Organizing & Revising Your Paper

All writers need feedback from readers. Getting feedback on your essay-in-process helps you to think about what is working and what isn’t yet working in the draft, and to consider how readers are responding to the argument you’re making in your essay. This feedback will help you to revise your essay, rethink the order, consider where your essay is lacking evidence, or the writing isn’t quite clear to readers. Later in the writing process, you can also ask readers to help you edit, locating grammar, style, or formatting issues that you might not catch.

What kind of feedback should I ask for?

Always communicate to your reader(s) what your particular questions or concerns are in a certain draft. Giving readers some guidance about what you’re wondering about or what you’re hoping comes across in an essay can help them to know what to look for.

Here are some sample questions that you could ask readers to respond to:

• What do you want to hear more about or what aspects of this draft do you feel need more development and why? What specific suggestions for development can you offer?
• What is the thesis or claim and how did you identify it? What revisions, if any, would you recommend to develop this thesis/claim further?
• What key point and evidence/description/support for each key point does the writer use in each paragraph? Make recommendations about how the writer could further develop key points made in each paragraph.
• What information or sections of the draft don’t seem to fit in this essay and why?
• What suggestions would you make for reorganizing or deleting sections of this draft?
• What editing or formatting issues did you notice in the draft, if any?

Visit the Center for Writing: In addition to asking students in your classes for feedback, come to Keene State College’s Center for Writing for feedback at any point of the writing process, from brainstorming, to early/later drafts, to revising and editing.

• How do I make an appointment at the Center for Writing?
  • Visit the Center for Research & Writing