Name: ______Period:______P
Essay Revisions: A.R.M.S. & C.U.P.S.
Without ARMS and CUPS, you would not be able to enjoy a meal or drink. Similarly, without making sure to be very critical about revisions, your essay will not be as strong or as enjoyable. To produce a final draft, you must critically re-read your essay and both EDIT and REVISE.
· ARMS: Revising refers to ADDING sentences and words when needed, REMOVING words or sentences that are repetitive/you don’t need, MOVING words or sentences to make more sense, and SUBSITUTING new and improved words and sentences for ones that could use work.
· CUPS: Editing refers to fixing issues with Capitalization, word Usage, Punctuation, and Spelling.
Use the following checklist to improve your essays:
REVISE WITH A.R.M.S.:
· Does the essay flow when read out loud?
· Do transitions clearly connect ideas and paragraphs?
· N2SITSPSWTSW-No two sentences in the same paragraph should start with the same word! Find new ways to rephrase things if necessary.
· Is the essay completely unique? (MAKE SURE THERE IS NO PLAGARISIM! Pay close attention to ensure you did not copy from any sentences from the samples given in class or from your research, etc. Plagiarism results in an automatic ZERO—even if it is just one line of the entire essay! When you are in college, ONE instance of plagiarism will get you kicked out of school!!!!)
· THESIS STATEMENT should be clearly identifiable as the LAST sentence in your intro paragraph.
· TOPIC SENTENCES should clearly preview topic of entire paragraph, and should NOT state the obvious (NO ‘In this paragraph I will write about…’ ‘This paragraph is about…’ etc!)
· Each paragraph should have a clear CONCLUSION STATEMENT
· Be critical of your WORD CHOICE:
o Do you use the same word over and over? Look for a synonym to replace it.
o Do you use ‘boring’ words such as ‘stuff’, ‘things’, etc? Be more specific!!
o Be careful about over-use of contractions
o Do NOT use any slang or shorthand “wanna, gonna, B/c, thru, 2, 4” etc.
· Check your SENTENCE VARIETY. Don’t use all simple (short) sentences. Vary the sentence types with some longer, compound/complex sentences sprinkled in among simple sentences.
EDIT WITH C.U.P.S.:
· Capitalization
· Usage
· Punctuation
· Spelling