of these words.

USING TRANSITIONS
Sentence. Transition, sentence. OR Sentence; transition, sentence.

Transitions usually connect two sentences. Therefore, they will usually appear at the
beginning of a complete sentence – after a period or semi-colon.
The law does not stop teenagers from drinking therefore it is ineffective. WRONG
The law does not stop teenagers from drinking, therefore it is ineffective. WRONG
The law does not stop teenagers from drinking; therefore, it is ineffective. RIGHT!
The law does not stop teenagers from drinking. Therefore, it is ineffective. RIGHT!

Transitions must also be followed by a comma and a complete sentence.

Many organizations use English, for example, the UN, the EU, and NATO. WRONG
Many organizations use English. For example, the UN, the EU, and NATO. WRONG
Many organizations use English. For example, it is one of the official
languages of the UN, the EU, and NATO. RIGHT

Revising
Your first draft is complete, but your paper is far from finished. The next step is to revise
your paper – strengthen the content. Start this at least a week before your paper is due.
In fact, you don’t need to wait until you have a complete first draft to start revising. You
can revise individual paragraphs as you finish them as well.

Know what to fix

Before you can revise, you need to know what to fix. How can you find that out?
Get feedback. In some courses, you and your classmates will be asked to exchange
papers to read and comment on them in class or online. If not, ask a friend to read
it. You can also ask your instructor to look at parts of your paper (most instructors
are happy to help if you have started your paper early. They may not be willing if you
ask for advice at the last-minute). Listen to the advice of your reviewers, but
remember that in the end, your paper is your responsibility.

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 Refer to the paper requirements or grading criteria or look at the checklist in
this guide. Read your paper and look at the requirements or checklist at the same
time. Check off what you have, and mark what you need to fix.
Outline. Make an outline of your first draft by listing the main point of each topic
sentence. This will show you whether your ideas are clearly organized and whether
they focus on answering the research question (the thesis).
Read your paper for focus. Read every sentence of your paper. After each, ask
yourself, “Does this support the thesis statement?” If it doesn’t, cross it out or
change it. [Or consider changing your thesis.]
Read each body paragraph for support. Read a body paragraph, and then read
its topic sentence again. Did the paragraph support that sentence enough? Were
there enough specific details – facts, examples, descriptions, expert opinions?
Re-read your paper as the audience. Imagine that you are seeing your paper for
the first time (this is often hard to do, which is why it’s good to have another person
read your paper). As you read, write down any comments or questions your audience
might have. Make sure that the tone fits the audience – will the audience be offended
or attracted by your writing?

Fix it
Once you know what to fix, you must do it. Be daring. You will not have a good paper if
you are afraid to change things. It may be easier to completely re-type your paper while
just looking at your first draft. How should you change your paper?
Erase words, sentences or paragraphs; eliminate all unnecessary or irrelevant ideas.
Add words, sentences or paragraphs; add new points, details, or explanations.
Reorganize words, sentences or paragraphs; put everything in a logical order.
Re-write words, sentences or paragraphs; keep your ideas but present them better.

Revise it again
If there is time (make time!), revise your second draft. And keep revising. Good writers
actually tend to revise more rather than less as they gain more writing experience.

Editing
When you are happy with your paper's content, it's time to edit. Try to do this in the
week before your paper is due.

Editing will make your writing more precise and easier to understand (not necessarily
shorter, but clearer). When editing, you examine every sentence and ask yourself if has
a purpose and if it’s complete, clear, and concise in English. A grammar resource and an
English-English dictionary are both helpful editing tools.

Experiment with the following strategies until you find what works best for you.

Read your paper out loud slowly (or ask someone to read it to you).
You will hear mistakes, wordiness, repetition, and lack of clarity, which you can correct.
If you don't know how to correct something, start looking through those grammar books.

Use the spell check and grammar check functions in Microsoft Word.
They will find some things, but not everything. This should not be your only strategy.

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Editing strategies for specific problems
Connection between ideas
o Read the beginning and end of every paragraph to make sure they flow together.
o Go through the paper sentence by sentence and find connections between them.
o If the ideas don't connect, add a transition, pronoun, repeated word, synonym, or
another sentence.
Wordiness
o Find all the very long sentences (25 words or more). Can they be rewritten more
clearly and concisely?
o Read each sentence. After each one, ask, “Is it necessary to the paragraph? Does
it add something new? Could it be eliminated completely or partly? Could it be
combined?”
o Read each sentence word by word. Is every word necessary? Could some be
eliminated or re-written in a shorter, clearer way? Could passive verbs be
rewritten as active ones?
Repetition, Lack of variety
o Read each sentence and ask, “What is the purpose of this sentence?” Does it
introduce a new idea? Does it support or explain the previous idea? OR does it
just repeat it?
o Read the first 5 words of each sentence to find sentences starting in the same
way (such as with a transition word). Change some so your sentences have
variety.
o Look at the length of every sentence. There should be a variety of short and long
sentences. Make sentences shorter by dividing them or longer by combining.
o Find words which are repeated a lot. Use a thesaurus to find other words to use.
Sentence structure
o Go through the essay sentence by sentence. Label the subject(s) and the verb(s)
in every sentence. Make sure each sentence has a subject and verb. Make sure
there are not too many subject-verb combinations in each sentence and that
word order is Subject+Verb+Object. Fix fragments, run-ons, and word order.
Word choice
o Find all the long words. Could some be replaced with shorter, clearer words?
Clarity, Non-English structure
o Read your paper without using a lot of effort – you're just reading because you
are interested in the topic. If you have to read something twice, it's not clear.
o Read your paper and translate it into your native language in your head. If it's
really easy to translate, then maybe the writing is not following English structure
and style.
o Say your ideas out loud in English. Write exactly what you said. You probably
speak more clearly than you write.

Proofreading
When you think your paper is ready to turn it, it's time to proofread (check for
mistakes). If you don't proofread, your paper may be full of careless errors, which shows
the audience that you were too lazy, rushed, or uncaring to fix your paper. To proofread:
Do not look at your paper for 24 hours (this requires time management skills!)
Print your paper – you'll see mistakes that you might not see on a computer screen.

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 Start with the last sentence of your paper and read your paper sentence by sentence,
going backwards. (This will help you focus on grammar, not content).
Cover all the other lines with another piece of paper.
Point your pen at each word.
Think about the grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, meaning... of every
word.
If you are unsure about anything, use a dictionary or grammar book. If you are still
unsure, mark the line and ask someone for help.
Fix any mistakes that you found.
Print your paper and proofread it again!

It is a long, slow, unpleasant experience at first. However, the more you proofread,
the easier it gets, the better your English gets, and the higher your grades get too.

Paper Checklist
Clear Objective, Thesis, and Focus
____ Thesis is clear ____ Thesis has no errors
____ Thesis has point of view ____ Purpose of paper is clear
____ Thesis answers research question ____ Every paragraph relates to thesis
____ Thesis is surprising ____ Every paragraph supports thesis

Organization/Cohesion
____ Clear introduction, body, conclusion ____ Clear, logical order of paragraphs
____ Connections between paragraphs ____ All sentences connect to each other

Introduction Conclusion
____ Hook sentence catches attention ____ Connects to last body paragraph
____ No too general statements ____ Summarizes thesis and main points
____ Enough background info about topic ____ No new or superfluous information
____ Section ideas explained in introduction ____ Shows importance of topic
____ Thesis statement is easy to find ____ Effective closing statement (“wow”)

Body