How to Revise an Essay: A Detailed Guide with Checklist

Revising an essay can become a headache for majority of students not only because it requires additional skills but also takes time and attention to slightest details. That is why many students prefer not paying attention to this stage and simply deliver the paper once it is completed.

Unfortunately, you will hardly succeed with such an approach. Even the most experienced writers make mistakes, so you will probably have several typos or grammar mistakes, which will lower your grade. Apart from eliminating such obvious mistakes, revising essays helps to make a more thoughtful structure, connect paragraphs together and give the readers what they want. This is why our custom writing service always revises your papers. This way we can achieve the best quality of written papers!

If you devote enough time to this stage, planning the process in advance, we guarantee that your grade will be much higher and you will acquire skills you have always dreamed of!

5 steps to write an essay of your dreams

There are multiple techniques and instruments, which help students in revising and editing their works. However, if you need a result as quickly as possible or just want to have basic insight to the subject, here are the key five steps you may need.

1. Read your essay carefully and highlight first lines of every paragraph, using bold;
2. Then read those lines aloud. You have probably heard that many writers read their works to relatives or friends. It is a great essay revision technique, which allows seeing mismatching parts and indicating which sections are out of place. Even Chekhov read his works to his wife, checking whether the text makes sense. Learning from the greatest is surely a great way to succeed;
3. Write a fresh outline, which makes every line sound good together. It can be a sort of a smaller version of your paper. When you revise your essay you will have a ready skeleton of your work and will see which sentences are on their places and which should be changed or even deleted. Remember, such outline doesn’t have to reflect the one, which your essay currently has. It should show what you want to say with your paragraphs. When the new outline is ready, you can paste the highlighted lines into a new document;
4. Rewrite the paragraphs, adjusting them to the new outline. Such essay steps may not be the most creative or romantic ones for writing an assignment but they really work! They also help to make you sound simple and clear without confusing the reader. Of course, you can neglect this instrument and simply polish the existing parts but we all know that it is much better to create something anew than to try and fix the previous version;
5. Put your essay aside and take some time to relax. Take a walk, have lunch, meet friends or do anything, which is able to clear your thoughts. Then return to your work and read it again.

Additional steps

Revise essay using the follow techniques:

• Put every first sentence in bold again;
• Read those sentences aloud to make sure they make a short version of the essay. In case they don’t have any meaning, rewrite them again;
• Then read the essay aloud to make sure that every sentence contains supportive facts and information about the highlighted parts.

Once these steps are completed, you can be sure that you have done a great job and you can even give classes on revising and editing practice high school.

Additional instruments

If you want to improve your revising and editing skills, you can always get familiar with multiple programs and software, which help to check your text. With their assistance, you will be able to detect whether your essay has proper length and uniqueness. They also give information on mistakes and typos, and even offer what changes can be made to improve your work.

It is a fast and safe way of finding out information, which you have missed. On top of it, you will always be aware if some of the parts are plagiarized. However, if you are not good with computers, you can also ask your friends or relatives to read the essay for you and make necessary corrections.

A useful checklist

When you need to read your work carefully and make sure all the mistakes are eliminated, it is always necessary to keep in mind all of the things you need to analyze. That is why, when revising an essay, you should have the following checklist in front of you and be sure that none of its elements is missed.

Organization

• Does your essay contain three main sections: introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion? Essay revising always makes sure that a proper structure is followed;
• Is your introduction comprehensive enough to provide the reader with necessary background information? Were you able to create a good hook for the essay? Does it have answers on the what, why, who, where and how questions?
• Did you include a thesis statement to the last part of your introduction? Is your main goal clear?
• Were you able to move from the general to the specific, not vice versa?
• Are there enough transition connections between paragraphs?
• If you want to learn how to revise an essay, it is important to know whether the organization of your essay is clean and understandable. It is achieved by not switching topics amidst paragraphs and not introducing new information in the end of an essay;
• Do all paragraphs relate to the main matter of your essay and refer to the thesis statement?

Style and content

• Did you use vivid language and creative techniques to make your essay interesting and catchy?
• Does your work show that you have understanding of the interests and expectations of the audience? A good paper reviser always pays attention to the audience;
• Did you use enough details and examples to prove your point of view?
• Were you able to address the topic and the assignment?
• Did you choose an appropriate tone for your work? It depends on the academic level and the topic itself;
• Were you able to remain objective without insulting reader’s feelings?
• Is the length of your essay good enough and fits professor’s requirements? There are multiple tools how to make your essay longer, so don’t worry!
• Were you able to render your ideas in a professional tone?
• Is your language clear and convincing? Did you use all the possible instruments to be persuasive and well aware of the subject?

Sources and research

• Did you use only credible sources?
• Did you complete an accurate and thoughtful research? Remember, without this important stage, steps to writing an essay won’t mean anything;
• Did you interpret all the findings not missing any detail out?
• Were you able to refer every source and provide audience with proper comments?
• Is your analysis backed with strong evidence?
• Did you manage to provide truthful reasoning without any subjective approach?
• Did you provide all the documentation correctly in the list of references?
• Did you check every quote according to its original source?
• Did you introduce the reader to all the quotations? If you don’t know how to do it, you may get familiar with revision essay examples;
• Is the flow of your essay clear and smooth?
• Did you match paraphrased data with its original sources?
• Did you include information on limitations if there were any?
• In case recommendations are present, did you base them on accurate data?
• Did you check every fact on accuracy?
• Did you exclude slanderous statements from your work?

Essay revise and proofreading

• Did you use proper font and margins?
• Did you capitalize the title properly?
• Are the numbers of pages correct?
• Did you check your essay on spelling mistakes?
• Did you check the paper on possible punctuation and grammar mistakes?

Need help?

Any assignment, not depending whether it is a high school essay or a university research, requires careful attention and revision. Even when the final draft is ready, you should check it several times in order to eliminate all the typos, mistakes, mismatching sentences and weak paragraphs.

Revision essay is a great skill for your future, because it goes far beyond college assignments and writing college papers: you learn to pay attention to slightest details, study how to manage time wisely and of course get access to multiple instruments and tools.

However, often students can’t find time for completing the task or simply for revising it properly. That is why they turn to writing companies. A team of professional proofreaders and editors is always ready to help you, working on the essay and checking it line by line in order to fix all the possible mistakes.

Simply write ‘revise my essay’ and you will see there is nothing simpler than entrusting your work to those, who know everything about academic writing!