Editing: Working on Concision & Emphasizing Idea

Go through your Midterm Essay--and if you don't have it, then choose one of your other Essays 1, 2 or, as a last resort, 3--and work on improving each sentence with:

1. Concise in phrases and words (cutting out wordiness)

2. Most effective ordering of ideas (coordination and subordination)


This means you better:

1. Start with one paragraph. Separate each sentence from its paragraph form. List them like lines in a poem:

Sentence one on its own line

Sentence two on its own line

Sentence three on its own line

2. Use the concision handout to look for different wordiness issues.

3. Additionally, after fixing each sentence separately, work on combining sentences IF two sentences are in need of a clearer relationship.

• Use the coordination and subordination techniques/fixing run-on techniques. Chapter 14 in Rules for Writers demonstrates ways for reorganizing sentences to emphasize key eyes, which further helps with concision.