REVISION STRATEGIES FOR

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Grace NoyesDirector, Snyder Communication Skills CenterRawls College of Business

September 27, 2013

Preliminary Writing Guidelines

● Understand the journal’s audience and dialogue

● Read the journal’s articles for writing style

● Check Author Guidelines in journal (text layout, citations, nomenclature, figures and tables)

● Write a detailed outline

● Don’t expect a perfect piece of writing

When revising…

…move from higher order to lower order

…evaluate your thesis

…write the purpose of each paragraph in the margin

…check for topic sentences

…keep a record of consistent problems

Revise paragraphs

• Unified: Centered on one topic

• Coherent: Logically organized

• Supported: Information backs up the main idea

Unity

• Eliminate information that doesn’t relate to the main idea

• Add information if relationship to main idea isn’t clear

• Separate two main ideas into different paragraphs

• Rewrite topic sentence to include other ideas

Coherence

• Include transitions

• Use repetition of key words and phrases

• Refer back to previously introduced information

Original. Soils represent major sinks for metals like cadmium that are released into the environment. Soil does not have an infinite capacity to absorb metal contaminants, and when this capacity is exhausted, environmental consequences are incurred. Contamination of soils by cadmium and other heavy metals has become a global concern in recent years because of the increasing demands of society for food production, waste disposal, and a healthier environment. The main causes of cadmium contamination in soils are amendment materials (e.g., municipal waste sludge) and fallout from nonferrous metal production and power plants.

Revision. Such sources as mines, smelters, power plants, and municipal waste treatment facilities release metals into the environment. These heavy metals, especially cadmium, then find their way into the soil. The soil does not have an infinite capacity to absorb these metals. Instead, unabsorbed metals move through the soil into the groundwater or are extracted by crops that take the contamination into the food chain.

The links in the chain are underlined. The beginning of each new sentence follows up familiar information, and the end introduces new information that is then recycled. Sentences that did not relate directly to the topic (the process of metal absorption by soil) have been removed.

Revise Sentences

Use subordination to focus reader on one idea Although production cost have declined, they are still high.

Use parallel grammatical structure The valving improvements we seek will increase reliability,

accessibility, maintenance will decrease, and allow application to all sizes of valves.

The valving improvements we seek will increase reliability and accessibility, decrease maintenance, and allow application to all sizes of valves.

Revise SentencesLimit nominalizations (noun made from a verb) The author’s analysis of our data omits any citation of sources that

would provide support for his criticism of our argument. When the author analyzed our data, he did not cite any sources that

would support his criticism of our argument.

Be concise As far as I am concerned, because of the fact that a situation

of discrimination continues to exist in the field of medicine, women have not at the present time achieved equality with men.

Because of continuing gender discrimination in medicine, women have yet to achieve equality with men.

Proofreading

• Subjects and verbs

• Pronouns and antecedents

• Prepositions

• Articles

• Possessive

• Correct use of words

• Restrictive and non-restrictive elements

Proofreading Tips

• Work from a printed copy

• Read out loud

• Circle every punctuation mark in the paper

• Use the “find” feature in Word

• Use Spell check, but don’t rely only on it

• Give yourself enough time

• Break it into blocks of time

Format

• Headings

• In-text citations

• Reference list

• Endnote.com, easybib.com, etc.

• Footnotes, endnotes

• Tables, graphs, etc.

• Spacing

Track Changes

Allows you to…

…insert punctuation, words, letters, etc.

…write comments

…note different proofers’ comments

…edit tables

Market categories thus define social and symbolic boundaries among different types of products or services in an industry (Lamont & Molnar, 2002), which helps establish collective identities for products within the category and inclusion or exclusion rules of its constituent members.

 [G1]I’m not sure what this clause is referring to. What “helps establish collective…”? Are you referring to the entire first clause: “Market industries thus define …”? Or are you referring only to market categories themselves? Also, it is unclear what the pronoun “it” is referring to: “..its constituent members.”

I’m not sure what this clause is referring to. What “helps establish collective…”? Are you referring to the entire first clause: “Market industries thus define …”? Or are you referring only to market categories themselves? Also, it is unclear what the pronoun “it” is referring to: “..its constituent members.”

Advice from a soon-to-be-published doctoral student• Have someone in your research area give you feedback

• Cite reviewers/editors early in your paper (introduction)

• Ask that certain reviewers not be used

• “Revise and resubmit” is very good news

• Allow reviews to digest, but don’t wait too long to revise

• Address each suggested revision point by point