Revision

Usually when writing a first draft of a paper start one of two ways. Either I write an outline if I have an idea of what I want to talk about, or I simply write my thoughts down as they come to me. Usually my first drafts tend to be very rough and I believe my writing is much better with multiple revisions. The first time through I usually read the paper in its entirety to remind myself of everything I wrote because I believe its best to revise on a fresh note, not right after I write the first draft. Then I like to look closely at my thesis statement and topic sentences to see if I have created somewhat of a structure that is starting to flow. After that I like to look for evidence in each body paragraph and see if its meant to be there and if its necessary in the paper overall. Does it make it stronger? Does it add to my argument? It also helps me alot to have someone else read my paper to get another fresh set of eyes to view the paper overall, but also fix the small things that are easy to jump over in your own paper.