Use this guide to help you focus on revising the content of your paper.

Writing helps us develop our thinking because it allows us to revisit our first thoughts. Through writing, we can re-see, reshape, and refine those thoughts. When writing is thought of as a process of dialogue between the writer and the emerging text, it means that we shift from being writers to being readers of our own drafts. As readers, we should always question our own draft(s).

In addition to some general initial questions, revision should focus on questions about the information in the body paragraphs; questions about the introduction, conclusion, and title; and questions about the style of your writing.

Initial Questions

Pull back from your paper. Ask yourself:

• What else can I say?
• What can I add here?
• Will this make sense?
• Is this what really happened?
• What questions will my readers or teacher ask? 

• Do I have enough information?

• What's the strongest or most exciting part of the piece and how can I build on it?

• Have I put the reader in the action, instead of reporting what happened?

• Have I answered the who, what, when, where, why, and how?

• Have I described the scene and people with enough detail that a reader can see, feel, smell, touch, and taste what's happening?

• Is there any part that might confuse a reader? Have I explained each part well enough that a reader will know what I mean?

• Does this piece need dialogue (internal or external)?

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• Do I have too much information?

• What parts aren't needed--don't add to my point or story? Can I delete them?

• What is this piece really about, if I had to sum it up in a sentence? Are there parts that are about something else? Can I cut them? 

• Do I have more than one main focus here? 

• Are there too many fussy little details that may confuse the reader instead of help focus the reader on the main idea?

Questions About Introductions

• Does my introduction bring my reader right into my piece, right into the action?
• Is the thesis clear to the reader?
• Is the main point or argument set up properly with adequate background material?
• Where does the piece really begin? Do I have more than one introduction and/or thesis? Can I merge them, or do I need to cut one of them out of the paper?

• Does my conclusion leave my reader eager to reread the piece?
• Is the thesis or main idea clearly echoed in the conclusion?
• Does my conclusion include a brief but not too detailed summary of the major points of the paper?
• How do I want the reader to feel at the end of the piece? Does this conclusion do it?

• What do I want my reader to know at the end of the piece? Does this conclusion do it?

Questions About Titles

• Does my title fit what the piece is about?
• Is my title a "grabber"? Would it make a reader want to read my piece?

• Have I cluttered my piece with unnecessary adjectives and adverbs?
• Have I said something more than once?
• Have I used any words too often?
• Are any sentences too long and tangled? Too brief and choppy?
• Have I accurately paragraphed the content to maximize the focus and flow of the piece?
• Do I avoid using first person point of view ("I" or "me") except when absolutely necessary and without possibly confusing the reader?
• Have I replaced all "you" phrases with another noun like "students" or "one"?
• Does the main verb tense stay the same--present (it's happening now) or past (it happened before)?