so much of what i support clients with in the world of academic writing is normalizing a longer writing process. so many people go to grad school, in part, because they’re good at writing. and when the writing product changes from a 20 page term paper to a 200+ page thesis, it can seem like everything you knew before doesn’t work now, and you are, in fact, bad at writing.
and usually, it isn’t that the client is bad at writing - it’s that they’re not used to writing in an iterative way, and they almost always have no real experience with substantial revision. sure, they might have proofread a paper a time or two, or cleared up some unclear sentences, but they’ve never substantially reworked a piece following feedback.
and if you are used to writing pretty complete drafts and only lightly going over them for minor errors, it can be completely bewildering to sit with a sh*tty first draft, or a draft that needs substantial work, and know what to do next. how do you take a pile of incomplete sentences and turn it into something readable? how do you complete rework an argument without starting over?
the answer: you revise.
there are as many ways to revise as there are to write, but here are a few of my most favorite/useful techniques, and a few reminders to help ground this process:
in order to revise, you have to know what you’ve already written. i like to go back and annotate my work like it was a piece by a stranger - i’ll ask questions in the margins, highlight the main point of paragraphs, maybe even make an outline of the ideas and the order that they’re presented. people often skip this step - and it really helps to get this overall view before you start to do any big structural changes.
take all the topic sentences (first sentence and/or most important sentence) in each paragraph and reorder those into a better/different flow. can be less cumbersome than moving around whole paragraphs.
know that it might take SEVERAL passes of revision. i often ignore all the mechanical things (grammar, sentence structure, spelling) until my last few passes because if i move everything around, i usually end up rewriting things anyway.
do targeted revision passes: this one checks for subject verb agreement - this one focuses on transitions - this one i’m focusing on clearing up my argument. this can help when you feel overwhelmed with all that needs to change in a draft.
change the font style and size when doing a final pass to check for typos. this can move the words around on the page and help you see it with fresh perspective.
use the read aloud function in your browser or word processing function to check for any sentence weirdness.
use the “save as” feature to save different versions (and use a consistent file naming system!) and help yourself keep track of what changes have been made.
but most, most important:
revision is part of the writing. budget time for it. budget energy for it. it takes a lot of brain power! there are so many decisions to be made! so make sure you’re giving yourself credit for it, and not internalizing the fact that you are revising as punishment for being a bad writer. it isn’t. it’s what makes good writing great.