3 Academic Paper Hacks: How Do I Revise My Paper?
3 Academic Paper Hacks: How Do I Revise My Paper?
Posted on Jul 2018:- By: PaperHub
Most
often you will hear someone in your class asking “Who will revise my paper for
me?” and most of these students might end up paying a friend or even hiring an
editing and proofreading service. First of all, what is revising a paper? A
revision is simply the art of viewing the paper once more for purposes of
checking how the paper is organized, its accuracy with regards to the
instructions provided, checking the style among other things that are
self-explanatory when going through the paper in an attempt to revise it. I
will break down all the stages of revising a paper properly just like a
professional editor and proofreader:
First
of all, you need to grasp the very crucial stages of revising a paper. Without
following all these steps then the reader will realize that your paper did not
go through the two final steps when writing a paper which is editing and
proofreading and this might end up wasting so much of your valuable time
because most probably you will be asked to re-do the entire paper.
These
three tips discussed at length will aid you in revising a paper professionally
Step
1
The
first thing you ought to do is to ensure that you have worked on the paper’s
organization, structure and making sure that the content is well aligned with
the instructions provided by the rubric.
At
this crucial stage of writing, some things can be changes which will ensure
that the paper is well organized, ideas are well streamlined and the
information is perfectly conveyed to the reader.
One
of the things that you ought to do is to look over the information and see if
you need to re-arrange any of the paragraphs putting in mind the hierarchy of
the ideas you have discussed within the paper. Ask yourself, are any of these
paragraphs important than the other? What information should have come first,
before or after? Come up with a well-organized way of aligning your ideas in
some sequence by ensuring that you have looked at the paper from a reader’s
point of view.
The
second thing you can do is to include more information which is new coming up
from a fresh idea. This adds more flavor to the already included idea in the
paper and also the fresh idea can serve as a reinforcement of the first
original idea. Normally, adding a new idea involves someone else going through
what you have written and maybe pointing out what has been left out.
The
third thing to do is to delete information which can be information which has
been overly repeated, doesn’t make any
sense with regards to the subject matter at hand and maybe it doesn’t connect
well to the other ideas in other paragraphs hence you can opt to decide to do away
with the idea altogether. The thesis statement should guide you in revising
your paper since the body of the essay should contain nothing less than what
the thesis statement is all about. In simpler terms, everything should be
associated with the thesis statement.
Content
and Organization key things to look out for:
1) The accuracy of information presented
Ensure
that the information presented is accurate, factual, and reliable to the
reader. You can gauge the information provided to have:
Who came up with the information (ensure the
sources are correct)
Why did the person come up with the
information
For who was the information prepared?
For whom was the information intended
What was the main purpose of coming up with
the information
You
should understand that reliable information is dependable, trustworthy, never
failing, undisputable, genuine, sincere, and reputable.
2) Subject
Ensure that your topic is significant and
does not combine two ideas or subjects.
Ensure your topic captures the reader’s attention.
It should be interesting.
Ensure that the topic uses active voice
since the passive voice tends to be direct and rather forceful.
Ensure that you are emphatic in the way
your ideas are experienced by effectively showing your position in an empathic
way towards the reader.
3) Regarding the important ideas
Is the main idea supportive?
Is the main idea strong?
Is the main idea considerate?- the ideas
must be coherent
4) The Introduction
An
introduction can be the most challenging to come up with since an introduction
provides a basis for the entire argument in the essay and the reader is always
keen to read the introduction which gives insight to what is expected to be
covered as he or she proceeds to read the paper.
An
introduction should answer the following:
Is the introduction interesting?
Is the tone right?
Does the introduction announce the topic in
a clear manner?
Have you defined terms which you will use
and the reader might not be in a position to understand?
Does your introduction provide any
background material relevant to what you’re going to write?
5) Conclusion
A
conclusion should be:
Ensure
that you have reinforced what you have discussed in the paragraphs but do not
use a word for word but rather paraphrase to avoid repetition.
Ensure
that the language and tone you have used doesn’t leave the reader’s mind to
ensure that the main idea has stuck to the reader's mind.
STEP
2: REVISE PARAGRAPHS AND SENTENCES
Ensure
the following:
Your paragraph starts with a proper topic
sentence.
Ensure that the topic is supported by every
sentence in the body paragraphs.
Make sure that there are clear transitions between
paragraphs
Make sure that you have used proper
language and the tone is meant for a specific audience that you intend to
communicate to.
Your conclusion does restate the main idea
Ensure that you have checked your
paragraphs for spelling and grammar
Ensure that the paragraphs are not boring
and hectic to read.
Your sentences are clear and smooth.
Your sentences do not have any dangling
modifiers or a preposition at the end.
STEP
3: TIPS FOR EDITING AND PROOFREADING
This is the final step when writing an academic paper, and at this stage, you have understood your paper very well, and you might end up thinking it’s perfect only to end up overlooking very important things that should be mend before you can print and submit your paper for grading. Here are some tips for editing and proofreading
1) Check the paper’s organization and
structure.
2) Revise the paragraphs sentences and
paragraphs.