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Revising ■ Improving Your Writing

When you revise your explanatory essay, you add, cut, move, and rework ideas to make your writing stronger. Here’s a quick checklist to guide your revising:

Revising Checklist

_____ Ideas Is my thesis statement clear and supported by a variety of details?

_____ Organization Do my beginning, middle, and ending work well?

_____ Voice Do I sound knowledgeable and interested?

_____ Word Choice Do I define any special terms? (See below.)

_____ Sentences Do my sentences read smoothly?

A Closer Look at Revising ■ Word Choice

If your essay contains special terms that may be unfamiliar to readers, you should provide definitions. Here are three ways: