Original Comment by Jarrett Vigil:

My plan for revising my final report involves me editing and revising, then sending it to peers to edit and revise, then to revise my paper again with peer input taken into consideration. I want to revise my final paper like this because I think it is the best plan of action. By doing a deep first revision myself I can polish my draft to the point I do not see any more room for improvement. This means that the paper is up to my standards. After this I will send my revised draft to my peers and ask for them to read it over and leave notes, proposed changes, or address areas of issue. Allowing for a peer revision will address the areas that I did not see or missed and will allow me to focus on the ideas presented by the peer readers. With this information in mind I will do a final revision of my paper and focus on the major areas of issue and try to correct them. Having multiple sets of eyes and doing multiple revisions will not provide me with the perfect paper but it will help me produce the best writing I can.

Some strategies that I have found useful for revising papers are to look at it from different perspectives, read the paper aloud, and read the paper backwards. Looking at the paper from different perspectives allows the paper to be seen in different frameworks like the logic of the paper, the structure, flow, and consistency. A paper can be grammatically correct but still have framework and logic issues. Reading the paper out loud also really helps to fine tune the readability of your writing and can really help with the flow of wording. Lastly, reading the paper backwards is very helpful in editing. Reading each sentence from the end of the paper to the start allows the writer the ability to focus on grammar and sentence structure. Editing the paper in a new way doesn’t allow the reader to follow the same trends they may have when reading forward (reading off memory, not seeing words, skim read based on concept and not grammar editing). I want to mention that you still read the sentences in regular format. The sentences themselves are not read backward but instead read last sentence to first.

My Comment:

Hey Jarrett,

I am glad you’re valuing the peer input. It is also smart to do independent editing and revising before sending it to peers so that they can be looking at a refined version. I had a similar thought regarding the report draft due on Sunday. I want to make it the best quality possible so that I can receive the best feedback possible. If the audience is not getting distracted by some mistakes, then they can focus on giving feedbacks about ones that the writer would have never noticed on their own. It may be useful to ask the peer reviewers specific questions that are going to guide their feedback, similar to the activity we did in discussion last week. A great thing about peer revisions is they identify gaps in the logic of the argument. Aspects that the writer may assume the audience already knows may be confusing to the peer reviewer. So, it’s a great idea to put emphasis on that strategy.

Reading the paper backwards is a great idea. What do you mean by paper consistency? Creating a definition for that may help provide more specific direction while revising that component. I am looking forward to reading my paper aloud as it is going to help me evaluate sentence fluidity and, as you mentioned, the flow of wording. I noticed that I want to have a variety of short and long sentences to make my paper easy to read.

Comment by Jarrett Vigil:

Hey Mary,

What I meant by paper consistency is that the paper flows, the wording is similar, framework is consistent, all mentioned topics are addressed, the logic of the paper makes sense, etc. Basically I use paper consistency as an idea to ensure that my paper’s style, format, flow, and logic are supported as the paper continues. I don’t really know how to explain it outside of the paper covering all bases and being clear.

I am about to go through my paper again and double check my sentence flow as well. I am not sure about the length consistency of my sentences but I will focus on being clear and concise.

You mentioned that you want to have short and long sentences to make your paper easier to read. Is there a reason why that is?