Question

What strategies do you use for revising a paper? How do you know when to accept feedback from another source? What makes feedback valuable to you?

Answer 1

Here are some excellent sites for ideas on essay revision.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Essay+Revision&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

Answer 2

In the future, if nobody is available to review your work, you can do this yourself. After writing your material, put it aside for a day — at least several hours. (This breaks mental sets you might have that keep you from noticing problems.) Then read it <I>aloud</I> as if you were reading someone else's work. (Reading aloud slows down your reading, so you are less likely to skip over problems.)

If your reading goes smoothly, that is fine. However, wherever you "stumble" in your reading, other persons are likely to have a problem in reading your material. Those "stumbles" indicate areas that need revising.

Once you have made your revisions, repeat the process above. Good papers often require many drafts.

The feedback source is more likely to be accepted if that person has expertise and is trustworthy. Depending on my audience, feedback helps me to learn how effective my communication is. See

http://www.members.cox.net/dagershaw/lol/InfluenceMorePrinciples.html

I hope this helps a little more. Thanks for asking.