Why revise? Simple: you want to put your best writing forward, whether that writing is a job application or an essay. The best way to do that is to give your initial draft some resting time (away from your eyes and brain) and then\u2014ideally after feedback from an outside reader\u2014return to it with a fresh pair of eyes and tighten it. While you may have had successful past experiences submitting writing without taking the time to revise it, revising is one of the best ways to make your writing as strong as you can. Here are some tips:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The best thing you can do is get someone else to read and comment on your work. Why? Because your goal in writing is always, fundamentally, to communicate ideas to an audience, whoever that audience is\u2014whether it\u2019s your adviser, journal editors\/readers, a prospective employer, or others. Getting feedback from an outside reader helps you learn how a sample audience responds to your writing. What did s\/he take away from your writing? What did s\/he understand? Find confusing? Often, things we think are coming through clearly in our writing don\u2019t get through to outside readers; we\u2019re often so immersed in our own knowledge of what we\u2019re trying to say that we may not see places where we fail to fully explain things. For this reason, an \u201coutside reader\u201d doesn\u2019t have to be a professional, or someone outside your field\u2014it simply refers to anyone who\u2019s not you. Do try, though, to ask someone whose general judgment you trust. This may be a friend or family member; it can also be a colleague, fellow student, or professor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are some questions you might ask an outside reader:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole point of getting an outside reader is to get feedback; of course, your next step is to incorporate that feedback into your new draft. But trust your own judgment as well. Remember that feedback is, at the end of the day, subjective: different readers will respond in different ways, and you can\u2019t please everyone. If you get feedback that simply goes against your gut feeling of what\u2019s right, listen to your gut. There are exceptions to this, of course. If this is a paper you\u2019re writing for a class, and the feedback comes from your professor, you may want to prioritize your professor\u2019s perspective; similarly, if this is an article for publication, you may want to prioritize the editor\u2019s perspective. Even in these cases, though, if the feedback you receive goes strongly against your own judgment, it\u2019s worth a longer conversation. And in lower stakes situations\u2014e.g., peer feedback\u2014definitely balance what your reader says with your own instincts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some good rules of thumb here are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes you don\u2019t have time for an outside reader, or the people you\u2019d ask are unavailable. In this case, try to put yourself in the place of an outside reader new to this writing. The best way that I\u2019ve found to do this is to put the writing aside for some time (at least a day, if you can afford that), distract yourself with unrelated stuff in the meantime, and then return to it. The more time you can take away from your writing, the fresher your eyes will be when you come back. This is a good chance to switch gears and work on other projects, get life chores done, or give yourself some much-needed downtime. Or, if you\u2019re really short on time, try taking a brief hiatus\u2014even just an hour\u2014but do something utterly different in that time, something that distracts your brain. For me, television or reading helped here (as versus, say, walking around the block, during which time my mind still focused on my writing). When you return to your writing, try as much as you can to put yourself in the shoes of someone completely unfamiliar to the piece, and ask yourself how it might read to such a person. You can ask yourself the same questions listed above that you would ask an outside reader. Granted, this system does not work nearly as well as asking an actual outside reader these questions\u2014but if you\u2019re short on time, it\u2019s still better to do this than not revise at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike editing, which usually focuses on micro, surface-level changes (such as spelling or grammar), revising can really vary in scope. In some cases, it might simply entail short, fast tweaks, while in other cases it might mean making significant changes: cutting huge sections and\/or adding lots of new writing. There\u2019s usually no way to gauge this ahead of time, so err on the side of caution, and set aside time for significant revisions\u2014if you only need to make small revisions, you\u2019ll be ahead of schedule, and if you need to make large ones, you\u2019ll have the time to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Check out Rachel Toor\u2019s thoughts on revision in The Chronicle of Higher Education<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Harvard Writing Center offers great advice here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n