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Revising Strategies 1 of 19

Revising Strategies

© Steve Whitmore

June 2018

Observations on Extended Abstracts


Rhetorical Issues Style Issues Format Issues Grammatics

Wordiness (2) Empty Openers (3) Need More Editing (7) Punctuation (5)

Colloquial Language (2) Lack Sent. Variety (2) Inconsistent Title Caps (3) Vocabulary/Idioms (2)

Sentences too Complex (1) Paragraphing (1) Prepositions (1)

Article Usage (1)

Mean = 91.45

Range = 82-97

StdDev = 5.16

Generally very well done, but everyone has some issues to address

More issues will surface in the draft article (more text to review)

I also mark a bit harder (I assume learning) and higher stakes (5% vs. 15%)


Learning Objectives

At the end of this module, you will be able to apply

various strategies for editing and revising your work.

In addition, you will be able to work effectively with spell-

checkers.

The following strategies have been compiled over the

past 42 years :-)


Why Revise?

1. Should I trust this person

with the details of my

investments when he

appears unable to deal

with details of his writing?

(Ethos = Credibility)

2. How much did he spend

sending out thousands of

these letters? How much

did he gain in business?

(Logos = Logic)

3. He was using the Micro-

soft grammar checker.

(Pathos = Emotion)


Revising Like an Expert

Delete Add Substitute Rearrange

Substance Expert Expert Expert Expert

Persuasion Expert Expert Expert Expert

Style Novice/Expert Novice/Expert Expert Expert

Correctness Novice/Expert Novice/Expert Novice/Expert Novice/Expert

Novices tend to focus on editing the low-level details of

correctness and style, but fail to focus on revising for the

high-level issues of substance and persuasion.


Specific Revising Strategies Examine sample documents, templates, and rubrics:

Generally, these are provided because you are expected to follow them. Don’t develop a similar template to earlier ones; make a better one!

Leave sufficient time for editing and revising:

Perhaps one of the greatest failures of most novice writers is the failure to leave sufficient time for revising. Allow 20-30% for this part of the process.

Take time out to gain perspective:

Setting aside the draft for a few days helps us regain the perspective of a first time reader. The longer your document, the more time must elapse between drafting and revising.


More Revising Strategies

Read the document critically:

Engage your creative faculties while drafting; be critical

while revising

Revise on all levels: Most Important

Content quality

Persuasive/Informative emphasis

Paragraph organization

Format conventions

Sentence structure and style

Grammar, punctuation, and spelling Least Important



Revise in several sweeps:

We can’t attend to all the details as we read through our

work. By focussing on specific issues in several sweeps,

we are more likely to discover problems we would other-

wise miss. Start with content and persuasion, then look

at format and organization, and finally style, grammar,

and spelling.

Make a paper copy:

Not only can we see formatting problems on paper more

easily, but a paper copy can be an important backup.


More Revising Strategies Read your document aloud:

Language is first oral rather than written; consequently,

we often hear certain kinds of errors that we do not see.

This strategy is especially useful for problems with

parallelism, missing words or phrases,

Some students from an ESL/EAL background find that

they pause when they hear the error.

“The engineer prepared the specifications,

purchased the materials, supervised the

construction, and reviewing the completed job.”

“The engineer preparing the budget.”



Read the document backwards:

We often get so caught up in the content of what we’ve

written that we stop paying attention to details such as

style, grammar, and punctuation. Reading a document

backward, sentence by sentence, breaks this habit.

Check the outline of the document:

For many types of documents, outlining after you’ve

written them is a useful way to check their organization

as well as to see if you’ve omitted anything important.


More Revising Strategies Make a list of recurring problems:

This strategy is an exceptionally powerful way to improve

the quality of your writing.

Things to Edit for:

1) Comma Splices

2) Unnecessary Passives

3) Empty Openers

4) Vague “This” Subjects

5) General Words

6) Talkie Verbs

7) Too many qualifiers

8) “Indeed” & “Really” (Stop Overusing)



Read titles, headings, labels carefully & consciously:

We often ignore titles, section headings, and figure/table

labels when proofing. These frequently hide errors.

Find a reviewer:

Another person can often see the issues that you miss.

Try to find someone with the same expertise and

concerns as your audience.

Review someone else’s work:

One of the best ways to learn to effectively edit your own

work is by editing someone else’s work. Ask the other

person what issues they are most concerned about.


More Revising Strategies Carefully and completely review edited sentences:

When we make a minor change to a sentence, we

sometimes don’t complete the entire change that is

required

“Abracadabra Incorporated now has ownership of

60% of the stock.”

“Abracadabra Incorporated now owns of 60% of

the stock.”

Be aware that your attention will wander:

Use a checklist to help keep you on track. Recognize

when your mind has wandered and go back as needed.



Rewrite the introduction:

In some cases, we don’t know what we are going to

conclude when we start writing a paper. So we need to

carefully review the introduction to ensure it still makes

sense. Sometimes the introduction can be replaced with

the conclusion and a new conclusion can be written.

(This is also why abstracts and executive summaries are

usually written after the paper is written).

Break the so-called “rules” when appropriate:

Sentence fragments. Steve’s favourite.


Perfectionism and Revising

Set clear limits on the amount of time and energy you

will invest in editing.

Focus more attention on the high-level task of revising

rather than on the low-level task of editing.

Ask readers to clarify their reactions to documents that

you have written, noting the differences between your

assumptions and their actual responses.


Boredom and Revising

Increase the challenge of the task by focusing on more

complex elements (i.e., revising to address readers’

expectations rather than editing for correct word choice).

Increase motivation by considering the task as a small

part of something with a more important purpose.

Do the least interesting tasks first.

Ask whether the boredom is actually masking a difficulty

with the tasks.

Accept that not everything is interesting and set up a

system to help return your attention to the task when it

wanders (e.g., use a checklist – see the course text).


The Problem with English Spelling

where gh as in rough

o as in women

ti as in nation

ghoti =

How do you pronounce this English word?

English is weird!


Spelling Checkers

How did the following errors get into documents that

were spell checked?

gurantee guarantee

effiecient efficient

inexspensive inexpensive

farady Faraday

indepenent independent

accross across


Conclusion

Reflections: What specific areas do you need to focus

on when revising?

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