Levels of Concern

High-order, Middle-order, and Later-order Concerns

Revision is a critical part of the writing process and one often overlooked by students and professionals alike. The goals in writing should not be to write a perfect first draft, but to instead put effort into the revision process.

When revising, it’s important to prioritize different areas of concern based on where you are at in the revision process. This is a bit like cleaning your house. If you vacuum first, and then you wipe the crumbs off your table (with some inevitably falling on the ground), you then have to vacuum again because the floor is dirty again.

Similarly, we want to start with High Order Concerns and then Middle Order Concerns when revising. If you proofread your paper first (fixing the grammar and mechanics issues), but then you wound up rewriting a whole paragraph when you realized there were problems with the focus of your essay, you would then have to go back again and proofread your new essay.  Starting with High Order Concerns and working your way down to Later Order Concerns, then, will allow you to save yourself time and work in the long run. 

Levels of Concern: Higher-Order Concerns* 

While too many surface errors can certainly interfere with the readability of a paper, focusing on “bigger picture” concepts first will greatly improve the effectiveness of your paper.

Higher-Order Concerns (HOCs)

• Purpose (are you doing what you set out to do?)

• Audience (are you reaching them/is it appropriate?)

• Focus (is your main point clearly pursued throughout?)

• Genre conventions and strategies (are you meeting the expectations of this type of paper/writing/assignment?)

Levels of Concern: Middle-Order Concerns

These are the things in a paper that often are about effectiveness and readability. A paper that is choppy or feels like it glazed over a topic without getting into enough detail often has Middle-Order Concern issues. 

Middle-Order Concerns (MOCs)

• Evidence and examples (you’ve made clear and concise statements—have you offered support?)

• Organization and flow (you have a concrete focus—does the paper take logical steps from one point to the next?)

• Transitions (your paragraphs are set—do you make smooth and easy transitions from one idea to the next?)

• Voice, style (is the tone appropriate for the assignment and the audience?)

Levels of Concern: Later-Order Concerns

These are often called “Low Order Concerns,” but that can send the wrong message about the importance of grammar in mechanics in some genres. It’s important to note that for some genres (like text messaging or personal email) these may not be important at all, but for others like legal documents, LOCs can be critical. Therefore “Later” Order Concerns works better as a name for these issues.  

These are the umbrella Grammar Issues that should be covered in the proofreading stage. LOCs do affect a paper’s readability, but should be the “last pass” of the revision process. 

Later-Order Concerns (LOCs)

• Conventional usage (do you have subject/verb agreement?)

• Conventional punctuation (comma-addict or comma-avoider?)

• Citation format (do you have correct in-text citations?)

• Standard spelling (did you use the correct which/witch; their/there/they’re; its/it’s? Spell checker won’t catch those!)

The list items in this reading come from a handout from the University Writing Center at Eastern Michigan University and are posted with permission from Ann Blakeslee, PhD (Director of WAC and the University Writing Center). The rest of the article was written by Sarah Karlis.