UMEI 004C

Dear all,

Here is a supplementary revision agenda to help you think about how and what to revise.

Global Revision Agenda

Thesis or focus:

o      Does the essay have a central thesis or main idea?

o      Can you, if asked, offer a one-sentence explanation or summary of what the essay is about?

Audience and purpose:

o      Does the writer seem to be aware of having an audience for the essay? 

o      Does the essay have a clear purpose? What do you think the purpose is?

o      Does the purpose fulfill what assignment asked?

Organization:

o      Does the essay progress in an organized, logical way?

o      Go through the essay and jot down notes on the main idea of each paragraph. Look at this list and see if you can think of a better organization.

o      Make a brief outline. Does the organization make sense? Should any part be moved to another part?  

Development:

o      Are there places in the essay where more details, examples, or specifics are needed?

o      Do any paragraphs seem much shorter and in need of more material than others?

o      Is there anything in the essay that seems unclear and in need of more description, explanation, or support?    

Local Revision Agenda

Sentence structure, punctuation, word choice, and spelling

o      Are there a few grammatical problems that frequently occur? Keep a list of problems that recur and check for those.

o      Read the essay aloud to see and hear if there are any missing or wrong words or other errors that you can spot.

o      Are the sentences correctly punctuated? Do you need to check any punctuation rules?  

Good luck.

Eric