GENERAL
REVISION STRATEGIES
- Revise just to make the meaning clear. Focus. Every
single word, phrase, idea, piece of evidence, etc. should contribute to
a dominant impression you are trying to make. If revision means
cutting whole pages and paragraphs, so be it. Those can be used
in another essay, another time.
- Revise just for audience. What might a reader say to your
draft? How can you become a mind reader of your own text?
Try this: pick a specific reader, someone who is disinclined to agree
with you. Now role play: walk the way that person walks, sit like she
sits, read like she reads. Mark up the draft from inside that
person's mind and body. Anticipate that reader's
questions. (Donald Murray in "Writing is Rewriting")
- Revise just for order (comes after knowing what you want to say
and to whom you will say it).
- Revise for evidence. Evidence is the specific information
that makes your case compelling. It can be personal anecdotes,
statistics, quotes from authorities, stories, all of these.
- Revise for voice. This is tricky--your words must make
music; you must choose the most apt word for each description and
point. One way to invigorate your voice is to try rewriting it in
someone else's voice. Choose a few sentences from one of your
drafts and rewrite it in one of these writers' styles. Or write
something totally new, imitating the style of the writer of your
choice. Or try them all!
Adapted from a handout by Anne-Marie
Hall,
University of Arizona Writing
Program.