The document provides guidance on revision strategies for writing drafts. It discusses rethinking the purpose, thesis, ideas, evidence, organization, and style. It suggests asking questions about these elements and editing for grammar, punctuation and proofreading the entire essay. The homework assigned is to submit a final draft of an autobiography essay and study for an upcoming punctuation test.

1. Today’s Agenda Observations regarding Peer Review In-Class Assignment in Peer Review Groups/Discussion Revision Strategies

2. What is Revision? The absolute necessity of revision cannot be overemphasized. All good writers rethink, rearrange, and rewrite large portions of their prose. Revision is a thinking process that occurs any time you are working on a writing project. . It means looking at your writing with a “fresh eye.” Revision means making important decisions about the best ways to focus, organize, develop, clarify, and emphasize your ideas.

3. A Revision Process for Your Drafts Rethink: purpose, thesis, audience Rethink: ideas and evidence Rethink: organization Rethink: clarity and style Edit: grammar, punctuation, and spelling Proofread: entire essay

4. Revising for Purpose, Thesis, Audience To be effective, writers need a clear sense of purpose and audience. Their essays must present a main idea or thesis designed to fulfill that purpose and to inform their audience.

5. Revising for Purpose, Thesis, Audience Questions you should ask yourself: Have I fulfilled the objectives of my assignment? Do I understand the purpose of my essay? Have I addressed both my purpose and my readers’ needs by selecting appropriate strategies of development for my essay?

6. Revising for Ideas and Evidence You want your readers to accept your thesis/purpose. To achieve this goal, you must offer body paragraphs whose major points clearly support that main idea.

7. Revising for Ideas and Evidence Questions you should ask yourself: Does each major point in my essay further my readers’ understanding and thus their acceptance of my purpose? Have I included all the major points necessary to the readers’ understanding of my subject or have I omitted pertinent ones? Are my major points located and stated clearly in specific language so that readers can easily see what position I am taking in each part of my discussion?

8. Revising for Organization It is important to make changes in the order and organization of your ideas in you draft. The arrangement of your ideas will help clarify your essay’s meaning.

9. Revising for Organization Questions you should ask yourself: Am I satisfied with the organizational strategy I selected for my purpose? Are my major points ordered in a logical, easy-to-follow pattern? Are parts of my essay out of proportion? Does my conclusion end my discussion thoughtfully? Emphatically or memorably?

10. Revising for Clarity and Style Clarity and style means focusing on sentences and word choice that will ensure your readers’ complete understanding of your thinking (more on this later). Don’t be afraid to restructure your drafts.

11. Revising for Clarity and Style Questions you should ask yourself: Is each of my sentences as clear and precise as it could be for readers who do not know what I know? Are there any sentences that are unnecessarily wordy? Do any sentences run on for too long to be fully understood? Can any repetitive or choppy sentences be combined? Can I clarify by adding “showing” details and by replacing bland, vague words with vivid, specific ones? Can I replace clichés and trite expressions with fresh, original phrases? Is my voice authentic?

12. Editing for Errors Hints for Effective Editing: Read aloud. Know your enemies. Read backwards. Learn some tricks. Eliminate common irritants. Use your tools.

13. Proofreading Proofread your draft several times, putting as much time between the last two readings as possible. (It takes 48 hours for your brain to forget what you’ve written and not fill in the errors.) Make sure your paper looks professional before you turn it in. Check to be sure you’ve formatted your paper exactly as your assignment requested. Use the final checklist on page 104 to determine if you still need to make some changes.

14. Homework Final Draft of Autobiography Essay due next class period. Post a copy to the drop box on Angel AND bring a hard copy to class (YOU MUST BRING A HARD COPY TO CLASS OR YOUR ESSAY MAY NOT GET GRADED). Study for Punctuation Test (Review Puncutation in A Writer’s Reference , p. 259-293): Commas Semicolons Colons Apostrophes Quotation Marks Other Punctuation Marks