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Editing

Goal: to perfect your paper on the sentence level, making sure every sentence makes sense
Time: 20 minutes

It is important that you learn to think of revision, editing and proofreading as three different steps. Practice completing them at separate sittings so that you can truly focus on each individual task. Revision involves reeevaluating, redesigning, reorgainzing, and rewriting entire sections of your paper. You may change the paper drastically during the revision stage. On the other hand, Editing asks you to examine each sentence to make sure it is clear and concise, removing awkward phrases, and improving your word choice. Finally, Proofreading asks you to check grammar, punctuation, and spelling, so it should be completed at the very end of the process.

Think of editing as your final chance to examine each sentence as a smaller unit. While reading at the sentence level, focus on the following points. For the activity make a list of 5 common mistakes you made in your paper.

Empty Language
Avoid language that is vague, general, and circular. A good way to detect such language in your text is to find sweeping words such as: many, most, society, today, people. When these words occur together they add up to empty language. When you find empty language, edit your sentence so that it says something more specific.

Vocabulary
Are any words overused? Are there to many "to be" sections? Use a thesaurus to strengthen the language of your paper.

Garbled Language
Look for sentences that do not make immediate sense. Rewrite each sentence so that it can stand alone.