A reverse outline is an excellent tool for checking the unity and structure of your essay after it is drafted. It is a simple process that will provide you with a snapshot of your essay. It will allow you to see the ‘whole picture’ so that you can assess its organization and coherence and make changes accordingly.
A few easy steps:
Start with a printed copy of your draft.
Number each body paragraph in the margin. (Leave the introduction for now; you will check that later.)
On a separate sheet of paper, write your thesis statement on the top, followed by the numbers which will correspond to your body paragraphs. So, if you have 12 paragraphs in the essay, your sheet will be numbered from 1-12.
Read each numbered paragraph and on your sheet write the main idea or argument of that paragraph in as few words as possible – preferably no more than one sentence.
NB: If you have difficulty articulating the main idea or argument of a paragraph in one sentence, this is an indication that you’ve either packed too much into your paragraph and need to break it up OR that the paragraph is not fully developed. If this is the case, you’ll need to revisit the paragraph to identify the problem and make changes to it accordingly. Work on it until you are able to identify a main idea or argument.
Once you’ve gone through these steps, you should have something that looks like an outline: it will give let you take a step back and see how it holds together. Review the outline, asking yourself the following questions:
Do the ideas follow in a logical manner? Will your reader be able to follow the order of your ideas?
Can you see how each paragraph builds upon the one that preceded it?
Does each paragraph support or relate to your thesis statement?
Does the structure make sense or might you need to move or reorganize the various paragraphs?
Is there repetition of paragraphs that seem very similar? Should they be combined? Or might one of them be omitted?
Does the draft correspond to your original vision of the way you want to build your essay – using a particular organizational structure appropriate to the assignment?
Is the rhetorical pattern effective for the type of essay you are writing (i.e. cause and effect; compare and contrast; etc.)
The reverse outline will be a useful strategy for considering the overall structure of your essay. If you are satisfied with the organization, you can move on to look at how you’ve developed your arguments.
More than simply proofreading for errors, revision is a process of evaluating and amending your written work. The word revise comes from Latin and means to look or see again [revisere = to look back at, revisit; revidere = to see again]. While the value of revision is often underestimated, it is a crucial stage of the writing process, one that can change a good essay into a great essay.
Revising will not only help you to become a better writer and a better editor, but it will also help you to become a better thinker! Writing is a way of “thinking on the page” and the revision process will allow you to groom your thoughts, hone your ideas and craft your arguments. During this phase, you can review what you’ve written to make large-scale improvements in structure, organization and content, as well as refinements in style, language and grammar.
Revising is an opportunity:
to determine whether you have fulfilled the purpose of your assignment and responded effectively to the prompt
to examine the logic and the development of your argument
to see if you’ve omitted any important details, if you’ve digressed or integrated extraneous/irrelevant information (and then expand or cut as necessary)
to correct problems at the sentence level (word choice, grammar and sentence structure)
You’ll begin to identify the strengths and weaknesses in your writing in order to build upon what you already do well and make improvements in problem areas. It is true that revision adds to the time you spend on your assignments and it might mean that you will have to rewrite parts of your essay. But the benefits will be worth the extra time and effort!
Leaving yourself the time to revise will also afford you an unexpected freedom in the drafting phase. Knowing that you don’t have to write the perfect essay on your first try, that you can return to it, reshape, reconfigure, adjust and fine-tune it, will make the initial writing a far less stressful and – perhaps surprisingly – more creative, productive process.
Once you have a full working draft, you are ready to begin the revision process.
Hopefully, you’ve left yourself some time; so, try setting your draft aside for a day or two so that you can gain an objective distance from what you’ve written. You’ll come back to it with a fresh perspective and will likely see things that you might otherwise have missed.
You’ll be working on two different levels:
the macro level: structure, ideas, argument and evidence
the micro level: editing and proofreading, format and citations, grammar and spelling, (i.e. the technical elements, mechanics and details)
Revision and editing are generally better done on a hard copy - this will help you to see the essay as a whole; you will make the adjustments on your computer later.
Before you print your draft, read through it on your computer first to pick up any obvious mistakes.
Use your computer’s spell check tool, but be aware that you will still need to re-check your draft. Spell check will only identify misspelled words; if you have used a wrong word, such as a homonym (e.g., their vs. there vs. they’re), it will not pick up the error.
