Adult and Novice Writers Revise (What's the Difference?)
- Sommers finds that novices tend to revise at the level of the word or the sentence. "The students place a symbolic importance on their selection and rejection of words as the determiners of success or failure for their compositions" (172). Why do you think they focus on this part of their work when they re-enter a text? Are they right to be concerned about word choice, sentences, etc? Why or why not? Are you seeing this level of "revision" in your students' succeeding drafts?
- Experienced writers, in contrast, see revision as "part of the process of discovering meaning altogether" (175). Do you think of your revision process as one that involves discovering meaning in this way? Why or why not?
- Consider the work you are doing in your class and with your students' texts. Identify three specific activities, tasks, or assignments that you do (or might) use to help your students shift their focus in revision from the word or sentence to the ideas or the meaning. Develop a plan to incorporate those activities into your class over the next month.
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