How to Change an Essay
After dedicating hours -- or even days -- to writing an essay, the last thing you want to do is revise it. The revision process is crucial, however, as it allows you to identify gaps in information, eliminate repetition and correct factual or typographical errors. A thorough review of your writing is necessary to ensure that your essay meets the assignment's expectations.
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Instructions
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Reread the assignment to ensure that your essay answers the question. If there are multiple parts, make sure the essay addresses each one. For example, if it is a compare and contrast assignment, and you feel one of those categories has less information than the other, revise it to ensure that your essay adequately meets the requirements.
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Assess your argument. The thesis statement should succinctly state your argument. If you wrote this statement before conducting the research and writing, your argument might have changed. Make sure that your thesis statement is supported by the research, and make any necessary changes to the statement.
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Underline your thesis statement and topic sentences in each paragraph. Make sure that each topic sentence relates directly to the thesis. Your reader needs to see these connections clearly.
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Read through the essay for gaps in research. Look for statements that are unsupported. Underline these statements, and go back to your references to find information to back them up. While not every statement in your essay needs support from a credible source -- some should be your own thoughts, after all -- powerful statements should be supported with factual information.
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Check grammar, punctuation and style. Once you've identified and corrected any major flaws, focus on minor issues. Look for grammatical errors like subject-verb disagreement, misplaced modifiers and noun-pronoun disagreement. Check that each sentence has appropriate end punctuation and that commas and quotation marks are placed appropriately. Ensure that direct quotes and paraphrased material have proper in-text citation and are listed in your works-cited page.
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References
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