they transition well from one idea to another. You might say, “Well, I followed my
outline. Then, why should I stray from
it”? The outline is not permanent and is
just a plan. If new inspirations make
more sense, by all means make the changes.
In other words, you perform major surgery to your composition in this
phase. When revising, you should pay
attention to content and organization.
Content
1.
Does your essay meet the
assigned length?
2.
Does your essay have adequate
controlling ideas?
3.
Does your essay have enough
examples and illustrations?
4.
Does your essay address topics?
Organization
1.
Does your essay have well
developed paragraphs?
2.
Does your essay have unity?
3.
Does your essay have coherence?
4.
Does your essay follow the
organizational pattern you have chosen?
Answer the above questions, and make your corrections as
you proceed. Do not be afraid of marking
your paper up. It is much better for you
to color it red, rather than the instructor doing so. Some instructors require the inclusion of
your first and however many drafts you go through with your final version of
the essay. These instructors are looking to see if you went through your work
and are learning revising, editing, and proofreading skills.
Editing
Now comes the nitty gritty part of the rewriting process. In the editing step, attention is paid to
grammar, punctuation, and mechanics—making your focus narrower. Similar to the revising step, let your essay
sit for a little while. Read your essay out aloud, as you did while revising,
so you can hear the sentences to see if they make sense and they flow
well. By being mindful of the following
items, you will make editing more efficient.
Mechanics and Grammar
1.
Have you avoided fragments?
2.
Have you avoided comma splices?
3.
Have you avoided run-on
sentences?
4.
Do your subjects and verbs
agree?
5.
Do your pronouns agree with
their antecedents?
6.
Do you have your verbs in the proper tense in
keeping with the tone of the essay?
7.
Have you checked for misspelled
words?
8.
Have you checked the punctuation?
9.
Have you avoided wordiness?
10.
Have you used appropriate
capitalization?
11.
Have you avoided
colloquialisms, slangs, clichés, and jargons?
A review of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics has been
presented in Section V of this book.
Proofreading
You have done everything prescribed in this book, and you feel
your essay is ready for submission. You
are feeling good. Just one final thing:
Go over the composition one more time.
This time, it is to proofread it which is checking for missing words,
punctuation, page numbers, and the like.
You might have word processed the same word twice. In this case the word book is mistakenly put
in twice: Chithra borrowed three books on American history. Additionally, check for irregular
spacing. In this step, too, the
prescription is to read each word out loudly, enabling you to do a better job
at reducing unwanted errors.