Thesis writing guide: revising and re-drafting

THESIS WRITING GUIDE: REVISING AND RE-DRAFTING

Most students assume that once they've finished writing their thesis that they're completely finished with the work. Though, they're not entirely finished after writing that last paragraph.

Once a student completes a thesis, they're only really finished with the first draft. Most finished thesis, in fact, are the end result of many drafts that changed the entire work at its various stages of completion. It's rare for a thesis to go through less than two revisions, since the nature of a thesis requires a great deal of attention to cultivate the paper into a complete work.

Therefore, students are pretty much 'stuck' with revising and redrafting their thesis into a complete work. Naturally, some students find this process tedious, though it's a necessary process, and one that makes a thesis into the best thesis it can possibly become.

REVISING

Revising is usually coupled with editing, as it involves spotting several different types of errors and other nuances of the work that need editing. When revising a paper, students should pay attention to the overall idea of their paper as they read through.

Is the paper logical or does it make sense? Is the information there accurate? Do all of the idea presented in the thesis flow together? Questions like those are some of many that students should ask themselves throughout the revision process.

The most effective way to revise involve looking at the paper as a whole first, and then revising down to sections, paragraphs and, lastly, sentences. Looking at the paper like that will help you pinpoint the apparent issues within the work, so you can revise accordingly.

RE-DRAFTING

Re-drafting is the step where you actually have to make the changes from revising work. It more or less refers to the rewriting process. If you find issues in your initial draft, you'll have to re-draft the thesis with all of the revisions from the previous version.

Redoing the entire thesis, probably more than once, helps a lot of students better convey their thoughts within their complete thesis. Not every student will have an easy time conveying their thoughts, making redrafting before online proofreading the entire paper ideal.