Revising
1. Priorities
Revision Strategies: HOCs and LOCs (Duke)
You have only so much time to revise your paper before you hand it in: what should you focus on? This detailed checklist from the Writing Studio helps you distinguish between higher and lower order concerns.
Getting Feedback (UNC)
You've done all you can on your own: now what? This handout suggets reasons and ways to solicit feedback from others on your writing.
2. Organization
Reverse Outlining (Duke)
One of the Writing Studio's most frequently recommended methods for evaluating the organization of papers, reverse outlining allows you to take a step back and evaluate "the big picture" of your argument.
Roadmaps (Duke)
This handout discusses tips for providing clear signals and signposts to readers as you guide them through your argument.
Organization (UNC)
Learn strategies for successfully organizing (and reorganizing) your essays, from reverse outlining, sectioning, and visualization to avoiding common pitfalls such as plot summary, generalization, and competing ideas.
3. Sources
Working With Sources (Duke)
The Writing Studio recommends these links on how to evaluate, critically read, quote, and cite the texts you use.
Improving Your Writing Style (UNC)
This handout covers ways to improve your writing style by avoiding wordiness, weak verbs, and "ostentatious erudition' (writing to impress).
Using "I" in Academic Writing (Duke)
This handout guides readers through the benefits and pitfalls of using the first-person pronouns I and we in academic writing.
Guidelines for Nonsexist Language (Society for Music Theory)
Strategies for achieving gender-inclusive language. The examples focus on musicology, but the recommendations apply across disciplines.
4b. Style: Clarity and Conciseness
Clarity and Conciseness (Duke)
This handout outlines practical methods for eliminating unnecessary words and phrases from sentences and choosing the most straightforward verb forms.
Improving Your Writing Style: Clarity (Duke .ppt)
A Writing Studio Powerpoint tutorial on improving the clarity of your writing. Consider attending other workshops or peruse them online.
Improving Your Writing Style: Conciseness, Cohesion, and Coherence (Duke .ppt)
This Powerpoint tutorial helps you recognize nominalizations, passive voice, and other grammatical moves that might obscure the conciseness and clarity of your prose. Consider attending other workshops or peruse them online.
Strategies for Improving Sentence Clarity (Purdue)
Do you need to improve the clarity of your writing, but don't know where to start? This page focuses on sentence-level concerns, offering ten practical strategies for arranging verbs and nouns for maximum clarity, avoiding unclear pronoun references, and steering clear of passive voice.
The Paramedic Method for Revising Prose (Richmond)
Adapted from Richard Lanham's Revising Prose, this short guide offers one method for eliminating unnecessary wordiness.