How To Revise For Meaning
When you are editing a draft and finding it difficult to follow the train of thought, you will need to revise for meaning. Sorry, that won’t be as automatic as using an instant writing correction software. That means rearranging, rewriting and reworking the words so they convey the ideas more clearly.
If you identify the need to perform such a change for a draft you’re currently revising, here are a few things you may want to do:
- Mark off good passages and rearrange them in an order that would make sense for the reader. This will help you see how much additional work you need to add, apart from clarifying your main point.
- Get a good grip on your readers and put yourself in their shoes. Where could you put emphasis on the text to make sure the meaning gets through clearly to them?
- Revising for meaning will usually entail plenty of rewriting. Don’t be afraid to dive in and do a second draft after rearranging everything.
- If the main thrust of the piece remains elusive after rearranging, invent one that can logically follow from the bits and pieces you have retained. Most of the time, you can craftily reason your way to make a case for it.
Editing for meaning, as you can see, is not as easy as most other activities involved in the revision process. As such, you should only do it once the original draft is really difficult to comprehend. With that said, this scenario is very likely to come up in many large topics, where you attempt to cover a moderately large scope that’s difficult to pin down.