Revise the writing by changing the point of view. (adapted from Georgia Heard, The Revision Toolbox)

Rewrite the paper in a different voice—as a different persona. You don’t need to write as if you were someone else, but in a voice different from the one in the paper (you are, after all, student, son or daughter, citizen, taxpayer, friend). Who are you in your paper? How does the person you are affect your writing? (adapted from Georgia Heard, The Revision Toolbox)

Look for places in your writing that don’t seem authentic, that seem put on or that don’t sound the way you want to sound to yourself. Choose a passage like this and say it in a different way, using different words. What is the difference to you when you reread the two passages?

Imagine you have no assignment. You write the paper (the draft of which you may have completed) and present it to a stranger standing in line for the movies. Will that person understand why you are writing what you are writing? How can you make yourself clearer at the opening of your paper where you orient others to your ideas, your task, and your purpose?

Consider this: would the person in line at the movie believe your paper is more relevant than daydreaming while waiting in line?  What personal interest do you have in the paper that would make it so?