If you find it easier to do revisions directly on your computer, the “Track Changes” function in your word processing program is a useful tool for monitoring your revisions.
Start On The Macro Level, The Big Picture And Then Proceed To The Details, The Micro Level.
Ideas, argument, evidence
Organization/Structure
Voice
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency
A key question to keep in mind as you read through you draft is whether you have formulated and developed an argument that responds to the prompt question and the guidelines of your assignment.
Remember to pay close attention to the prompt words, to the way the instructions are set out: Are you being asked to take a position? Are you being asked to define, explore, discuss?
The language in the prompt will indicate the kind of thinking you are expected to do in your assignment and will help you to determine how your response should be constructed.
Your thesis statement will be the first element to review.
Does it engage with the prompt? Is it specific and unified? Is it significant (i.e. does it introduce a “so what?” factor)? Does it have a claim and a strategy? Does it offer your reader a map of the essay?
A strong thesis statement should suggest the structure of your essay: think of it as a contract that clearly sets out the trajectory or your argument for your audience.
Reviewing the organization of your essay is crucial in order to see whether you have developed your argument effectively and whether each part of your argument is in the appropriate place.
Here are some general questions to keep in mind as you read:
Do your arguments support your thesis statement?
Do your points follow a logical, coherent progression?
Do you support your claims with evidence and analysis?
Have you fully fleshed out the issues with solid reasoning?
If you created an outline for your essay, you can use that as a starting point to see how the essay aligns with your initial structure. But sometimes as the essay develops, you might integrate new points or shift your direction slightly; you might have found and incorporated new research or decided on a different order. So it is best not to rely on your original outline.
Try a Reverse Outline instead.
This stage of the revision process requires close attention to substance, to content. As you read through each paragraph of the essay, you will need to ask yourself some important questions:
Did you introduce evidence for all of your arguments?
Does your evidence adequately support your claims?
Do you offer sufficient analysis of your evidence to advance your claims? (Do you explain the connection between the evidence and the claim?)
Are there places in the paper where more details, examples, or specifics are needed?
Does your essay present a nuanced treatment of your topic? Have you considered where they might be grey areas or counterarguments that might raise questions for your reader or potentially undermine your argument?
Is there material that is irrelevant? If so, you will need to decide whether it is superfluous (does it distract your reader from the trajectory of the overall argument and need to be omitted) or whether it needs further explanation or analysis.
Remember: You want your reader to see that you understand the material and that you are making the proper connections. However, if something is irrelevant, you can lose ground in what you are trying to argue and at the same time, lose your reader’s attention and comprehension.
Look at your topic sentences to make sure they connect back to where your previous paragraph left off.
Have you used transitions effectively to indicate the relationship between one paragraph and the next?
It is usually best to review your introduction AFTER you review the body of your essay. WHY? Once you’ve combed through the body of your essay, you will have a clear idea of what you’ve actually argued. Your essay might have taken a different direction than you initially intended and the introduction may need to be refined to correspond with the finished draft. It is important, therefore, to make sure that your introduction matches what follows. Even if you didn’t veer from your original vision, its always a good idea to make sure that you get off to a good start.
The introduction of your essay is where you establish its purpose for your reader. It is where you provide background to contextualize the subject and the issue at hand. A successful introduction will offer enough information to lay a foundation for your argument, but will avoid unnecessary details that are better left for the body of the essay as you develop your points. In most essays, the introduction is where you state your thesis (generally - but not always - at or near the end of the introduction).
Review your introduction to determine whether you have:
Provided adequate information to situate the topic
Defined terms that might not be familiar to your reader
Included your argument/thesis statement and a direction for the paper
It is a common belief that the conclusion is simply a restatement of your thesis, but it can be used to do much more. While a good conclusion will revisit the essay’s argument, this is where you can consider its broader implications, its relevance or significance. You put a great deal of effort into the 5 or 10 pages you just wrote, so make the ending as interesting as everything that came before it. Don’t leave your reader flat! Here’s your chance to make an impact, to leave an impression on the audience so that they continue to think about your argument even after they put the essay down.
Ask yourself: Why is this important? What can we learn from this? ‘So what?’
