Tangents

Anything that doesn’t directly refer to your thesis should be removed. Begin with any paragraphs or parts of paragraphs, and move down to the sentences.

• Supporting points which don’t really support the thesis
• Your own opinions (including any words like unfortunately or luckily)
• Anecdotes or extraneous examples
• True tangents, where you’ve gone off about something which seemed wildly important at the time but has little or no relevance to the text