Revising Essay #1

Checklist: Go through your essay and be sure you consider each of the following ideas. Ask me if you have questions.

1.) Concentrate today on revision first, then editing:

• Revision means ADDING, DELETING, MOVING, and REWRITING.

• Editing (and proofreading) means SENTENCES, WORDS, PUNCTUATION, and MECHANICS.

2.) Your audience:

• Assume your audience HAS read The Piano Lesson. Therefore, do NOT spend a lot of time summarizing the whole work, unless you really need to for the point you want to make. However, your audience may not remember the specific parts you want to refer to. So, focus on summarizing just those parts that relate directly to your paper.

3.) "Digging Deeper"

• Examine your paper to make sure that you have more than just summaries of the play and examples/details from your own life. Make sure you are making some sort of point with the summaries and the personal information. What do you want your reader to learn or remember about each point? Why should your reader care about each point? How can your reader use each point, perhaps to apply it to their own life?

4.) Moving from rough-draft language to advanced-draft language:

• Be sure you rewrite any sentences that begin like this:

  • "I will be writing about . . . "

  • "In my paper I am going to . . . "

  • "The purpose of this paper is to . . . "

  • "What I'm trying to say is . . . "

5.) What do we call this text?

• Call it a "play." It does tell a story, but using "story" is not quite accurate. Neither is "novel," since it is clearly not a novel.

6.) Titles

• Your paper should have a title. It could be as simple as Essay #1, but it could also be more creative, if you can find something that works for you. Do NOT underline, bold, italicize, enlarge, or do anything else to adorn your title.

• When referring to August Wilson's play, since it is a book-length work, you must either underline or italicize (but not both) his title, like this: The Piano Lesson or The Piano Lesson.

7.) Author's name

• The first time you use an author's name, use the full name -- e.g., August Wilson. Each time thereafter, use either the full name or the last name only (perhaps alternate for variety's sake). NEVER use the author's first name only.

8.) Quotations from the play

• Quote accurately, including spelling and punctuation. Put quote marks around everything you quote. Double check your quotes. After your quote, put the page number from the play where the quotation is found, like this (87). Do not use any of the following -- page / pp. / p. / pg.

9.) Be sure you are using the correct words. Consider the following differences:

• Their / There / They're

• Definitely / Defiantly

• Weather / Whether

• Family's / Families

• Two / Too / To

10.) Paper formatting (not outlining)

• See LBB pages 41-43, 71, and 521-530. Bottom line: Get your paper to look like the one on pages 526-530. No exceptions.