Putting it all together

Write a well written and well organised 250-300 word essay on the following topic:

Important steps in revising and editing an essay

Include at least one quote, one paraphrase and a bibliography.  Choose your quotes and paraphrases from the following sources. Be careful not to plagiarise.


Source 1. From the Twelfth edition of the Harbrace College Handbook. The editors are John C. Hodges, Winifred Bryan Homer, Suzanne Strobeck Webb and Robert Keith Miller. The book was published in 1994 by Harcourt Brace and Co. in Fort Worth.

"Revising means ‘to see again’ and this activity implies that you take a fresh look at your draft and rethink what you have written." (pg. 378 379)

"The truly challenging task in revision is to look for what you might have left out that your audience expects to see." (pg. 379)

"Ensure that sentences in a paragraph all relate to the topic sentence and are placed in the most effective order" (pg. 379).

    "Edit sentences for clarity, effectiveness, and variety …     Consider combining choppy or unconnected sentences and rework long, overly complicated ones." (pg. 380)


Source 2. From Cyndia Susan Clegg and Michael M. Wheeler's book titled Students Writing Across the Disciplines. It was published in 1991 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in Fort Worth.

"Experienced writers have little difficulty identifying junk. Experience taught them to read their own writing as if it were a total stranger's. Objectivity is the first revising tool. The second is criteria for judgment. While writers may develop criteria for their special audiences and purposes, most readers expect writing to be:
•    complete
•    coherent
•    clear
•    correct
These four C's of good writing provide a useful guide for revising and editing." (pg. 58 59)

"Clutter" according to journalist and professor William Zinsser, "is the disease of American writing ....” (pg. 64).

"The last word in revising is colleagues. Those of us who write often know only too well how our writing has improved from the suggestions made by colleagues. Professional writers have reviewers and editors ....” (pg. 6)

Note: This essay is due 1 week after this tutorial and will count towards the tutorial grade for this course. All submitted work must be typed.