Final Draft

Revision is a process that every writer must go through to produce something worth reading. Journalists, student writers, or someone just writing an email perform this task because it’s important that the people who are going to be reading what had been written understands it. There is no point in writing anything without being able to convey its meaning, and there are rules for this. In fact there are many rules, so many that there are books written on the subject of how to write. As a student we have to take many classes to learn how to write, and to some extent think; I know I did. There are many different ways of performing the practice of revision, and they are all a little intimidating. Where does a person start? All of sudden you are looking at your own random thoughts spewed all over the page, and thinking to yourself what does this mean? Well most often it means nothing unless you fix it up a little. In "Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers," Nancy Sommers explains and gives examples of the differences between people who have been writing for a while, “the experienced writer” and those learning “the student writer.” Sommer's states that while she was interviewing these two groups that students said they did not revise their writing, while experienced writers revised their writing time and time again until they had something worth letting someone else read. Though I can relate to comments from each group in Sommer’s article, I fail to see the difference between the two because of the vagueness of who is included in them. It is my experience as a student and an experienced writer that they are the same. Because revision is a process of learning in itself, making us all students; for every person betters their work while performing it. Experienced or student; we all revise to a certain extent no matter what you call it.

In “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers,” Sommers tells us that the difference between the student and experienced writer, which she says is basically the process of revision. Sommers interviewed different people from those two groups, and found that students didn’t use the word revision. These students said that after they finished an assignment they would read through it again, but that they were basically looking to see if they could have made a better word choice. It seemed from the examples given that these students just wanted to use bigger words to make themselves sound more studious. The experienced students that Sommers interviewed said that they would revise what they had written many times before they could say it was done. She concluded that students put too much emphasis on words, where the people with more experience looked more at the content of what they were trying to say.

Over the years I was taught many different ways of revising by many different people. High School is a blur; it was thirteen years ago, and I think all I can recall is that there was not a lot expected from me in the areas of critical reading and writing. I do know that this affected me later in life when I entered into college. I was told, after my assessment that the first English class I attended would not even count towards my degree. I got an awesome teacher though, and I personally have learned more from him about revision than anywhere else. The most important resource I got from him was to not be afraid to ask for help, and that anything written can always be better. An example of an experienced writer from sommer’s article says “It is a matter of looking at the kernel of what I have written, the content, and then thinking about it, responding to it, making decisions, and actually restructuring it.” In my class we were taught to look for the context of what we write first. To ask questions like, did I achieve the task at hand? Were all the questions answered? Is it clear what I was trying to express? During this process I was taught to ignore spelling and punctuation, for those things mean nothing if there is no clarity. We first practiced organization by doing an outline, which would include; an introduction with a statement that would hook in our reader, body paragraphs with topic sentences, and a thesis statement. We would have discussions in class and exchange ideas, and then join our ideas with our outline. The teacher would make us put our thesis statements on the board and we would talk about the clarity and inclusiveness of the whole topic. We worked in writing groups where we would read our essays out loud to one another to look for mistakes or missing elements. When that part seemed good then we moved on to punctuation, and grammar. We were also encouraged to visit the tutoring center at the school which was very helpful. There you were able to sit down one on one with someone and pick apart every aspect of your essay.

After taking advantage of the services of the tutoring center I decided to join them. Being a tutor helped to enforce what I already learned by practicing it on a daily basis. I went to writing seminars where we would practice different elements of writing, and there seemed to always be something new that I would pick up. We were tested on writing elements often, and given handouts on how we could improve. It was not a class, so there was no pressure for a grade. While working there I read hundreds of essays, and this introduced me to other styles. I learned to revise; I had to because I had to teach it to others. The students that I would meet had different ideas about revision. Most of them would bring me a paper and expect me to proof read for them, but that wasn’t part of my job title. In fact it was discouraged, and could even get you fired. The mission was to improve the voice of the writer, to help with organization and content of their essay, and to make sure that they included all the elements of the assignment. Some students would come in expecting this kind of help, and some didn’t. It was always a combination of the two and never one or the other. All students were experienced in some aspects of writing, making them experienced student writers.

One experienced writer in Sommers article said, “I like the idea that a piece of writing is never finished, just abandoned.” I like this idea too! Anything that has ever been written could have been a little better with one more draft, though there does come a time when it’s necessary to just move on. I was taught this as a student, so I relate to it, but I am still a student. Sommer’s states “students understand the revision process as a rewording activity,” but not all students do. Students can be experienced writers and experienced writers can be students. It is unfair to either group to say that one doesn’t go with the other. Sommers use of the terms “student” and “experienced” that describe the writers are to vague. How does she define the difference between the two? Though I do like the examples she used and I agree that there are students who do not understand how to revise at all, I believe most do.