Revision of Former Essay
For this assignment, you will revise either your art-on-campus essay or your report. Revision here means more than editing: It means “re-seeing” the subject. As such, you should plan on including additional material, reorganizing your thoughts, and doing a significant amount of writing and rewriting. Your original paper, then, is simply a springboard for your revision.
Planning and Drafting
As you begin this assignment, look over your original paper as well as the comments on it. Which areas of the paper need the most improvement? Where can you offer additional development or clarification? Where can you offer more introspection or a discussion of significance? Have you changed your mind about anything that you wrote in the original paper?
Then set aside the paper and begin writing down some new ideas about your subject that may have come to you since your first writing. Go back and forth between the original material and your new material and begin to weave the two together. Be careful not to dig a hole for yourself by getting stuck on the phrasing in your original: Just begin from scratch and see what happens.
Read or reread appropriate reading selections in Writing in a Visual Age (pp. 175-177) and The Brief Pelican Handbook (Ch. 5, pp. 55-61) for advice in revision, focus, and development. After you have rewritten your paper, check your paragraphs for topic sentences, edit each sentence carefully, and evaluate the effectiveness of each word choice. The paper you finally submit should synthesize the writing and thinking skills you have developed throughout the term, so you should take care in constructing your final draft.
With your final draft, include any drafts, notes, etc. Also include the draft of this assignment that was previously graded. In addition, attach the sheet that explains your revisions.
Some Evaluation Criteria: Paper
- demonstrates a thorough rethinking of the subject
- contains additional material appropriate for audience and purpose
- is well organized—contains a clear thesis and coherent paragraphs
- avoids errors that are distracting to the reader
Revision of Former Essay
- Describe large additions that you made to your paper and explain the benefit of these additions.
- Describe portions of your paper that you chose to delete and explain the benefit of those deletions.
- Describe how you re-organized your paper and explain how this benefited the paper.
- Describe any other changes (editing for mechanics, visuals added, etc.).