Chapter 17 in The Bedford Researcher reviews the process of revising and editing a paper. The chapter covers how to evaluate the effectiveness of one's argument in a paper through revisions and multiple edits to drafts. Palmquist notes ways to review the purpose, argument, supporting materials, structure, design and overall organization in order to strengthen a writing project. By saving multiple drafts, highlighting main points and evidence, and identifying assumptions, one may begin to see their paper through the eyes of a reader. By scanning the sentence of each paragraph, it is easy to identify shifts and transitions in the argument. This allows the author to identify holes in their argument or assumptions in their rationale that they can fix. After going over the larger issues of format, design, and transition in argument, focusing on the details of a paper is the next step in revision. By checking accuracy of facts, quotations, spelling, grammar, flow and citations, the author eliminates the possibility of error and strengthens their argument by presenting a clean, clear and tidy paper.
This chapter is timely because it goes well with what we're doing in lecture. The importance of revision and editing cannot be understated; the well-thought out argument of a paper one day shows glaring errors and assumptions when a writer comes back to it a day later. I think time is the most important part of paper revisions because the draft you start with should never be the paper that gets handed in. Getting a draft of paper written is the first important step and, though you may dislike it and want to scrap it, the draft represents a starting point. It is a lot less messy to edit on paper than it is in your head. Overall, this chapter was a good reminder of the importance of drafting and editing.
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