Assessing and Revising an Essay

One of the major reasons that students do so badly on their papers is because they don't know how to revise or edit a paper properly. Not only is it because students don't know how to find grammatical errors, but it's harder to find any type of errors in your own work. To help with this problem, English classes have peer reviews. However, even your own peers may not know what to look for.

In the reading about assessing your writing and getting a response and revising, there are some simple steps to follow to properly assess and revise a paper. The book does a good job listing questions to make sure your title, thesis, beginning, end, and even transitions are done correctly. I found the reading helpful because I think I will be able to now properly help edit a paper. As stated in the book, the paper needs to appeal to the reader's senses and add visual context. If you are having problems following any of these steps, the book suggests to try a different outlook on the paper by rewriting it from a different audience, stance, or genre. After reading this section of the book, I feel I can now edit a paper with more confidence because I now know what steps to follow to make it a better essay.