After you’ve written your first draft, set it aside for a day or two if possible. Take your eyes off the essay and then return to it a couple days later with fresh eyes. This helps you better see weaknesses or mistakes, because you’ve spent some time away from the essay.
One revision is usually not enough. Looking it over multiple times reveals weaknesses you missed the time before. Ideally, finish your first draft a few days or weeks before it’s due. This leaves you plenty of time to look over your essay multiple times before turning it in.
Reading your essay aloud lets you hear how it sounds. Pay attention to the spots where you fumble your words or things seem rocky. This is harder to do when you’re just reading in your head. Reading aloud lets you better hear the presentation of your paper.
After you’ve finished your first draft, read over the assignment sheet again and make sure you’ve fulfilled all of the requirements of the assignment. It can be easy to forget one of the requirements during the time you spend writing the paper. Students often miss points for simply not doing something the assignment asked them to do.
Run spell check on your computer and then check the spelling yourself. While you may have spelled “your” correctly, you might have meant to write “you’re.” Make sure you’re using the correct form of each word, and that subjects and verbs agree. Likewise, check that you’ve put commas in the right places and that sentences end with proper punctuation.
Pick a classmate you respect to give you valuable feedback on your assignment. Offer to trade papers to help each other out. Ask her to read over your paper and pinpoint areas that need improvement. Encourage her to mark on your paper and write as many comments as she wants. She’ll typically spot weaknesses you hadn’t noticed. If possible, do this with multiple classmates.
If your paper argues three points, make sure you give proper balance to each of them. If your first point has two pages of material backing it up and the second only has a paragraph, things will look off. Revise your essay to keep it balanced for each point.
Repetition hurts a paper. The reader starts wondering, “Haven’t I heard this already?” Cut out areas of repetition in your paper. If you’ve said “An acoustic guitar has six or 12 strings,” don’t later say, “In addition to standard six-string models, acoustic guitars also come in 12-string models.”
Change passive writing to active voice. “Baseball is a sport enjoyed by many Americans” can be rewritten as “Many Americans enjoy baseball.” It’s fewer words and the writing sounds more alive. Likewise, remove excess words that make your sentences long and flabby. “There are so many fun things you and your family can do at the ballpark, while enjoying a night together rooting on your favorite sports team” could be condensed to, “The ballpark means fun for the whole family.”