Style Checklist for English 102

Revise your paper using the style revision checklist for 102. Then print a clean copy of your revised draft.

1-2. Read your essay aloud slowly, marking an "x" in the margin next to each place the paper feels "bogged down." Usually when your writing sounds like it is spinning its wheels, you need to combine sentences, which will both eliminate repetition and show the relationship between various ideas more clearly. Examine the sentences near where you marked an "x." Does each sentence have an important "new" idea. Is this new idea small enough to combine into a surrounding sentence? If so, use coordination (and, but, for, or, nor, yet, so) to combine equivalent ideas in the same sentence or use subordination to combine unequivalent ideas in the same sentence (a list of subordinating conjunctions can be found on page 330 of your handbook)

3. Read each paragraph aloud slowly, listening to the sound of the sentences. You’ll want a variety of sentence lengths and structures. Revise the sentences in each paragraph to create variety. Remember short sentences should be used strategically to emphasize important ideas.

4. Highlight each noun. Is each noun concrete enough? In other words, does each important noun present a clear image for your reader? If not, add adjectives or replace with a more specific noun. Remember not to err too far in the other direction. You don’t want your reader bogged down in unnecessary details. Also remember to define or modify abstract nouns, like freedom and love.

5. Work with each paragraph separately to make sure that the important ideas get emphasized by the structure of the paragraph and of the sentences themselves. The most important ideas in a paragraph should usually be in shorter sentences located near the beginning or the end of the paragraph (though not always). Important ideas within sentences should be found in the main clauses of the sentence and/or should be located near the beginning or end of the sentence. You can further emphasize important ideas by strategic repetition and with transitions like most importantly. If you don’t emphasize important ideas, your readers won’t know which information they need to pay attention to, and they will get sidetracked.

6. Look at each compound and complex sentence in your paper (each sentence that connects ideas with a coordinating conjunction,) and/or each sentence that presents ideas in a series or list. Are the phrases on either side of the conjunction/subordinating conjunction in similar grammatical form? Are items in a list in similar grammatical form? If not, you need to revise the sentence so that it has a parallel structure, so that each phrase or item is similar in form.

7. Read you paper aloud one last time, listening to the voice and tone. Underline passages that sound too informal, too "talky," to be trustworthy. You’ll want to work on the vocabulary of these passages, eliminating slang. As you revise, try to imagine your audience reading your essay. Draw a squiggly line under passages that feel too formal to be engaging. You’ll want to work on the vocabulary of these passages also. Again imagine your audience as your revise. Now try reading your paper aloud to a friend, having him/her stop you when your prose becomes too informal or just incomprehensible. Stop after each paragraph and have your friend tell you what s/he thinks your important ideas are. Do they match your paragraph? If not . . . revise!