Revise Five Times (then proofread) Pointers on written assignments when you lack time The Five Revisions

Content and Emphasis If you have time for only one revision go over content and emphasis

Aspects of the content and emphasis revision Make sure all information is included in the paper Cut down on unneeded detail Highlight the important ideas “deemphasize the less important ideas”

Clarity If you have time for two revisions then check for clarity.

Aspects of the Clarity revision Do you have logical organization (does it help the reader understand the message. Are the sentences easily understood. Do you have good transitions from paragraph to paragraph.

Correctness If you have time for three revisions check for correctness.

Aspects of the Correctness revision Look for problems in grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and sentence structure.

Brevity If you have time for four revisions look at Brevity.

Aspects of the Brevity revision “Try to shorten wordy phrases” and eliminate unnecessary sentences. “Combine or delete unimportant ideas” Concentrate on the focus of the paper

Style If you have time for 5 revisions then look at style In technical writing this usually is not needed. In other types of writing this is important to make your paper is consistent with other papers you have written.

Final Step: Proofread Make sure to correct errors caused by human and computer errors such as spelling that the spell checker missed as being wrong. Fix computer formatting problems Finally if you have the luxury have a colleague read your paper.