Roane State Community College

Revision, as the name suggests, is quite literally a re-viewing of your paper. When you revise, you are looking at your paper with new eyes to determine what will make it more effective. Rather than looking at things like grammar and punctuation, revision involves interrogating your line of argument, analyzing your paper from the point of view of your audience, and thinking carefully about your organization, among other things.

Many students focus on surface-level issues (such as word choice or comma usage) when they revise. These things are important to creating a polished product, but they are often not sufficient in creating the best version of your essay (and because your essay may change substantially as you revise, proofreading and editing are often wasted before you get to your final draft). In her article “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers,” Nancy Sommers notes some of the differences between the student writers and the experienced writers she worked with in a study of revision practices. Here are some of the common themes she found in each group:

When revising, student writers often:

• Pay too much attention to word choice
• Pay too little attention to the composition as a "whole" or to finding meaning in the text
• Felt the need to stick to a predetermined meaning

When revising, professional writers:

• Use revision to discover or focus argument
• Use writing and revision as a way to discover and create meaning
• Pay close attention to audience.

A great strategy for revising a draft is to step away from it for a while, whether that's a few hours or a couple of days. Once you return to your draft, ask yourself questions about things like the progression of your argument and whether your thesis still reflects the argument you've developed, how well structured your overall essay is, and how your audience might react to or understand your language, evidence, reasoning, etc.