The Revising and Proofreading Phase

Revising the Draft

Since writing is an iterative process, it is unlikely that

your first draft will be ready for submission. After
drafting your essay, you will have gained the
perspective of hindsight. For example, you might
notice that the subject is more complex than you
initially anticipated, or your preconceived ideas might
prove less convincing than discoveries you made
while writing. It is, therefore, necessary to revise, edit and proofread the content of your
draft in order to successfully achieve the purpose of your work.

How to Revise:
• Allow yourself enough time for revisions. Try to put your draft aside for at least a day
and then return to it. Time away from your essay will give you the opportunity to look at it
with fresh eyes and allow for more objective evaluation. You should also ensure that you
devote ample time to the revision process; the reward for your efforts will be a clearer,
more convincing, and more sophisticated essay.

• Get feedback from another reader. Since you are already familiar with what you are
trying to achieve in an essay, you might not be the best person to determine whether your
content is clear or accomplishes your purpose. Try to get a friend, family member of
colleague to read your draft and ask them to summarise what your essay discusses in
order to see if this matches with your intended meaning. You can also discuss what you
were trying to achieve in you essay with them. In articulating what you meant to argue,
you will clarify ideas for yourself.
• Rethink your thesis. Clarity of vision is the result of research, evaluation of arguments
and reflection on the complexities of an issue. This kind of precise thinking is often only
possible to achieve by writing and, therefore, it is possible that your thesis evolves after
your first draft. Successful revision involves adjusting your thesis by making it more specific
or completely changing it.
• Create a reverse outline of your essay. While rereading your work, identify the main
ideas of each paragraph and assess their relevance to your topic as well as their
usefulness in advancing your thesis.

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• When revising your work, try to read your work aloud so that you can identify any
inaccuracies; ears can often pick-up what eyes have missed. Reading aloud will slow your
reading down and prevent you from skim-reading and missing errors.

An example of revision:

First draft:
A corporation that invests in the environmental and ethical approaches of CSR will demonstrate to
the public and the media that they are a responsible company and customers tend to support
ethical green businesses. For example, a yoghurt company called “Yeo Valley” has been investing
in making its products organic, creating fully recyclable packaging and reducing its CO2 output.
Profits have doubled within the last two years providing the company with a range of opportunities
to expand (Peterson, 2019). Overall, all this suggests that investing in CSR can improve brand
image and productivity.

Revised draft:
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can generate a positive reputation for a company
leading to possibly more sales and growth. According to Jones et al. (2019), a corporation
that invests in the environmental and ethical approaches of CSR will demonstrate to the public and
the media that they are a responsible company. Watson (2018) provides evidence that this
improves consumer sales as customers tend to support ethical green businesses practice versus
improving profitability and encouraging growth. For example, a yoghurt company called Yeo Valley
has been investing in making its products organic creating fully recyclable packaging and reducing
its CO2 output. As a result, profits have doubled within the last two years providing the company
with a range of opportunities to expand (Peterson, 2019). Overall, the evidence seems to suggest
that investing in CSR can improve brand image and productivity.

(Paragraph adapted from https://www.academic-englishuk.com/paragraphing)

Topic sentence which shows the main idea of the paragraph has been added.

References have been added.

Acronym is introduced to the reader.

Links between ideas have been added.

Punctuation slips have been corrected

Specific vocabulary has been used

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Editing the Essay: The Big Picture

Students often think of editing as changing words, adding punctuation marks, fixing
grammatical errors and spell-checking. Before looking at these micro-level inaccuracies of
writing, however, it is important to ensure that the essay works as a whole, and appropriately
introduces, develops and concludes your main argument. You also need to deal with
repetitions, unclear areas or off-topic points. This macro-level editing involves improving what
you have written by checking for sense, accuracy and structure in order to ensure that the
reader is not left confused, distracted or unconvinced.

How to Macro-edit:
• When macro-editing, keep the essay question in mind. Make sure your essay
responds to all aspects of the question, stays focused and does not deviate to
unrelated topic. The specified word count can be used as an indication of the level of
depth that is expected of your essay.

• Check that your work achieves the 'mission’ of your essay by ensuring that each
section is related to and helps you prove your thesis statement.

• Ensure the accuracy of your claims by checking that each point is supported with
adequate evidence from research. If possible, present and evaluate opposing points
in order to demonstrate that you have considered alternative viewpoints and, in turn,
strengthen the validity of your assertions. Moreover, you should ensure that all ideas
taken from other sources are appropriately cited both in your text and in a reference
list at the end of your document depending on your department’s/tutor’s preferred
Reference Guide.

• Check that your essay is organised in a way that guides the reader smoothly through
your argument and make structural changes if necessary. Successful revision
involves rearranging the main ideas, deleting irrelevant parts and adding links and
transitions between sections.

• Work on paragraph structure. Ensure that your paragraphs begin with an appropriate
topic sentences, which show the main idea of the paragraph and clearly links to your
thesis statement. The following sentences should develop that idea by presenting and
evaluating relevant supporting evidence. The final sentence, which is sometimes

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 referred to as the 'concluding sentence' of a paragraph, should bring the paragraph
and its main idea to an end, preferably in a way that leads the reader on to the next
paragraph.

