Try to avoid using vague, all-purpose nouns, which often lead to wordiness.
I think this is a very important point, and it can clear a lot of confusion. For example, if you want to say that a football team scored a field goal, instead of saying the team scored scored a goal, which sounds like it could be from a soccer game, you should say the team scored a field goal, which is specific to football.
Put wordy phrases on a diet.
This kind of relates to what I learned in an earlier lesson, that you shouldn't try to use crazy phrases and adjectives, because those actually make your writing weaker.
The candidate believes that Congress must place a ceiling on the budget
It keeps your writing in present tense, which makes it more enjoyable to read.
And then, sadly, sometimes revision does mean trashing your first draft and starting from scratch.
This may happen if at the end of your paper, you realize that you actually disagree with your thesis.
. You could change your thesis completely to fit your new understanding of the issue
If you wait until the end of the paper and feel like you want to change your thesis to the other side, you will pretty much have to redo your whole paper because your paragraphs are points that agree with your thesis.
One is that if you revise only as you go along, you never get to think of the big picture.
I feel like this is a major point, if you revise as you write, you will not be able to see how it fits with a finished draft.
But I thought revision was just fixing the commas and spelling
I thought that changing commas and spelling and other small changes was editing, while reorganizing your paper is revision.