You’ve written the first draft of your essay. Now, it’s time to revise and polish before turning it in. Here are five things to focus on.
Step 1: Make your opening paragraph clear and tight. Losing the reader is a bad thing and a convoluted introductory paragraph will achieve that before you even get a chance to grease your wheels. If you can’t achieve an attention-grabbing opener, that’s fine — just make sure it’s clear so that it sets up the rest of the essay right.
Step 2: Strengthen your conclusion. Your conclusion should tie up the essay in a definite way, reiterating your main point while putting a closure on the matter. If your conclusion doesn’t appear to meet this criteria, revise until it’s as strong as you can make it.
Step 3: Review your transitions. The use of linking phrases and sentences offer one of the best ways to make the reader feel like they’re reading a tight, well thought-out piece. Use the revision phase as an opportunity to add transitions where they can help bridge separate ideas.
Step 4: Review your word choices. Sometimes, obsessing too much on finding the correct word for an idea will stall your first draft too long, so you just settle on the first alternative that comes to mind. The revision phase gives you a chance to work on those — take as much time as you need, making sure to account for who your target audience is when deciding on your choice of words.
Step 5: Tighten up your logic. It’s not uncommon to slip up on your logical reasoning when doing the draft, as you’re usually speeding through your arguments to finish the first version of the essay. That’s why it’s important to read through with a specific intent of catching any logical pitfalls in your writing. That reasoning is your original content — the heart of the material — so it’s important to get it right.
