Revising & Editingfrom the Top Down

Julie Staggers

Ed Nagelhout

Johnson Jacobson Wilcox

Writing Workshops

Key concepts for today

Revision = re-vision larger changes made to a document’s structure and

content higher order concerns

Editing changes at the sentence level lower order concerns

Proofreading minor changes to spelling & punctuation (last step)

Johnson Jacobson Wilcox Writing Workshops

Review: Core concepts

Why is revision so difficult?

Invention

Planning

Drafting Revising

Editing

“Top-down editing”

Structured method for inspecting documents

Identifies/fixes problems likely to interfere with reader’s comprehension

Divides document into 4 levels1. Document2. Section3. Paragraph4. Sentence

Top-down editing requires you to:1. Inspect the document at 4 levels

2. Assess where you will get biggest ROI

3. Invest your time where it will pay off

4. Always proofread (but proofread last)

Top-Down Editing Process

Inspecting the document

1. Document level: Look at title, introduction, abstract, headings, visual/verbal roadmap

2. Section-level: Look at each section individually

3. Paragraph/sentence level: Look at each paragraph, then each sentence

When you need/have time to revise…1. Handle document-level problems first

2. Handle section-level problems second

3. Handle paragraph- and sentence-level problems third

4. Check for transitions between sections and overall context-making

5. Do a final proofreading pass

Document-level concerns

What are you talking about? What’s the organizational (JJW/client)

problem? What’s the occasion for the document? What type of document is this? What will the document accomplish? Where in the document might their logical

questions be answered?

Typical problems: Document level Review focuses on:

Making context & purposes explicit Highlighting conclusions & major evidence Providing visual & verbal roadmaps for readers Meeting reader’s needs/expectations for this type of

document See handout for common rhetorical, structural, and

language problems

Exercise 1-A: Inspect the sample document and identify potential document-level revisions

Section-level concerns

Does this section match a conventional section for this type of document?

Does the heading adequately reflect what the section does?

Can a reader read the opening (of the section) and know what will happen in that section?

Are topics previewed in the order they are discussed in the section?

Are any logical topics omitted? Why?

Typical problems: Section level Review focuses on:

Making explicit focus & purpose of each section Ensuring major discussion points are clearly articulated and

appropriately ordered Ensuring information is complete and necessary Ensuring sections are arranged and marked so they meet

readers’ needs See handout for common rhetorical, structural, and

language problems

Exercise 1-B: Inspect the sample document and identify potential section-level revisions.

Paragraph-/Sentence-level concerns Is information within paragraph arranged to

provide easy access to key info? Do sentence constructions pose barriers to

understanding the message?

Typical problems: paragraph/sentence Review focuses on:

Ensuring paragraphs highlight main idea and are logically ordered

Ensuring sentences are clear and concise

A strategy for lower-order editing1. Read each paragraph & place checks by

sentences you: Find tedious Have to read more than once Don’t feel quite right about

2. Focus on sections with most checks

Exercise 1-C: Inspect the sample document and identify potential paragraph/sentence-level revisions.

(See handout for common paragraph- and sentence-level problems.)

Proofreading strategies

Proofread a hard copy, not on screen Start with your known problem areas first Break into chunks; look for just a couple problems at

a time (may need to re-read several times) Read backwards (one line at a time bottom to top, or

one word at a time right to left) Always spellcheck, but then read for typos anyway

(affect/effect, Geronimo/geraniums) For critical documents, never proofread your own

work

When you need the big guns…1. Read once from end to beginning, line by line, focusing

on punctuation and your own ‘problem’ areas

2. Read again just for your common errors

3. Read aloud to identify subject-verb disagreement, unparallel constructions, choppy sentences, sentence fragments

4. Read it backward word-by-word