The first step in global revision, overall revision of a paper as a whole, is confirming the thesis statement is in agreement with the topic sentences. The thesis statement should clearly state your claim and should be a brief overview of your essay. Your topic sentences should reflect the components of your argument in a logical order.
Your introduction should be interesting and relevant to the audience (readers) of your essay. The first sentence, especially, should be attention-grabbing. The introduction should then provide some basic background information and should end with your thesis statement.
After ensuring the basic structure of the essay is intact, you should focus on reinforcing your argument. A high-quality persuasive essay makes a clear claim and provides valid, timely evidence as proof. The evidence may include facts, statistics and statements by experts.
However, it is not enough to simply present one side of the argument. You should ensure you have addressed the counterargument (the other side of the issue) as well as a rebuttal, which why the counterargument does not defeat your claim, or a concession, wherein you address how -- despite your argument being valid -- the other side also has a valid point.
Your conclusion should not only summarize your argument and reinforce your claim, but should call your audience to respond. A persuasive essay should conclude by imploring your readers to think further on the issue, take action or research the issue further.
Once you have made sure to include plenty of evidence, you'll need to double-check the format of your citations. All material summarized, paraphrased and quoted from sources should be cited both in-text, using a parenthetical citation, and on the bibliography page. (An exception is the fact that APA wants personal communications, including letters, emails and interviews you yourself conduct with the source, cited in-text only and not in the bibliography.) Depending on the assignment, citation may be required in American Psychological Association (APA) documentation format, Modern Language Association (MLA) style or another citation format. Neglecting to properly cite a source is plagiarism, which is dealt with harshly in the academic and business worlds, so check this material carefully.
Local revision, otherwise known as editing, focuses on sentence-level issues. Once the conceptual and structural issues have been addressed, the only thing standing between you and a successful essay is ensuring you don't have grammar, punctuation or spelling errors. Reading through the paper slowly, aloud, whether to yourself or someone else, is an excellent way to hear errors. While reading, mark any misplaced punctuation, improper verb tenses, misused homonyms, incorrect spellings and other such issues. If you find more than a few errors during the first read-through, you should do a second read-through after making corrections.