• Unit 2: Revise for Context

    This unit focuses on context and revision. Revision is an important stage of the writing process and a key part of writing an effective essay. This unit explains how understanding context can help you write and revise your essay, the difference between revising and editing, and what strategies you can use to revise your draft before hitting submit.

    During your exam, be careful to factor in time to revise your essay after you've written the first draft. Finally, we'll review pre-writing, a great strategy that will not only strengthen your essay writing but may also help you remain calm and collected on exam day.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.

    • Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

      • describe the difference between revision vs editing;
      • identify the context of a passage;
      • revise an essay; and
      • practice pre-writing skills (test taking Skill 2).

    • 2.1: What Is Context?

      • Using Context Clues Page

        Depending on your exam, you may need to identify errors in writing passages based on the context of the writing. But what is context? Context is the parts surrounding a word or phrase in a sentence that help explain it. For example, if someone wrote, "The Seahawks won Sunday's game", you could infer from the context that they were referring to the football team and not an actual group of birds. This resource explains how to use context clues to determine the meaning and make sense of the sentences you read.

    • 2.2. Revision vs. Editing

      • Revising and Editing Book

        You've probably heard someone say they were going to revise or edit an essay. Did you know these are different things? When we revise, we think about the big picture in an essay: the thesis, the main ideas, the supporting details, the organization, etc. When we edit, we focus on the sentence-level points: spelling, grammar, word choices, etc. Both are important and must be done when we complete your essay on the exam. This resource provides strategies for revising and editing that you can practice before your exam to help you strengthen the final essay you submit.

    • 2.3: Revising an Essay

      • Revising an Essay Page

        While editing is pretty straightforward, revising can take a little extra practice. This resource offers further explanation of revision and more strategies you can use during the exam, such as reverse outlining and reading aloud (quietly!).

    • 2.4: Paragraphing

      • Building Paragraphs Page

        Have you ever heard someone say that writing should "flow"? What does that mean? When we write, we want to be sure our ideas make sense in the order we write them. Within a paragraph, we use topic sentences, transitions, and concluding ideas to keep our ideas focused. This also makes sure the reader doesn't get confused and can follow what we're writing. As you revise, you want to pay attention to how you arrange your ideas within your paragraphs. What do you write first? How are you connecting your ideas? Read the following article on paragraph structure and pay attention to the structure choices you make when writing and revising.

    • 2.5: Test-Taking Skill 2: Pre-Writing

      • Pre-Writing Book

        Sitting down for an exam and reading an essay prompt can be intimidating. One way to ease your nerves and help you focus on the task is to pre-write. Pre-writing is a way to think through the essay question, gather your thoughts, and keep yourself from becoming overwhelmed. This resource explains pre-writing and shows strategies you can practice now and use on exam day to help ensure that you start your essay writing off on the right foot!

    • Unit 2 Assessment

      • Unit 2 Knowledge Check Quiz
        Receive a grade

        This unit looked at revision and how to fine-tune an essay. In this ungraded activity, you will read a source-based article excerpt (a type of writing you may be asked to do on the exam) and answer questions to revise it and make it stronger. Remember that revision considers the "big picture" and makes an essay clearer for the reader.

      • Unit 2 Assessment Quiz
        Receive a grade

        As we did in the last unit, we will write another short essay. The essay prompt is based on the kind of prompts you can expect to see on the exam, but in this assessment, you will not be timed. Write two paragraphs in response to the prompt, and take the time to pre-write and revise your work. When you are done, use the rubric to score your essay.