Encouraging Students to Revise

1. Encouraging Students to Revise WAC Brown Bag February 15, 2013

2. What Is Revision (vs editing and proofreading)? • Revision is “reseeing” the text. Professional authors typically describe it as “a process of making fundamental changes to a paper (‘finding the argument’ and ‘actually restructuring’),” according to research conducted by Harvard’s Nancy Sommers (Nowacek). • Editing and proofreading, on the other hand, involve looking for and correcting local errors. They can be looked at as the last steps in the revising process.

3. How Do Less Experienced Writers Tend to Regard Revision? • In her research, Nancy Sommers also interviewed student writers. They often (not always) described revision as “the process of making adjustments at a more superficial level (‘just using better words” and ‘cleaning up’)” (Nowacek). In other words, in such cases, they are limiting revision to editing and proofreading. • Other student writers may define revision as professional writers do, but some of them may lack knowledge of specific revision strategies or have poor time management skills.

4. Addressing What Revision Really Is • Clarify what you mean by revision by giving an example of a revised paper or of a paper in the process of being revised (for instance, one of your own papers, a past student’s paper, or a famous author’s work). (Nowacek) Example: Julia Alvarez’ brief essay “Snow”: I show students the published essay, the rough draft, and Alvarez’ comments on her revising process (Alvarez 39-43). • Provide an image or metaphor for revision. For instance, here are “The Three Levels of Revision”: • Reseeing or rethinking: changing what a piece says, or its “bones.” • Reworking or reshaping: changing how a piece says it, or changing its “muscles.” • Copyediting or proofreading for mechanics and usage: checking for deviations from standard conventions, or changing the writing’s “skin.” (Nowacek; Elbow 23)

5. More on Addressing What Revision Really Is • Talk a bit about the mistaken idea that good writing comes naturally. (The essay “Shitty Rough Drafts” from Anne LaMott’sBird by Bird concerns the value of rough drafts even to professional authors [Nowacek].) • Comment on drafts. If you are serious about wanting students to revise, comment on drafts, and require revision. (Then you needn’t comment much or at all on the final version. It’s too late then, isn’t it?) • Make sure your comments on drafts match with the priorities that your definition of revision has set. Focus; don’t overwhelm; be revision oriented, not so much editing oriented. (Bean 83-84)

6. Ways to Encourage Revision • Focus comments, as mentioned earlier. • Avoid abstract terms in your comments. (For example, when you use the term “structure,” what do you mean? This term is rather abstract and is used in various ways. I take it to refer to organization; I’ve found that others use it quite differently from that.) • Provide specific strategies. (See subsequent slide for details.) • Motivate students to revise. (See subsequent slide for details.) • Give students adequate time to revise. • Encourage students to get feedback from multiple sources. (See subsequent slide for details.) (Nowacek)

7. Specific Strategies • Reverse outlining (Outlining AFTER drafting, not before, or in addition to before.) • Using a checklist of questions to guide revision (Notice on the next slide how the checklist is organized: it echoes the idea that revision’s first preoccupation is with reseeing and reshaping.) • Reading out loud • Incubating (Laying a draft aside for a while to gain a fresh perspective, coming back to it as if to another’s paper.)

8. Checklist Example (for an Essay—Yours would vary by genre) • STEP ONE: THE BIG PICTURE • Look at the first draft in terms of larger, abstract qualities: • is the original purpose of the writing fulfilled? • does the writing cover the required material? • has the writing addressed the specific audience? • does the overall structure seem sensible in terms of your intentions? • is your sense of authority over the topic clear? • STEP TWO: FOCUS ON DEVELOPMENT • does the main idea of the paper have enough supporting material? • does the supporting material relate logically to the main idea? • STEP THREE: FOCUS ON STRUCTURE • is there a controlling idea that can be traced through the writing? • does your lead into the paper create interest and focus? • do individual paragraphs link to the controlling idea? • do individual paragraphs have clear topic sentences? • does the ending provide a sense of wrapping up ideas?

9. Checklist, continued • STEP FOUR: FOCUS ON SENTENCE STRUCTURE • are sentences clear? • does the word order in sentences seem logical? • are verbs usually in the active voice? • does word choice seem sensible for the purpose and audience? (“Revision Strategies”)

10. Ways to Motivate Students to Revise • Require it. • Build internal deadlines for various steps in the composing process into the course structure. (Hogan) • In your comments on drafts, point out what the student has done well. Show you are interested in their ideas and their progress as writers. (Nowacek) • See students in one-on-one conferences to talk about their rough drafts.

11. Other Sources of Feedback • Other students in the class: Consider using peer rough-draft workshops. (Time won’t allow? Do it via D2L.) • The Writing Center

12. Works Cited