Revising Your Own College Essay
by Kathleen M.
Now that you have a draft of your Common App Essay written, it is time for revision. “Revision” means seeing it again – hopefully from a new perspective. So as you work on polishing and revising your own essay, here is one way to be sure the HOCs and LOCs are all locked in!
Supplies needed: Your essay, sticky notes, pens.
Step one: Read your essay one paragraph at a time and write the main idea on a post it note. If you find that you have too many ideas for one sticky note, you may also have too many ideas for one paragraph.
Step two: Look at all of your sticky notes on an open space or sheet of paper. Do they make sense when you read from one to the next? Should the order change? Do you need additional sticky notes with additional information?
Step three: Review the sticky notes with special attention to your thesis. Do all of the ideas on sticky notes relate to your thesis? Could you add more information or remove some information?
If it helps you, draw lines with colored pens to show the relationships between the sticky notes. Sometimes colored ink and spatial thinking are a helpful way to see the idea in your essay in a new light. And if revision is about seeing again, this strategy may help.
Once you feel pretty confident with the order and number of ideas, head back to your document and move things around until they match the order of the sticky notes. Add sentences to show the relationship between ideas that you have color coded. And make sure you have the HOCs (story, ideas, thesis) covered before moving on to the LOCs (areas of lower concern).
Revising your own work is not easy, but it is an essential skill. Use this strategy or create your own. The goal is to see your writing in a new way!
Reading and revising solely on the screen is not always the best because you are the writer of the document and know what you intended even if it is not written down. So find a way to trick your mind into seeing the essay again for the first time.
Resources:
“Higher Order Concerns and Lower Order Concerns” – Purdue OWL
