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Contemporary's GED Language Arts, Writing
Ellen Carley Frechette
Tim Collins
Revising Your GED Essay

Chapter Outline

Study the chapter outline below. Use the page numbers below each topic to refer to the corresponding section in Contemporary's GED Language Arts, Writing. When you are finished, go to the Flashcards or choose a different activity or chapter from the menu on the left.

Rating Your GED Essay

(See pages 273–275)

When you revise, you do two things:

  • examine your essay for ways to strengthen its content, organization, and wording
  • examine your essay for Edited American English: grammar, punctuation, sentence structure

Go over your essay twice, because revising content is a very different task from revising mechanics.

Revising the Organization and Content

(See pages 276–292)

When you revise your essay for organization and content, use the skills you learned in Chapters 9-11. Make sure your essay has the following traits:

  • The whole essay is relevant to the essay topic.
  • The introduction is clearly written and has a thesis statement.
  • The essay has three body paragraphs, and each has a topic sentence.
  • The body paragraphs have enough supporting details.

Use the following techniques and tools to polish your writing:

  • Give specific reasons to support the thesis.
  • Give specific examples.
  • Give specific details.
  • Show, don't tell.
  • Use transitions between sentences and between paragraphs.
  • Use smooth wording. Avoid repetition and wordiness.

Checking for Edited American English (EAE)

(See pages 293 and 294)

On the second revision, use the following checklist to make sure you've followed the standards of Edited American English.

  • Is the first word of every sentence capitalized?
  • Are proper nouns capitalized?
  • Are the sentences complete? Does each one have a subject and a verb?
  • Do subjects and verbs agree?
  • Does every sentence end with end punctuation (usually a period)?
  • Are commas used correctly?
  • Are all the words spelled correctly?








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