Self-assessment is put to best use when revision accompanies reflection. Students need awareness of the importance of intentional revision, before editing.
Revision is the act of re-writing our texts. Yet, in the data that I have collected from students about their self-assessment practices I have seen that students more often define their processes of revision in terms of micro level editing and less often in terms of revision of content and ideas, and so I accessed Roslyn Petelin's How Writing Works: A Field Guide to Effective Writing (2016) to find out more about how reflection on revision practices can be cultivated. Petelin conceptualized revision as “rewriting”, suggesting that it “demands an internal monologue on the ideas under consideration about phrasing, connections, 'signposts', inclusions, exclusions, and structure”.
Clear as Water
“Producing writing, then, is not so much filling a basin once, but rather getting water to keep flowing through it till it finally runs clear." - Peter Elbow
Revision involves “macro level” decision regarding content and structure; seeing revision in this way helps developing writers to focus less on the first draft and rather as an opportunity for complete “reconceptualizations of ideas and meanings”. However, this does not come naturally to students, which is also what I see in my student data.
I was impressed with the practical ideas that Petelin's text offers to build a culture of revision:
spend more time on intentional revision
break it into discrete levels for discrete purposes
use a reverse outline and/or an outline of topic sentences to check for coherence
Revision, from this perspective, is not just the end of the writing process; it is a dimension for reaching an audience. And keep this audience in mind to manage the scope of revision. What is the end goal? Professional writers often state that they might want to make changes to a draft even years later. But we can use genre awareness as a guide to understand that a writer's purpose is to meet audience expectations for content, structure, and style. We should revise with that end in mind.
Editing Matters
I always remind my writing students that professional writers have editors. That said, polished writing takes polishing, and students should understand that editing is a separate concern from revising content and structure. While research demonstrates that students' writing doesn't benefit from rote grammar instruction, there are typical errors that can be erased with practice. Visit FSU's The Inkwell writing resource site for helpful grammar exercises. Go ahead, edit that puppy (after plenty of revision, of course)!
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