How do you revise and edit a conflict essay to improve clarity and coherence?

First, I would attempt to decide what audience this essay is going to be for. Obviously when writing it, you should make it clear and coherent so that all audiences can understand it, but you still have a main audience and you have to decide what topics fit with said audience. Are they fans of literature, history, or actual legal conflicts. After that, then you can get to work deciding which your actual topic is going to be about.

In my experience, choosing the elements of the topic you want to write about before you start researching or outlining helps you narrow your topic. You can write about the conflict between Romeo and Juliet, but what specific parts of their conflict do you want to address? The family rivalry? Tibalt's death? And what do you want to say about these elements? Jot down some of the main points you want your essay to cover to help you prepare for your research and outline, and you'll have a strong foundation from which to start writing your essay.

The classic distinction between secondary-source and primary-source research is valuable here. If this is a smallish project, your fastest path to completion involves drawing on what other scholars, journalists, etc. have already produced. You'll spend time with their books, articles, etc. If you're digging deep, you may want to interview living participants, track down original documents in archives, etc. That's slower and harder. But it's the key to producing something that's groundbreaking, rather than just a reiteration or reflection on what's already known.

It's also important that the topic sentences directly relate to your thesis statement. For each of your main points, you'll want to ensure that it relates back to your thesis. This keeps your essay concise and on-topic.

Make sure your essay flows properly. Outlining is important but also make sure that your essay flows coherently and each point makes sense in the context of the paragraph. Its like writing fiction, the story needs to flow in a way that makes sense to the reader. The same can be said for a non-fiction essay.

Use complete sentences that are simple, direct, and straight to the point. In this step, do not worry about "writing well." An efficient writer will type everything out in simple sentences first, and then revise afterwards, instead of trying to write each sentence perfectly on the first go.

Topic and purpose are two different things. Your main point is dependent on how you flesh it out. Your subtopics for the main topic. If you leave your reader with an urge (a call-to-action), you’ve done your job.

In the first draft, free-writing is often the most efficient route. Follow your outline and flesh out your ideas. Strive for clarity and logical flow of information. As others mention, you should aim to get all your thoughts on the page first rather than trying to perfect each sentence as you go. That's where the "Revise your essay" step comes in.

I ALWAYS ask someone or multiple people to read your essay before submitting the final version, no matter how good or bad you think it might be. It is important to get an outsiders perspective and to make sure that the readers, no matter what topic you chose, can gain a thorough understand of the topic just from your essay. Use whatever feed back you get and improve upon your essay, it will be much better for you in the long run if you make sure people understand your essay before you submit it.

Another tip for creating a well-rounded essay is to consider counterarguments to your thesis and supporting points. Oftentimes, acknowledging other perspectives and using quotes to refute them can strengthen your argument.

One of the important things I do after writing my essay is to go back to my initial questions to see if I have answered them all. Of course, sometimes according to the topic of the article, you may not answer some of your initial questions because you don't want to address them in this article.

There are plenty of other tools besides the ones provided by applications such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs or Pages that can help read through you essay and find any mistakes. Also, continuing from my point above, also ask other people to read your essay. They can spot mistakes that you might have missed.