Beyond Proofreading Here are some suggestions for approaching revision that are loosely based on a model of revision that come from research conducted by Linda Flower and Dick Hayes at Carnegie Mellon University. Save everything Lower your resistance to changing your work. Use your computer or photocopier to save multiple versions of your work. When you know you aren't losing your text, you might be willing to take risks. The key words here are time and work .
Revision is hard work and takes time.
Think about why are writing in the first place. But you'd be surprised how often people try to revise without rereading first. Reread your paper and the readings that went along with this unit. Writers tend to automatically and unconsciously correct errors while failing to flag them for actual rewriting or editorial attention. Although this, too, might seem obvious, distilling the gist of a text is challenging.