Does your conclusion draw together what you have argued in an interesting way?
Did you restate your central argument in a new way (not verbatim!)?
Have you engaged with the significance of your arguments in a way that leaves the reader thinking about what he or she has just read?
Now we can begin to move in closer to look at the sentence level …
Start with questions of style, keeping in mind that clear, concise writing is always preferable. Streamlining your writing will allow your reader to understand your points, which is the goal of your essay.
Opt for plain language: don’t use fancy language for its own sake.
Is the connection between your sentences clear?
Have you guided the reader from one sentence to the next in a logical manner with words that will show the relationships?
(For example, on the other hand, however to show contrast; therefore, consequently to show cause and effect)
Are you using precise language that is appropriate to your topic?
Are you using language that is clichéd or too general?
Remember: Don’t rely on a thesaurus alone. When you find a synonym, be sure to look up the definition in the dictionary to be sure that it accurately conveys the meaning you are looking for. Make sure that you are using terms that you understand and that you are using them correctly!
Do you use doubled words or redundancies? (eg. close proximity, full and complete, reconsider again, join together)
Do you rely on intensifiers or qualifiers? (eg. Very, extremely, really, a considerable amount of, to a certain extent)
Do you use catch-all terms that are vague? (eg. aspect, factor, thing, feature)
Do you use formulaic phrases where one you can use one word? (eg. for the purpose of vs. to; due to the fact that vs. because; with regard to vs. about)
Occasional use of such words and phrases can add variety to your sentences, but be careful not to overuse them or your writing will become cumbersome. Note words that get in the way of or complicate the sentence’s meaning.
To locate instances of passive voice in your essay, look for verbs that consist of two or more words; if the parts include a form of the verb be plus the past participle of another verb, you probably have an example of passive voice (was given, is helped, are spoken, will be described).
Another way to identify passive voice is to look for verb phrases followed by the word by (The theory was explained by the professor.) Often, sentences in the passive voice use by after the verb to explain who or what is doing the action.
To revise passive verbs, rewrite the sentence so that the person or thing performing the action comes first (The professor explained the theory.).
Occasional use of the passive voice is acceptable – especially in certain disciplines (eg. scientific writing). You can use it for variety in your writing or when the subject is not known (e.g., “Research has been undertaken to show that…”). However, academic writing tends to favour the active voice for greater concision and clarity.
Look for repeated words and phrases and ask yourself whether they are necessary
Try to vary sentence types and lengths for lively and interesting writing.
Small errors can make or break a good paper; so leave yourself time for this stage of the editing process. Make sure grammar, punctuation and spelling are correct – do not rely on grammar check and spell check for this - you must read it over yourself.
Shifts of verb tense
Subject-verb agreement (subject and verb must agree in number: Scientific theories about the brain show… NOT Scientific theories about the brain shows…)
Pronoun-antecedent noun agreement (Pronoun and noun must agree in number: (Anyone can learn from his or her mistakes. NOT Anyone can learn from their mistakes.)
Unclear pronoun use: When using it especially.
Sentence Fragments: Make sure each sentence contains an independent clause with a subject and verb; look for sentences that begin with markers of dependent clauses (because, such as, although) and check to be sure they are attached to the clause on which they depend.
Comma splices and run-on sentences:
Find sentences that have more than one independent clause. Make one clause into a dependent clause with a comma and conjunction, or split into two sentences.
Find sentences that are very long, or that contain too many ideas that can stand on their own, and divide into shorter sentences.
Faulty parallelism (Research requires intellect and independence. NOT Research requires intellect and being independent.)
Spelling
One possible strategy to check for spelling errors is to proofread backwards, from the end of a line to the beginning. BUT look out for homonyms, such as its and it’s or to and too.
Punctuation
Be particularly aware of comma, colon and semi-colon use
Double check the punctuation where quotes are integrated (comma, colon, quotation marks, ellipses, square brackets, if needed)
FINALLY, check formatting and citations
Be sure that your essay conforms to the formatting guidelines of whichever citation system you are using (e.g. MLA, Chicago, APA)
Check that you have cited your sources correctly and copied quotations accurately
Review your Works Cited, Reference List or Bibliography
Take breaks! Allow yourself time between writing and proofing. Even when you are pressured for time, a short break is productive because it will help you get some distance from what you have written. The goal is to return with a fresh eye and mind.
