Revision Strategies of Student and Experienced Adult Writers
In “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers” by Nancy Sommers, Sommers compares the revision process of student writers to the revision process of experienced writers in order to show her readers how students have been mislead by their teachers, as well as their textbooks into viewing writing as part of a “linear process” rather than a unified, continuous process. The linear model that Sommers (1980) refers to in “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers” focuses on the “first…then…finally” structure that students are predominately taught in school. According to Sommers, in the linear structure, “revision is understood as a separate stage at the end of the process—a stage that comes after the completion of a first or second draft and one that is temporally distinct from the prewriting and writing stages of the process” (p.323). Since students are being taught to essentially ignore revision until the last stage of the writing process, students are losing the meaning of what it actually means to revise a piece of written work. Sommers conducted a case study approach in which she gathered information about what revision means to student writers as opposed to what it means to more experienced writers. In this case study, it was found that the student writers defined “revising” as simply just the elimination and addition of words, sentences, and phrases in a written assignment. Student writers only viewed revision as a “once and done” process. Once they had successfully removed phrases or words and changed around the syntax, students believed that their draft was complete and ready to be handed in. Sommers (1980) believes that this attitude is a reflection based on the reality that “because students do not see revision as an activity in which they modify and develop perspectives and ideas, they feel that if they know what they want to say, then there is little reason for making revisions” (p.27). Sommers believes that this linear model that is being taught in schools is detrimental to the overall quality of student writing because students are becoming increasingly unaware of the fact that revision is a continuous process that consists of so much more than just crossing out words and phrases on a page. As was observed with the experienced writers in Sommers’ study, the revision process is not defined by stages, but rather, is observed as a unified whole. In “Revision Strategies Of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers,” Sommers (1980)states that the experienced writers “possess a non-linear theory in which a sense of the whole writing both precedes and grows out of an examination of the parts” (p. 331). Sommers believes that students need to be taught how to look beyond just the lexical components of writing and instead be taught how to look more closely at how they can develop and expand upon their ideas as a whole.
In “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers” by Nancy Sommers, Sommers compares the revision process of student writers to the revision process of experienced writers in order to show her readers how students have been mislead by their teachers, as well as their textbooks into viewing writing as part of a “linear process” rather than a unified, continuous process. The linear model that Sommers (1980) refers to in “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers” focuses on the “first…then…finally” structure that students are predominately taught in school. According to Sommers, in the linear structure, “revision is understood as a separate stage at the end of the process—a stage that comes after the completion of a first or second draft and one that is temporally distinct from the prewriting and writing stages of the process” (p.323). Since students are being taught to essentially ignore revision until the last stage of the writing process, students are losing the meaning of what it actually means to revise a piece of written work. Sommers conducted a case study approach in which she gathered information about what revision means to student writers as opposed to what it means to more experienced writers. In this case study, it was found that the student writers defined “revising” as simply just the elimination and addition of words, sentences, and phrases in a written assignment. Student writers only viewed revision as a “once and done” process. Once they had successfully removed phrases or words and changed around the syntax, students believed that their draft was complete and ready to be handed in. Sommers (1980) believes that this attitude is a reflection based on the reality that “because students do not see revision as an activity in which they modify and develop perspectives and ideas, they feel that if they know what they want to say, then there is little reason for making revisions” (p.27). Sommers believes that this linear model that is being taught in schools is detrimental to the overall quality of student writing because students are becoming increasingly unaware of the fact that revision is a continuous process that consists of so much more than just crossing out words and phrases on a page. As was observed with the experienced writers in Sommers’ study, the revision process is not defined by stages, but rather, is observed as a unified whole. In “Revision Strategies Of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers,” Sommers (1980)states that the experienced writers “possess a non-linear theory in which a sense of the whole writing both precedes and grows out of an examination of the parts” (p. 331). Sommers believes that students need to be taught how to look beyond just the lexical components of writing and instead be taught how to look more closely at how they can develop and expand upon their ideas as a whole.