1
Exercise
3:
Editing
and
Revising
ENGL2338:
Technical
Writing
Department
of
English
University
of
Texas
at
Arlington
Writing, editing, and revising are different activities in the writing process. In some
respects, revising occurs throughout the document process. But this exercise asks you to
deliberately revise a document from different perspectives.
Choosing
a
Document
to
Revise
To complete this exercise, you must choose among your finished writing assignments 1-3
and pick one to revise. You can choose one of the following:
• Audience Analysis Memo
• Job Application Letter
• Instructions
Write
a
Revision
Memo
As you revise your document, take each of the following aspects into consideration and
write a one-page memo explaining what you have changed in the original draft.
• Organization
o Is the order in which your material is organized appropriate for the purpose and
for your readers?
o Are headings persuasive and/or informative?
o Can you think of a better/more logical way of presenting your information?
• Completeness
o Is your document complete, does it sufficiently meet your purpose and your
audience’s information needs?
o Does your document contain all requested information?
• Style
o Do paragraphs have topic sentences?
o Do all the sentences in the paragraph pertain to the meaning you are building in
the paragraph?
o Are your sentences concise?
o Have you avoided using long paragraphs?
o Have you avoided using jargons, clichés and slangs?
o Have you used concrete action verbs whenever possible?
• Design/Illustrations
o Are you satisfied with your choice of fonts and sizes? Are they consistent
throughout the document?
o Did you use numbering and bulleted lists for quick comprehension when
necessary? (Numbered lists are used for representing a sequence or reflecting a
numbering system, such as the steps in your instructions; bulleted lists are used
2
to highlight items that don’t necessarily show a chronology, such as the job
responsibilities in your resume).
o Is the format consistent—font selected, size, placement, and content of
headings?
o Are your visuals helping readers “see” and remember key ideas?
o Do all your visuals serve a practical function (as opposed to just being pretty on
the page)?
o Are all graphics placed in the appropriate locations within the text?
• Mechanics
o Have you checked for misspellings and for other mechanical errors, such as
misplaced commas, semicolons, colons, and quotation marks?
o Are your pages numbered?
o Have you correctly apply APA citation style for all references (textual and
graphical)?
Submitting
Your
Exercise
After you have completed revising your chosen document using the above checklist,
write a one-page memo explaining what you have changed in the original draft.
Submit both the memo and revised document in ONE word file. Attached the revised
document to the end of your memo. Name your Word file: your last name-exercise3-
revision.doc.
Submit your exercise through the link provided in Blackboard.