Precis Chapters 14 &16

These chapters talk about revising and introducing/concluding your research essay. Chapter 14 focuses on telling the reader how to revise their essay. The authors explain that revision is important, but especially hard, because you must look at your work from your reader's point of view. They also give you a systematic process by which to go about revising your paper in order to get the most objective look at it. Revising does not simply mean editing, like many new researchers think that it does; it includes looking at all aspects of the paper, right down to the wording of the main argument itself. Chapter 16 focuses on including a strong introduction and conclusion in the research essay. There is a step-by-step process the reader can follow which might help make their beginning and ending stronger and more crisp. I especially enjoyed the part that talks about the first and last few words of the paper, and also the title, as I found them especially helpful.
Revising will come a little later in the writing process for me, so I am not much concerned about chapter 14 right now, but I did find chapter 16 very helpful. Introductions and conclusions are something I'm not overly good with, so this chapter could really guide me through the process of writing really strong ones. Also, I always have trouble with creating a catchy/interesting title, so the little bit about that gave me some useful information as well. When I get around to the revision process, chapter 14 will really come in handy, because it was a really good guide to showing me how to look at my paper. Overall, these chapters were really helpful (I guess they all have been in their own ways) and I will totally refer back to them when I need them in the future.