Summary for Chapter Three

Revising can not be accomplished merely by completing one step. The process is split up into two sections. Hacker discusses these  stages in chapter three. There are global revisions and there's also revision of overall sentence structure. Global revisions center around organization, focus, content, purpose, and strategy. After making the necessary adjustments to global matters, you can focus on sentence structure, grammar, spelling, punctation, and mechanics. Hacker advises completing global revisions first. The two steps aren't really interchangeable, but for a good reason. 

Global revisions come first because while making these revisions, you're going to make drastic changes. You might even eliminate whole sections. Therefore there isn't a valid reason for revising sentences that might not even end up in the final draft. When making a global revision, try to view your work from the an audience's perspective. In order to distance yourself from your draft, you can take a night or two to step away from you draft. Then come back and try to read as if you were the audience. You could also ask a few people to read over your work. Make sure that they focus on the larger issues of the writing such as whether or not the thesis is clear. The next stage is to revise the sentences. You have to be careful when reading over your essay so that you can identify typos. Finally, you're ready to prepare your final manuscript and to proofread. Proofreading involves checking for misspelled words, omitted words, and word endings. This can be hard because you might not be able to identify your own mistakes which is why you might consider proofreading out loud. Don't try to avoid proofreading because it is crucial to the quality of your writing.