Reviewing Your Own Work, Part 2

Last time we examined how to review your own writing on a micro level of sentences and paragraphs. Today, we are going to move to a macro level in which you make sure that chapters and the paper as a whole are consistent.

As you write over time, it is easy for your paper to deviate in your methodology and approach. If you have ever read a new novelist's first book you may have experienced the situation in which the details in how they describe a character or scene changes throughout the book (e.g., "Mary" may change from being "an auburn haired beauty" to a woman named "Marie, with chestnut hair" by the end). This is a lack of good editing. The next stage of your self-review should be as an editor.

To do this, you need to read the entire paper in one sitting. You need to keep track of any inconsistencies or changes in methodology descriptions- I like using track changes comments for this. Don’t change things during the reading – just note the problem areas. It is important that you are able to read the paper without interruptions, because you want to be able remember details. Things to carefully check include the description of theories throughout the paper- are you always using the same terms? Check your research questions and hypotheses, are they the same in c.1 and in c.3? Are your descriptions of your methodology the same in c. 1 and c. 3? Are the topics that you introduced in c.1, discussed in c.2? 

When you review the full 5 chapters of your final dissertation, it is even more important to double check the details. Are c. 1, 3, 4, and 5 all consistent? Did you do the methods and analyses in c. 4 that you discussed in c. 1 & 3? If not, explain why they changed. Read c. 1 and then read c. 5- make sure everything is consistent, particularly look at theory issues. Make sure you have discussed all of your results in c. 5 that you mention in c. 4.

A final check is to print out your references, then go through the paper and cross off each reference as it is cited. They should come out even. Make sure that citations with 3-6 authors list all the authors the first time cited, then use et al. When in doubt, check the APA manual for the correct citation. 

All of these self-reviews will take you some time, but you truly will save yourself a great deal of waiting time in the end. In addition, you will be a much better writer for doing it. Eventually, you will do these reviews as you go, and will take much less time.

 Next time we will have a recent graduate as a guest writer.  Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu