Inside Out: chapter 10 Revision

Inside Out Strategies for Teaching Writing

Chapter 10: Revision: The Student as Editor

This chapter clearly confirms all th painful realities of getting students to revise their work. We go through the steps, but as the chapter says just as many papers get worst as those that improve. There are several key issues.

Writing is a recursive process, always looping back to address an issue here or there. As writers, we work in chunks, checking spelling , rethinking, rearranging, “tinkering” as the author says. As fluent writers, we do it in a quick timely manner as the ideas are fresh. We're multi-tasking, something difficult for students as they are often scattered. So how to teach this process? There are four steps; in-process revision, re-vision, editing and proofreading. It is necessary to focus on each part separately to teach students.

In-process revision. This is the difficult one because as the writing proceeds a good writer looks back, fixes if need, looks forward to see where its going. They fine tune the writing and examine if the voice is clear and if the thoughts flow easily. Teach students to read with a pencil and model the act of breaking down and notating changes.

Re-vision. See the writing in a different way. Sometimes it may be necessary to rewrite the entire piece from a different perspective. It is time consuming when there are deadlines and students become frustrated too with having to do the whole thing again?@!#? So focus on the lead-in; help students to create a better hook for the audience. In this part, try to see the possibilities that could be, if there were something missed, or could it be better.

Editing. This process of editing is done in groups at least the writer and one editor. The main purpose of the group is to support and help the writer. The group has a leader that facilitates and makes sure that everyone is on task, considerate, and not condescending, but truthful. The writer lists specific open-ended questions (i.e. how can...?) about the writing to get authentic feedback from the group members. It does not suffice to simply say “it's good, fine”. They all read and respond to each other building ownership into the process.

Proofreading. Sometimes proofreading can go hand-in-hand with editing. The main goal is to take a final sweep at cleaning up and removing any errors. This step is the least important if the previous three steps are done with consistency.

Finally, the process of revision is taught with the learners ability and comfort level in mind; it is a growth process. Students will not be successful with revisions until they're at a point as a writer to be able to look back, reassess their work, and they have the patience and perseverance to push forward. Certainly, the writing must be important and meaningful to students to want to work with. There will also be a point when they need to be able to walk away from the piece.