Read your paper aloud and listen carefully – this might feel strange at first, but it is an excellent strategy for noticing awkward diction, punctuation or grammar mistakes, repetition. It can also help you to check the flow of your arguments. You can also ask someone to read it to you.
Play the role of the reader. While reading, put yourself in your audience's shoes to see the paper as your reader might.
Ask someone else to read the paper. This will give you another perspective on what you’ve written. Another reader can: *tell you if something is unclear and needs more description, explanation, support *help you to identify mistakes that you might have overlooked.
Avoid using how when you mean that.
For example:
Teddy talked about how he was having a good day.
Did Teddy talk about the manner in which he had a good day? Did Teddy say the blue sky and sun affecting serotonin levels in his brain enabled him to feel he was having a good day? Maybe. But perhaps what the writer meant was:
Teddy said that he was having a good day.
Look at these examples:
Josh Pinkerton and Mustafa Bond explore how sulfur causes many common diseases.
Josh Pinkerton and Mustafa Bond say that sulfur causes many common diseases.
In the sulfur example, the meanings are quite different. The sentence with “how” means the authors explain how sulfur causes these diseases, from beginning to end. The sentence with “that” means the authors say sulfur causes many common diseases: they will provide evidence for this view but will not necessarily go into detail about the process by which people get sick from sulfur.
Make sure, when you use how, that you really mean a process by which something happens:
Teddy explained how he made toast in the mornings. First, he got bread out of the fridge. Next, he put a piece in the toaster. Finally, after the toast popped, he gobbled it up in one mouthful.
Refer to singular subjects with singular pronouns and plural subjects with plural pronouns.
For example (I've put the sentence subjects in bold):
An author often has trouble knowing how to express themselves.
An author often has trouble knowing how to express her or himself (or him or herself).
Authors often have trouble knowing how to express themselves.
Wrong
Right
Right
Refer to singular subjects with singular verbs and plural subjects with plural verbs.
For example (I've put the sentence subjects in bold):
The history of places like Bulgaria, Angola, and Japan are often hard to explain.
The history of places like Bulgaria, Angola, and Japan is often hard to explain.
Wrong
Right
A comma splice happens when you mistakenly join 2 complete sentences with a comma.
Here are some examples (I've put the sentence subjects in bold and the verbs in italics. The predicates are underlined):
Finkelstein argues that Bulgarian ducks are friendlier than Angolan ducks, he bases this argument on his observations of both species at the San Francisco Zoo in 2012.
Finkelstein argues that Bulgarian ducks are friendlier than Angolan ducks; he bases this argument on his observations of both species at the San Francisco Zoo in 2012.
Finkelstein argues that Bulgarian ducks are friendlier than Angolan ducks. He bases this argument on his observations of both species at the San Francisco Zoo in 2012.
Wrong
Right
Right
A run-on sentence means joining 2 or more complete sentences with . . . nothing at all. Here are some examples (I've put the sentence subjects in bold and the verbs in italics. The predicates are underlined):
Finkelstein argues that Bulgarian ducks are friendlier than Angolan ducks he bases this argument on his observations of both species at the San Francisco Zoo in 2012 in spite of spending 300 hours with each species, Finkelstein recorded little more than lots of quacking, sleeping, and splashing.
Finkelstein argues that Bulgarian ducks are friendlier than Angolan ducks. He bases this argument on his observations of both species at the San Francisco Zoo in 2012. In spite of spending 300 hours with each species, Finkelstein recorded little more than lots of quacking, sleeping, and splashing.
Wrong
Right
Try to avoid telling readers what an author discusses, talks about, investigates, or explores; tell them what she argues, claims, declares, concludes, proposes, or says.
Authors argue and investigate, not articles. Avoid statements like, “This article discusses . . .”. Scholarship, after all, is a conversation, so go ahead and use the author’s name in your essay. For example:
Gonzalez argues that violence in public schools is more prounounced today than 30 years ago due to the influence of video games on children.
Remember to be concise. You've got to pack as much punch as you can in as few words as possible. Reading your essay aloud should help you recognize and cut out clutter.