Editing the Essay: Focusing on the Sentence-level

After adding, deleting, rearranging, or changing information in order to make your ideas

clearer, more accurate, or more convincing, it is important to have a closer look at how you

expressed these ideas. This micro-level editing involves looking at the grammatical and

lexical accuracy of your sentences, the formality and appropriateness of the language used,

the accuracy of your referencing, and finally the overall appearance of your work. This kind of

editing can turn your essay into a polished, scholarly piece of writing.

How to Micro-edit:

Grammar

• Remember to use a wide range of sentence structures. Try to avoid starting all your
sentences the same way and aim to include sentences of differing lengths.

• Check that full stops, commas and semi-colons have been used accurately. Read
one your sentences aloud to see where you would naturally stop, pause, or draw a
breath. When stopping, you need to add a full stop to your sentence whereas for short
pauses, you probably need a comma. For longer pauses but not quite a full stop you
probably need a semi-colon; remember that whatever follows a semi-colon must be
able to stand on its own as a full sentence.

• Ensure that the use of dashes has been kept to a minimum. Although they are
acceptable in academic writing, dashes are less formal than colons or semi-colons and
often suggest an afterthought.

• Make sure all your reference pronouns are clear. When saying "this study" or "that
point" or "it,", the reader should be able to easily identify what you are referring to.

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 • Ensure that contractions are avoided.

Examples:
don’t → do not
haven’t → have not

Language

• Avoid gender-specific language. When writing an essay, you need to make the
reader feel included. By using gender-specific language, you might alienate a large
proportion of your readership. Therefore, phrases such as "Throughout history, man
has ...", or the pronoun ‘he’ to refer to an unspecified person need to be avoided.

Examples:
Man first emerged in Africa around two million years ago.
→ Humankind first emerged in Africa around two million years ago.

When a student writes a paper, he must proofread carefully.

→ When students write a paper, they must proofread carefully.
→ When writing a paper, careful proofreading is crucial.

• Make sure that any acronyms used are explained to the reader. The first time the
term is used, it must be written in full, with the acronym following in parentheses.
Thereafter, you can stick to using the acronym.

Example:
SQL (Structured Query Language) is a language that allows for updating, requesting, or
deleting information from any database associated with your website.

• Ensure that informal, idiomatic vocabulary is avoided.

Examples:
Lots of people think that…
→ A significant number of people maintains that...

The number of social media users is going up.

→ The number of social media users is increasing.

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 • Ensure that statements are used instead of rhetorical questions.

Example:
What were the reasons for the decline?
→ There are three significant reasons for the decline.

• Ensure that generalisations are avoided, and that cautious language is used.

Example:
Video games always lead to violence.
→ It has been suggested that video games could be linked to the increase of violence.

Citing sources
• Ensure that you accurately follow the referencing guidelines of your course. Make

certain that you have correctly identified the author’s surname and spelt it correctly in your

work. Check that the in-text citations you have included correspond to the entries included

in your reference list; the exact number of sources cited in the text needs to be included in

the Reference List. Finally, ensure that all source reference information included (e.g.

names, initials, titles) is accurate and punctuated correctly in your reference list.

• Avoid overusing quotes. Try to quote only the most essential and illustrative material.
Overusing quotes can detract from your own writing style and might imply that you are
heavily on sources. Therefore, paraphrase should be preferred over the use of direct
quotes.

For further guidance on citing sources correctly please consult Section 2, including the
Practice Quiz.

Appearance
• Ensure that you consistently follow the assignment formatting requirements regarding

font, font colour, font size, margin size, alignment, use of headings, use of numbering and

use of bullet-points.

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Proofreading your Work

After macro- and micro-editing your essay, it is important to conduct a final check before you
submit your work in order to ensure that your edited work is accurate, clear and follows the
appropriate styles and conventions.

When proofreading, try to separate your focus by checking for content, language, appearance
and referencing inaccuracies at different times. Remember that there are several
technological tools at your disposal to check your essays for lexical, spelling and grammar
errors, or look for repeated words.

Proofreading Checklist

o My essay follows the requirements of the assignment (topic, length,

word limit, minimum number of sources used).
o My essay has an interesting and informative title.
o My introduction attracts the reader’s interest and provides the
necessary background information on the topic.
o My introduction contains a thesis statement that states the focus and
position of the essay.
o I use paragraphs to structure the essay.
o I use topic sentences to introduce each paragraph.
o Each paragraph has a single focus and a clear connection to the thesis statement.
o I make clear transitions between paragraphs and ideas.
o My conclusion does not introduce any new argument or evidence, but summarises my
main points, draws connections between arguments and reflects upon them.
o I have provided an in-text citation for every quote or piece of information I obtained from
another source.
o I have included a reference page at the end of my essay, listing full details of all my
sources.
o My citations and references are correctly formatted according to the required citation style.
o I have followed all formatting guidelines (e.g., font, page numbers, line spacing).

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Reference List

Academic English UK (no date) Paragraphing. Available at:

https://www.academic-englishuk.com/paragraphing (Accessed: 10 January 2021).

Bailey, S. (2011) Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students. 3rd ed. New
York: Routledge.

Saltz, L. for the Writing Center at Harvard University (1998) Revising the Draft. Available at:
https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/revising-draft (Accessed: 10 January 2021).

University of Leeds Library (no date) Revising, editing and proofreading. Available
at: https://library.leeds.ac.uk/info/14011/writing/111/revising_editing_and_proofreading (Acce
ssed: 10 January 2021).