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Research Step 6 - Revising
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Goals:
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Revision Strategies
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Now that you've had a time without your research, it is time to finish the project. Week four of the research project
is probably the most difficult, as you need to balance a number of tasks ranging
from revising to documenting to publishing. This week will also require
that you take the project home with you, that is, if you want to do well.
I would recommend that your essay undergo two revisions per day between now and
Thursday. You should carry out one of those revisions, and ideally, enlist
the help of a peer for the other. Keep in mind that the more you revise,
the better your essay will be.
Some advice for success in revising: Use your
senses! You have two senses capable of processing the information in your
research project--sight and hearing. Use the sense of sight by reading your
essay and writing changes into the draft. Use your hearing by having a
peer or parent read your essay aloud to you. You will "hear"
mistakes and awkward passages that you may not notice when you read the
essay. This really does make a difference.
Here's another tip: revise your project on a
clean, newly printed copy. After each revision, type the
changes into the essay and print a clean copy for the next revision. Below
are some guidelines and a check-list for revising your essay, adapted from
McDougal Littell's textbook Writing Research Papers.
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Questions for Peer Revising
- What is the main point or thesis of the
essay? Is the focus of the essay very clear?
- Does the essay as a whole support this
thesis? Why or why not? What could the writer do to make the
support more complete?
- Which sections of the paper did you find
the most interesting or informative?
- Were any parts of the paper unclear to you?
- What questions about the topic do you have
after reading the essay?
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Revision Checklist
General
- Does my paper adequately support or prove
my thesis statement?
- Does my paper have a clear introduction,
body, and conclusion?
- Is my paper divided into logical sections,
or mini-essays, each with its own title and focus?
- Does every idea flow logically from the one
that precedes it?
- Have I used transitions to show connections
between ideas?
Introduction
- Will the introduction capture my readers'
attention?
- Does the lead-in transition logically and
smoothly into the thesis statement?
- Does the introduction present my thesis
statement clearly?
Support
- Does the body of my essay present evidence
from at least six reliable sources?
- Is my use of these sources balanced?
Do I avoid overusing one or two sources?
- Is information from my sources presented in
a combination of summary, paraphrase, quotation?
- Are there any gaps in my argument that I
need to fill in by doing additional research?
- Are there any points that are inadequately
supported?
- Have I eliminated all unnecessary or
irrelevant information from my paper?
- Have I avoided unsubstantiated statements
of opinion throughout?
Conclusion
- Did I restate the thesis in the conclusion
of my essay?
- Does the conclusion summarize the main
points that I have presented in support of the thesis?
- Does the conclusion give my reader a sense
of completion? (Are all the loose ends tied up? Have all the parts
of the thesis been supported? Have all of the reader's most likely
questions been addressed?)
Style
- Do I offer sentence variety, both in
structure and length?
- Have I avoided wordiness and deleted any
unnecessary words, phrases, etc.?
- Have I used plenty of clear, concrete
examples? Have I defined key terms?
- Have I avoided informal language, like
slang, contractions, and first/second person pronouns?
- Do the sentences in the essay flow well?
Documentation
- Have I avoided plagiarism by completely
documenting all material taken from sources? Does every
summary, paraphrase, and quotation have a source reference?
- Is each quotation set off by quotation
marks or appropriately indented?
- Is there a complete source card, in
manuscript format, for each source referenced in my essay?
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