You can choose to revise and resubmit either unit paper 1 or 2 from this semester. When
choosing which paper to revise, consider which essay interested you most and which needs the
most work. Clearly, this may not be the same paper.
Whichever paper you choose, you need to try something more complicated than a
cleaning-up of the grammar and other sentence level concerns (although they are a part of
revision). A revision is quite literally a “re-seeing” of a piece of writing. Maybe something
you’ve read in another class has had an impact on your thinking on one of the earlier papers
you’ve written. Maybe comments I’ve written or comments from tutors, or class workshops
affect the way you see your argument. You might seek new, different pieces of evidence to
support your claims. Perhaps your revision will be primarily structural or stylistic; your essay
might benefit from a change in tone or a reordering of paragraph structure.
However you go about the revision, be sure that you’re not merely making sentence-level
changes. Also, don’t just throw in an extra paragraph without looking at how an addition affects
the logic or style of the paper as a whole. I can’t guarantee you that the change will “work out”
in the sense that the product itself, the revised paper, will deserve a higher grade. What I can
promise is that a clear, genuine attempt at revision will not give you a lower grade than your
original grade. A paper with only sentence-level grammar or spelling changes, however, will
receive the same grade as the original. I can also guarantee you that the experience of revisiting
an older piece of writing will be beneficial in the long term for you as a thinker and a writer.
Aside from the revisions mentioned above, the developments you make to your paper will vary
from person to person. You may need to:
Add or rephrase your title
clarify/strengthen your claim
address the “so what” question (i.e., explore the significance of your claim) in the intro
and/or conclusion
reorganize paragraphs so that the ideas presented therein work to support your claim
without repeating the same point
produce transitions between paragraphs (if you can’t come up with a transition between
paragraphs, it may be a sign that the paragraphs don’t belong together and need to be
reorganized)
craft clear topic sentences for paragraphs (remember, a topic sentence should not simply
summarize a plot element or idea; it needs to make a particular claim that the rest of the
paragraph supports with evidence)
add textual evidence (bring in quotes and/or specific examples from the
readings/film/personal experience)
analyze the evidence already present in the paper (i.e., explain
how
the quote or anecdote
illustrates the point you’re making and
in what way
it’s relevant to your larger claim)
reframe your conclusion (remember a conclusion should do more than repeat what
you’ve said in the paper; there can certainly be an element of re-emphasizing your claim,
but the conclusion is also your chance to make a final impact on your reader by giving
them something to think about or emphasizing the significance of what you’re saying)
correct any mistakes in your use of MLA citation style (add a Works Cited page if you
didn’t do so originally)
You’re not expected to address every issue in the paper during this revision—to do so
would be a much longer revision process; instead, try to tackle the most significant issues in
the paper.
As you begin to make changes to the graded document that contains my comments in the
margins, you will need to make sure that you’ve turned on the “Track Changes” tool in
Microsoft Word or Pages. This tool does just what its name says: keeps track of changes and
revisions you make in your essay.
You MUST use this tool in your final revision of either
your Unit 1 or 2 paper.
I will not read or grade revised essays that do not utilize Track
Changes.
Just as important be sure that you save the file as a new name. I recommend that you just
add the words “Track Changes” to the existing file name. You need to do this so that you
have the original copy with my comments on it and also your track changes document as
well.
Directions to Turn On Track Changes:
1—Click “Review” and then click on Track Changes so that “Yes” appears
2—Then move the cursor into the paragraph to test that you’ve turned on Track Changes and just
type any two random letters. The letters should show up in a new color. If the letters do not show
up in a new color then be sure to click “On” again and try the same test again.
