Reviewing your assignment

You have finished writing your assignment, but before you hand it in, it is worth rethinking the purpose of the assignment. Take another look at your unit outline and ask yourself:

• Have you fulfilled all the requirements?
• Have you answered every part of the question?
• Does your introduction explain what your assignment is about?
• Do the paragraphs in the body of the assignment flow in a logical sequence?
• Is every paragraph clearly related to the topic?
• Does your conclusion relate well to the overall theme of your assignment and to the main question?
• Does your essay provide a reasoned argument, based on evidence?

Editing checklist for essays (Clanchy & Ballard, 1997, p. 82)

Note: Many of these points are relevant to reports and case studies, too.

a) Structure

• Are the ideas presented in the most logical order?
• Is there a clear thread of argument running through your essay?
• Is the argument consistent (that is, you do not contradict yourself)?
• Is there one idea per paragraph, summed up in the topic sentence?
• Is the essay balanced (no section is too long compared with the others)?

b) Evidence

• Do you have evidence for your ideas?
• Have you acknowledged all sources of ideas?

c) Expression

• Are the sentences complete - do they make sense?
• Are the sentences too long – have you varied the length of your sentences?
• Have you used the active rather than passive voice as where appropriate? (watch your use of constructions such as: “have been”; “being”, “was concluded”)

d) Length - too short

• Is there an area of content that you have left out or which could be expanded?
• Do you need further evidence or more detailed explanation? You may be assuming that your reader ‘already knows' things that should be explained.
• Do you need more detailed background information on which to base your analysis?
• Should the links in your reasoning be more explicit?

e) Length - too long

• Are there irrelevancies and/or repetitions? If so, prune them.
• Are there lists of evidence and examples that could be replaced by a briefer explanation?
• Could you reduce the length of an explanation by including a reference?
• Use the active voice where appropriate - it is usually more succinct than the passive.

Proof reading for language use

Check for ‘habitual' use of English errors. Everybody has a writing style and therefore will be likely to make and repeat certain kinds of errors in all their writing. You must get to know what errors you tend to make. Sometimes they can be as small as the spelling difference between their and there . Perhaps you have a habit of starting sentences with ‘Moreover', ‘However' or ‘Therefore'. Too many of these words make your text tedious. These connectors are only useful when you want to show a specific relationship between ideas. For example:

The general student population studying at university is a much more diverse group than ever. Therefore, the teaching methods used should reflect an understanding of this change

Do you write using spoken English forms? This will result in lower marks because lecturers will expect you to structure your thinking into formal written text. For example:

The word count for B is shorter than A because editing the text reduces the grammatical intricacy of the spoken text (shown in bold). The B text does not refer to ‘our'or ‘we'. It does not use idioms such as ‘you know'. It is a denser text.

Successful writing at least in part requires the writer to separate the creative process from the critical one. You may want to allow yourself the freedom to get ideas down informally at first. However, it is important not to neglect the proofreading and editing stages, in which you remove the informal elements.

Reference

Clanchy, J., & Ballard, B. (1997). Essay writing for students (3rd ed.). Melbourne: Longman.