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8.7: Strategies for revising

  • Page ID
    75235
    • Alexandra Glynn, Kelli Hallsten-Erickson & Amy Jo Swing
    • North Hennepin Community College & Lake Superior College
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    How do you get the best out of your revising process? Here are some strategies that writers have developed to look at their first drafts from a fresh perspective:

    • Take a break. You are proud of what you wrote, but you might be too close to it to make changes. Set aside your writing for a few hours, a day, even a week until you can look at it objectively.
    • Ask someone you trust for feedback and constructive criticism.
    • Pretend you are one of your readers. Are you satisfied or dissatisfied? Why?
    • Use the resources that your college or workplace provides. Find out where your school’s writing lab is located and ask about the assistance they provide online and in person or discuss your draft with peers or writing experts in your workplace.
    • Read something in the same mode around the same topic that is a good text. Do you see any hints there for modeling your own work on?

    This page titled 8.7: Strategies for revising is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Alexandra Glynn, Kelli Hallsten-Erickson & Amy Jo Swing.

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