Revising Your Research Paper

Associate LevelMaterial

Appendix P

Revising Your Research Paper

To create a quality paper, you must revise numerous times by self-revising, incorporating peer feedback and instructor feedback, and proofreading. Revising a research paper is a little different from revising essays: The amount of research and the length of the paper require you to be more detail oriented.

The following tips may help you become more effective at revising.

Self-Revision

What to Look For When Revising

In the revision step, focus on the following questions and strategies:

• Assignment requirements. Did you fulfill all the expectations for the assignment? Reread the directions to be sure.
  
• Audience and purpose. Does your content take your audience and their skill levels into consideration? Have you fulfilled your initial purpose to inform, persuade, or convince your reader about a certain viewpoint?
  
• Content and organization. Does the overall organization of the paper make sense logically? Review your outline again, if necessary. As you read your paper, revise content where necessary. Rearrange words and sentences for a stronger effect, and rewrite passages that may not be clear.
  

• Introduction. Does your introduction catch the reader’s attention? You can catch your reader’s attention in a number of ways: by telling a story, providing a startling statistic or quotation, or explaining an interesting fact. Have you included your thesis statement at the end of the introduction? Have you avoided jumping right into the arguments (the supporting evidence for the body of the paper)?
  
• Supporting details. Is each topic sentence thoroughly explained through the use of examples, reasons, facts, data, case studies, stories, and so forth? Have you taken counterarguments into account? Is your writing free of bias and fallacies?
  
• Conclusion. Does your conclusion neatly wrap up the paper while positivelyinfluencing the reader? Have you avoided simply repeating your introduction? You possible, say something interesting or memorable in your conclusion, but avoid using the conclusion to add new information or to support your thesis.

• Transitions. Have you used transitions to move readers smoothly from paragraph to paragraph, from sentence to sentence, and from your own writing into quotations, paraphrases, or summaries?

• Unity and coherence. Does every paragraph contain a topic sentence? Do all the supporting paragraphs relate to this one main idea? Is the writing clear, concise, and understandable?
  
• Tone and vocabulary. Are your voice and tone consistent throughout the paper? Your paper must be written from a third-person point of view (with no I or you pronouns) and without slang or contractions. To create a more lively tone, try writing a variety of sentence types. Replace words that are too advanced for your audience, not descriptive enough, or vague.
  
• Documentation. Does every paraphrase, summary, and quotation have an in-text citation? Are all references cited in the paper also listed on a references page at the end of the paper? It may help to print your paper and highlight all the passages that include sources to ensure each citation has a corresponding entry in the reference list.

• Paper formatting. Have you ensured that the paper’s font, margins, and style conform to Associate Program guidelines?

• Title. Is the title of the paper interesting enough to make the audience want to read your paper?

Not interesting:Boys and Girls in School

Interesting:Closing the Gender Gap in Our Schools

Not interesting:Teen Pregnancy

Interesting:No More Throwing Stones: How to Help Pregnant Teenagers

Not interesting:A Comprehensive Guide for New Real Estate Investors

Interesting:Securing Your Future: Why Every American Should Invest in Real Estate

What to Look For When Editing

Editing is the final step in the revision process. Editing involves looking for technical errors in your paper such as spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation.

• Sentence structure. Have you avoided fragments (sentences that are too short because they do not constitute a complete thought) and run-ons (sentences that are too long because they continue without a proper punctuation mark or break)?
  
• Punctuationand capitalization. Are capital letters, periods, commas, apostrophes, and other punctuation marks used correctly?
  
• Spelling and word usage. Always use the spell-check tool on your computer. The spell-checker does not always pick up every misspelled or misused word, so be sure to review your paper thoroughly for spelling errors.
  
• Inoffensive language. Be sure your writing refers to sex, race, gender, and religion equally and fairly.

Tools and Tips for Successful Revising and Editing

The following tools and tips work well for student research writers:

• Review sample papers and compare them your paper to determine if you have missed anything. Review the following sample paper at (you must be logged onto the student website and then copy the link into your browser).

• Read other research papers to see if your paper contains appropriate vocabulary, sentence variety, and smooth transitions.

Note. Different courses may have different requirements for the research paper. You are not required to write an abstract for this course, for example, but you must include a title page formatted according to the style guidelines outlined in the Associate Level Writing Style Handbook at

• Read your paper aloud. It may seem awkward at first, but you may become more comfortable the more you do it, and you may be surprised at the number of errors you find.

• Read your paper for revision and editing a number of times. The best time to complete a revision is a day or two after you finish the rough draft. Read through your paper at least two or three times over a period of a few days to a week to look for errors.
  
• Submit your paper to the Center for Writing Excellence at Click the plagiarism box to receive grammar and punctuation assistance from WritePointSM as well as feedback about the originality of your writing and whether you have appropriately cited and documented sources.
  

Peer Revision

After you finish revising, request feedback from one or two other people. In this course, you must complete one peer review with another student.

When you receive your paper from your peer reviewer, keep the following in mind:

• Try not to take the reviewer’s comments personally. Consider what he or she is saying and take some time to think about whether the comments have value. You may notalways see what others can see in your writing. If, in the end, you really believe what you have written should remain as it is, then you do not need to accept the reviewer’s suggestion. You may, however, want to get a second opinion before you make a final determination.

• Make all the suggested changes and correct the errors. Then, review the paper one last time to make sure you did not miss anything.

• The degree to which you make use of feedback may significantly affect your success in academics or in your career. Make the most of feedback by noting things you have done well and areas that need improvement. You may use these examples for later assignments so your improvement extends beyond the current project.

Instructor Feedback

Carefully consider the feedback your instructor provides during different phases of the research process. If you do not understand why the instructor made a suggestion for revising your paper, do not hesitate to ask him or her. Your instructor is a vital resource as you learn to become a more confident and proficient writer.

Proofreading

After you review the peer review and your instructor’s feedback and incorporate the feedback, proofread your paper—reread your writing one last time to find any overlooked errors. Then, you are ready to submit your research paper.

Wrap-Up

Revising and editing canoften feel like a difficult process. It is important, however, that you complete these processes a number of times. You have more credibility with your reader and you also earn more points from your instructor if your paper is error-free and if it reads the way a research paper should read.