I grew up in a home where writing seemed to come so naturally for everyone. Everyone but me. I spent many nights in utter frustration and tears over writing assignments. There were many times I didn’t turn in an assignment because I dreaded the revision process, the teacher’s way of indirectly telling me just how bad of a writer I really was. I always seemed to have the most revisions to complete. As I snuck my way through high school, I would often fake sick or just skip class because of how badly I struggled with the complexity of the writing assignments.
It wasn’t until my third time around at Lansing Community College that the lightbulb finally turned on for me. In my previous attempts to complete my college education, writing followed the same structure that had haunted me from high school. Start with an outline, make sure you have an introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Gah, how I could have benefitted from knowing that shitty first drafts are a thing.
This time, my third time around, my professor seemed to understand the struggles, frustrations, and misconceptions that I associated with writing. She introduced many articles and journals that brought multiple “a-ha” moments for me. More than that, these articles that she had assigned for reading chipped away at the mountain of anxiety that my previous writing experiences had created.
One of the articles that turned things around for me is written by Doug Downs. His article, “Revision Is Central To Developing Writing”, fixed my perspective on the whole revision process. Instead of being the dreaded task that it was for me in high school, it is something that I look forward to and have used in my other classes.
Doug Downs explains how revision not only improves writing but is “a sign and a function of skilled, mature, professional writing and craft.” More than grammar or punctuation, the revision process allows for significant development of ideas, structure, and design. It is key for developing writers to build in time for reflection and feedback.
Writing isn’t usually perfect the first time around. Writing can always be revised and therefore is never perfect. Unrevised writing will never serve the purpose it is intended to serve. Without revision, it is hard to get positive feedback. Ensuring time to revise and collaborate with other writers and readers is key to getting more positive feedback.
Revision and collaboration allow for new ideas and word formations. It is the discovery of new and better ideas and ways of saying something that can elevate a written piece. It allows writers to see things that they didn’t see before when they had initially started. Collaborating with readers and other writers allows for deeper development of a topic and also allows the writer to see the text differently.
There is not a single best way to revise. It is the writer’s task to discover which revision methods work best for them and to know that the revision process can always change to tailor to the needs of the writer and the rhetorical situations.
Revision can be a hard concept to view as positive. It is often viewed by underdeveloped writers as a negative reflection on themselves and their ideas. Because revision is truly a positive and effective way to demonstrate growth as a writer it is important for teachers to find ways of turning revision into a positive experience. In doing so, it will become easier for students to view revision as an indicator of skilled, mature, professional writing and craft.
