Revision Strategies of

Student Writers and

Experienced Adults writers
Charles, Joshua, Davis, and LaDelle

Summary
This reading was about methods of revising papers. The author of it compared the
definitions and revision processes of students to that of experienced adult writers.
The author also discusses the lack of research on revision. The author believes
that the reason for this is because the current models of the writing process have
directed attention away from revision (Sommers 577). The author then continues
to say that the models are linear and the writing processes are separated into
discrete stages. Revision is the key difference between speech and writing
because with speech, revision is an afterthought, but with writing, the possibility of
revision distinguishes the written text from speech (Sommers 579). The spoken
word cannot be revised (Sommers 579).

Revision Strategies of Students

Scratch Out and Do Over Again
- Reads what was already written
- Crosses out existing words
- Replaces them with a better one
- Then if there is somewhere to use a sentence that [has be] crossed out, [it]
will be put. . .there. (Sommers, 580)
Reviewing
- Using better words
- Eliminates unnecessary words

Revision Strategies of Students

Redoing
- Cleaning up the paper and crossing out. (Sommers, 580)
- . . .looking at something and saying, no that has to go, or no, that is not
right. (Sommers, 580)
Marking Out
- Makes one draft
- Makes changes on top of draft
- Typically involves replacing words for better ones.

Revision Strategies of Students

Slashing and Throwing Out
- Discards elements of a paper and . . .say they are not good. (Sommers,
580)
- Is used if writer wasnt inspired while writing .

Revision Strategies of Experienced Writers

Rewriting
- Looks at content, thinks about it, responds to it, makes decisions, and then
actually restructures it.
- Rewrites as they write. First draft is not determined by time, meaning that In
one draft, I might cross out three pages, write two, cross out a fourth, rewrite
it, and call it a draft (Sommers 583).
- Finds the argument, then uses language to change the argument. Believes
that there is always something that they could could working on.
- First draft is usually very scattered. Finds the line of argument, and is much
more interested in word choice and phrasing.

Revision Strategies of Experienced Writers

Revising
- Never falls in love with what is written in a first or second draft
- Takes apart what is written and then puts it back together again
- Asks major theoretical questions of their ideas, responds to them, and thinks
of proportion and structure in order to find a controlling metaphor.
- Asks, which ideas can be developed and which should be dropped.

Experienced vs. Student writers

- The key difference between experienced and student writers is that students
look at revision as fine-tuning. Rather than attempting to revise the
effectiveness of what they are writing, they are more concerned with
grammatical errors and making what they are writing look neat.
- Experienced writers, rather than worrying entirely about grammar, attempt to
improve their content and form their argument Experienced writers do not
look at writing as linear and view revision as a constant process (Sommers
584).
- Experienced writers understand that revising confuses the beginning, middle,
and end. They put aside order in order to find their line of argument.

Questions?
Do you believe that students can have the capacity to write with experience?