Literature Classes: Researched Essay

Hints for Revision

• Look back over the assignment handout to make sure you have fulfilled all the specifications (topic, number of research sources, etc.)

• Make sure your essay goes beyond the surface level. Make sure it’s not just a report, but shows some “critical thinking” on your part. Get to controversies, significance, your own arguments, etc., wherever possible. Get to meaning, significance, connections, consequences, causes, solutions, or whatever would be appropriate for your topic and for how you’ve decided to narrow the topic (your angle).

• Make sure you deal with each research source enough and don’t just toss-and-run (toss the quote in there and take off too fast). Spend time with each source.

• Also, spend enough time with your primary source—the work of literature itself.

• Consider your title. Is it specific enough? Does it indicate what your paper actually does, or is it too vague and general?

• Read to make sure your essay is in every spot as specific as possible. Don’t view your topic from far away, over a vast distance—zoom in and get specific.

• On a draft copy, beside each paragraph write a brief note about the paragraph’s subject, what the paragraph is about. Then go back and use these notes to critique your organization.

• Does your intro get the reader’s attention? Better intros start out right away with something specific, rather than with general statements like “Many people believe many different things.” (Yawn. And it’s a complete waste of words because it doesn’t say anything.)

• Does your conclusion end the essay without bringing up something new that would need to be examined in a body paragraph? Does it end with something memorable and specific?

• On a draft, highlight areas where you have worked in your research. Do the sentences read smoothly? Is the researched worked in smoothly and logically? Is the source correctly cited? Is the material either in quotation marks or paraphrased, avoiding accidental plagiarism? Is the Works Cited page correctly formatted?

• Read the essay out loud to the wall, paying attention to how it sounds and making any changes you want as you go. Often, you can hear problems that you can’t see.

• A final tip for editing/proofreading for grammar and punctuation errors: edit the essay backwards sentence by sentence. That way, your brain will have to focus on those matters rather than content.