comporevision

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CORNER
Gustavo Zapata

REVISING YOUR COMPOSITON

Writing is a complex process that includes several revisions of the first draft. Sometimes, even the first draft is not completely finished and goes through rewriting steps of one or several paragraphs.
When you are not a professional writer it helps to carry out a thoroguh revision of your computer printout before you hand it in to your instructor. It is important to pay attention to the content and leave structure and form for later stages. Sometimes this is done interactively, switching from one aspect to the other. The following is a check up list you can use to choose from important aspects to use in your revision.

REVISION CHECK UP LIST copywright: Gustavo Zapata

MEANING/CONTENT -1.Will the topic be interesting for the audience?
-2. Do you have a main idea/topic sentence that you develop in your text?
-3. Are sentences related in meaningful sequence or are there many gaps between sentences?
-4. Do the sentences make sense?, Are they logical?
-5. If another person reads your text, will s/he get the point you are trying to put through?
-6. Are the meaningful blocks distinguished and related harmonically or are they entangled and difficult to relate to one another?

TRUTH VALUE -1. How reliable is your data?
-2. Is there a lot of subjective information? (Depending on the type of text)
-3. Are the statements that you are making true, false, or difficult to prove?

SOURCES -1. Are your documentary sources uptodate?
-2. Are they reliable (not biased) and authoritative?
-3. Are they objective?

STRUCTURE AND
ORGANIZATION -1. Are details arranged according to importance?
-2. Are arguments well organized?
-3. Is organization from general to specific or vice versa, from important to less important or viceversa? or there is no organization, it is a mess.
-4. Are you using enough linking words?
-5. Does it have all the major parts contemplated for this type of text? (Introduction, main body and conclusion, for example?) These parts depend of the type of text).

GRAMMAR -1. Use of articles
-2. Present tense, past tense, future, perfect tenses, etc.
-3. Sequence of verbs and objects
-4. Subject-verb agreement
-5. Position of adjectives before and after nouns
-6. Overuse of simple sentences?
-7. Am I using enough compound and complex sentences?
-8. Am I using the appropriate transition/linking words?
-9. Are sentences connected in a smooth way or are there gaps?
-10.Are object pronouns being used correctly?
-11.Overuse of the verb "to be"?
-13. Are you repeating the same sentences over and over or is there sentence variety?
-14. Are sentences well connected?

VOCABULARY -1. Is the text rich in vocabulary?
-2. Are you using Anglo-Saxon vocabulary or many spanish-like words?
-3. Are you using the terminology pertaining to the field of knowledge you are writing about?
-4. Are you using a lot of worn-out words (important, difficult, easy, boring, etc.)?
-5. Are you using compound words, two word verbs?
-6. Are you using phraseological units appropriately?
-7. Is your collocation of words good?
-8. Is connotation used carefully?
-9. Is your vocabulary relevant or are you just using it to fill in space?

MECHANICS -1. Are you capitalizing proper names, first words in sentences, etc.
-2. Are all the words well spelled?
-3. Punctuation: Periods, commas, colons, semicolons, etc.

REGISTER -1. Are your grammatical structures appropriate as to register( frozen, formal, informal, slang)?
-2. Is your vocabulary appropriate as to register( frozen, formal, informal, slang)?

FORM -1. Does your text have a front page with your name, date and course name?
-2. Is your paper quality good
-3. Is it letter size?
-4. Does it look neat or sloppy?
-5. Is your printing or handwriting clear or blurred(hard to read)
-6. Does your text have margins
-7. Is spacing good or is it cluttered?

MEANING/CONTENT	-1.Will the topic be interesting for the audience? -2. Do you have a main idea/topic sentence that you develop in your text? -3. Are sentences related in meaningful sequence or are there many gaps between sentences? -4. Do the sentences make sense?, Are they logical? -5. If another person reads your text, will s/he get the point you are trying to put through? -6. Are the meaningful blocks distinguished and related harmonically or are they entangled and difficult to relate to one another?
TRUTH VALUE	-1. How reliable is your data? -2. Is there a lot of subjective information? (Depending on the type of text) -3. Are the statements that you are making true, false, or difficult to prove?
SOURCES	-1. Are your documentary sources uptodate? -2. Are they reliable (not biased) and authoritative? -3. Are they objective?
STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION	-1. Are details arranged according to importance? -2. Are arguments well organized? -3. Is organization from general to specific or vice versa, from important to less important or viceversa? or there is no organization, it is a mess. -4. Are you using enough linking words? -5. Does it have all the major parts contemplated for this type of text? (Introduction, main body and conclusion, for example?) These parts depend of the type of text).
GRAMMAR	-1. Use of articles -2. Present tense, past tense, future, perfect tenses, etc. -3. Sequence of verbs and objects -4. Subject-verb agreement -5. Position of adjectives before and after nouns -6. Overuse of simple sentences? -7. Am I using enough compound and complex sentences? -8. Am I using the appropriate transition/linking words? -9. Are sentences connected in a smooth way or are there gaps? -10.Are object pronouns being used correctly? -11.Overuse of the verb "to be"? -13. Are you repeating the same sentences over and over or is there sentence variety? -14. Are sentences well connected?
VOCABULARY	-1. Is the text rich in vocabulary? -2. Are you using Anglo-Saxon vocabulary or many spanish-like words? -3. Are you using the terminology pertaining to the field of knowledge you are writing about? -4. Are you using a lot of worn-out words (important, difficult, easy, boring, etc.)? -5. Are you using compound words, two word verbs? -6. Are you using phraseological units appropriately? -7. Is your collocation of words good? -8. Is connotation used carefully? -9. Is your vocabulary relevant or are you just using it to fill in space?
MECHANICS	-1. Are you capitalizing proper names, first words in sentences, etc. -2. Are all the words well spelled? -3. Punctuation: Periods, commas, colons, semicolons, etc.
REGISTER	-1. Are your grammatical structures appropriate as to register( frozen, formal, informal, slang)? -2. Is your vocabulary appropriate as to register( frozen, formal, informal, slang)?
FORM	-1. Does your text have a front page with your name, date and course name? -2. Is your paper quality good -3. Is it letter size? -4. Does it look neat or sloppy? -5. Is your printing or handwriting clear or blurred(hard to read) -6. Does your text have margins -7. Is spacing good or is it cluttered?