Techniques in Editing and Revising a Paragraph

EDITING

Editing means rewriting the paper so that the language is more effective--focus on effective paragraphs, sentences, and words.

As writers, we have to develop our "writing voice," a voice slightly more formal than our "conversational voice," a voice that is slightly self-conscious, aware of the rhythms of language in the same way that our "singing voice" is aware. When editing, we let loose the demon critic inside us, but we keep him focused on our writing and not focused on browbeating us, keep him working on fixing our writing and not complaining about what bad writers we are. The truth is every writer makes mistakes. Anyone who claims otherwise is deluding himself or herself. The secret is not in not making errors.


REVISING



Revision means re-seeing. Once a paper has been written so that it makes sense to a reader, it has to be re-visioned and re-written so that it makes sense to the reader. It is not enough to write so that the reader knows what you mean. You must write so that the reader sees the way you see.
Writers find it difficult to see their writing through someone else's eyes. In order to revise (re-see), writers need to create some space between themselves and their writing.