Week 5 - Revision Week

Re + Vision

Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing. -- Bernard Malamud

1) Student Viewpoints - What is Revision?

Take a view minutes to brainstorm at least 10 other words/short phrases that the word "revision" brings to mind. Some may be synonyms ("rewrite"), others may be techniques ("read out loud"), and a few may even be unique to your experience ("turn off my phone").

Extra steps: Famous Writers Explain the Value of Revision.

2) Broadening Perspectives
Class discussion about Revision. Based on these expert opinions, are there any new words/definitions we should add to the board? Any existing ones we should emphasize?


3) Revision Steps
Revision Questions

Revise in order to:

• add important information and/or more appropriate examples.
• enhance your examples with details and text-based support (quotes, for example).
• delete unnecessary information and/or less appropriate examples.
• revise sentences to make their meanings crystal-clear.
• revise sentences to improve their style.
• correct grammatical mistakes, typos and other errors.

(Checklist adapted from OWL/Purdue)

• Find your main point.

• Identify your readers and your purpose.

• Evaluate your evidence.

• Save only the good pieces.

• Tighten and clean up your language.

• Eliminate mistakes in grammar and usage.

• Switch from writer-centered to reader-centered.

4) Ready, Set, Revise!

Today, I'll be handing back your initial papers about your happiness philosophy. Take a moment to reread them with fresh eyes.

Homework (due week 5 day 2): a 300-word "re + vision report" outlining your

• analysis of the essays strengths and weaknesses

• detailed plan to revise the paper. Consider your thesis presentation, organization, choice of examples, use of quoted materials. You can identify and mention specific grammar or syntactical changes you might make (ex. "I will write fewer fragments"), but this should not make up the bulk of your plan.

Students are welcome to work on this project in teams or with tutors - of course, I recommend visiting the Writing Center.

Dr. McCormick’s Voluntary Paper Revision Guidelines

Any student may re-write a passing essay in hopes of raising their grade. I recommend consulting with me during office hours and/or with a tutor in the Writing Center.

To be resubmitted, revised papers must:

1. demonstrate substantial change. Papers where teacher’s corrections are merely transcribed – or those that offer only minimal edits – will not receive higher grades.
2. be attached to the corrected original copy with teacher’s marks.
3. be turned in to professor within two weeks of the date it was returned to the student or by the final day of class (whichever is earlier).
4. include an additional 250-or-more word typed description of the changes made and the rationale for these edits. If they failed to incorporate any of the teacher’s suggestions into the revision, students should address the reason(s) they chose not to do so.
5. exclude no more than 2 of the corrections on the original for grammar, syntax, spelling, etc.

There are no exceptions to these conditions

HW Help: A great resource for college essay revision can be found here.

Grammar Help.
Comma Splices?  Fragment?