Exercise: Revision Planning

Before you begin to revise for submission of the Document Series final draft, it’s good to think through what specific issues need to be addressed in your draft and consider all the topics discussed in the Feedback File. To help you strategically plan your revision, consider each draft individually, and respond to the following:

1. Is the purpose of each draft clear in the content of the document?
2. Is the content and tone of each draft tailored to the specific needs of the target audience?
3. Describe why you chose the genre (letter, email, memo) you did for each correspondence. Given what you have learned since making that decision, do you still believe the genre you chose to be the right one for the job?
4. Double-check your format for each genre and document. Do you need to make revisions to format?
5. Look at the writing style you use in each document. Are your documents appropriate in tone? If you were the target audience, would you be satisfied with the document? What could you change to give the document a more effective tone?
6. Again, look at writing style in each document. What changes need to be made to make the document more concise? Do your paragraphs have clear topic sentences? Does each paragraph have one subject?