ACTIVITY 9.10
Revising for Style

After two or more rounds of peer review and revisions, your analysis should be taking shape in terms of its content and structure. And as you've been revising, you have very likely paid some attention to language, style, and correctness. Complete the following steps to fine-tune your analysis.

Step 1: Reading Aloud to "Hear" Your Draft

Read the draft aloud slowly, either to yourself, a classmate, friend, or family member (or have one of them read it to you), and listen for the following:

Do you hear any "echoes," that is, certain words that are used over and over in close approximation to one another?

Do you or your reader stumble over any words or phrases? Stumbling may indicate missing words or awkward constructions.

Do certain sections sound telegraphic? Mark those passages and see whether you can revise them to eliminate choppy phrases and incomplete sentences that may be fragments.

Do certain sections leave you or your reader breathless? Mark those passages and see whether you can revise them to be less wordy.

Do some sections sound droning and monotonal? Check those passages to see whether you can vary the styles and lengths of a group of sentences so the rhythm is more varied.

Step 2: Spellcheck and Proofread

Remember to use your word processor's spelling checker to seek out and correct typos, misspellings, and repeated words.