Rewrite your paragraphs to develop them more,.
Polishing is fixing up punctuation, changing usage errors, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. So give yourself time to write your application essay it takes more than one night! Letting your first draft sit for a few days is important to get away from what you have written before you edit so you can look at what you have written with a more objective and fresher eye.Įditing is not polishing. Once you have written your first draft, it is best to let it ferment for a few days. That’s why Stage 3, the edit, is so hard. You are “throwing every thing up” on your paper: ideas, word, memories and more. It’s important to get your thoughts down.
You want to try to get everything down, even if it doesn’t always make sense. For this reason we are offering a checklist to help you with the editing stage.Īfter you have decided what you want to write about to answer the prompt (Stage 1), the first draft (Stage 2) should be an open flow, almost a free-writing stage.
#COLLEGE FINAL DRAFT ESSAY CHECKLIST HOW TO#
The first is thinking about how to answer the application essay prompt, the second is writing the first draft, the third is the editing stage, and the fourth is polishing your last draft.Įditing is one of the most important steps, and it’s probably the hardest. Try to detach yourself from what you've written pretend that you are reviewing someone else's work.There are really 4 steps to writing the college essay. Switch from writer-centered to reader-centered. You can always talk to a Writing Lab tutor about how to correct errors. Eliminate mistakes in grammar and usage.ĭo you see any problems with grammar, punctuation, or spelling? If you think something is wrong, you should make a note of it, even if you don't know how to fix it. Visit the Purdue OWL's vidcast on cutting during the revision phase for more help with this task. Cut out extra words, vagueness, and misused words. Tighten and clean up your language.ĭo all of the ideas in the paper make sense? Are there unclear or confusing ideas or sentences? Read your paper out loud and listen for awkward pauses and unclear ideas. What are you trying to do in the paper? In other words, are you trying to argue with the reading, to analyze the reading, to evaluate the reading, to apply the reading to another situation, or to accomplish another goal? Evaluate your evidence.ĭoes the body of your paper support your thesis? Do you offer enough evidence to support your claim? If you are using quotations from the text as evidence, did you cite them properly? Save only the good pieces.ĭo all of the ideas relate back to the thesis? Is there anything that doesn't seem to fit? If so, you either need to change your thesis to reflect the idea or cut the idea. Does the paper have a clear thesis? Do you know what the paper is going to be about? Identify your readers and your purpose. Try to imagine that this paper belongs to someone else. What are you trying to say in the paper? In other words, try to summarize your thesis, or main point, and the evidence you are using to support that point. You can use your responses to revise your papers by reorganizing them to make your best points stand out, by adding needed information, by eliminating irrelevant information, and by clarifying sections or sentences. Use the following questions to evaluate your drafts. During the revising process, put your writing aside at least twice-once during the first part of the process, when you are reorganizing your work, and once during the second part, when you are polishing and paying attention to details.
If you can forget about your draft for a day or two, you may return to it with a fresh outlook. When you have plenty of time to revise, use the time to work on your paper and to take breaks from writing. Use this resource to help you find and fix common errors. Proofreading is primarily about searching your writing for errors, both grammatical and typographical, before submitting your paper for an audience (a teacher, a publisher, etc.). Writing Letters of Recommendation for Students.
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