Revision is essential to writing. This unique volume reviews the primary findings of key studies of revision, re-examines data on the relevance of personality type preferences for understanding revising, explores the text features writers tend to focus on when they rework a text, reviews the teaching advice given in books on revising by teachers and writers, and presents detailed case studies both in academia and the workplace.
Revision is often a confusing and difficult process for students, but it's also the most important part of the writing process. If students leave our classrooms not knowing how to move a piece of writing forward, we've failed them. Revision Decisions: Talking Through Sentences and Beyond will help teachers develop the skills students need in an ever-evolving writing, language, and reading world. Jeff Anderson and Deborah Dean have written a book that engages writers in the tinkering, playing, and thinking that are essential to clarify and elevate writing. Focusing on sentences, the authors use mentor texts to show the myriad possibilities that exist for revision. Essential to their process is the concept of classroom talk. Readers will be shown how revision lessons can be discussed in a generative way, and how each student can benefit from talking through the revision process as a group. Revision Decisions focuses on developing both the writing and the writer. The easy-to-follow lessons make clear and accessible the rigorous thinking and the challenging process of making writing work. Narratives, setup lessons, templates, and details about how to move students toward independence round out this essential book. Additionally, the authors weave the language, reading, and writing goals of the Common Core and other standards into an integrated and connected practice. The noted language arts teacher James Britton once said that good writing floats on a sea of talk. Revision Decisions supports those genuine conversations we naturally have as readers and writers, leading the way to the essential goal of making meaning.
Revision Revisited LINDA ALLAL* & LUCILE CHANQUOY** *University ofGeneva, SWitzerland, **UniversityofNantes, France Revision is a fundamental component of the writing process. So fundamental that for some specialists writing is largely a matter of revising, or as Murray (1978) stated, "Writing is rewriting..." (p. 85). Experience with writing does not, however, automatically translate into increased skill in revision. Learning to revise is a lengthy, complex endeavor. Beginning writers do little revision spontaneously and even experienced writers encounter difficulties in attempting to improve the quality of their texts (Fitzgerald, 1987). Although revision has been extensively dealt with in the writing and learning-to write literature, this book proposes to "revisit" theory and research in this area through a series of new contributions. The introduction begins with an overview of what revision encompasses. It then examines two parallel interrogations that under lie the chapters assembled here, namely: (1) What are the implications of research on cognitive processes for instruction in revision? (2) What are the questions raised by instructional research for the investigation of cognitive processes of revision? A final section presents the chapters of this book.
Why you need a writing revolution in your classroom and how to lead it The Writing Revolution (TWR) provides a clear method of instruction that you can use no matter what subject or grade level you teach. The model, also known as The Hochman Method, has demonstrated, over and over, that it can turn weak writers into strong communicators by focusing on specific techniques that match their needs and by providing them with targeted feedback. Insurmountable as the challenges faced by many students may seem, The Writing Revolution can make a dramatic difference. And the method does more than improve writing skills. It also helps: Boost reading comprehension Improve organizational and study skills Enhance speaking abilities Develop analytical capabilities The Writing Revolution is as much a method of teaching content as it is a method of teaching writing. There's no separate writing block and no separate writing curriculum. Instead, teachers of all subjects adapt the TWR strategies and activities to their current curriculum and weave them into their content instruction. But perhaps what's most revolutionary about the TWR method is that it takes the mystery out of learning to write well. It breaks the writing process down into manageable chunks and then has students practice the chunks they need, repeatedly, while also learning content.
A helpful, engaging guide to the revision of scholarly writing by an editor and award-winning author “Pamela Haag has been called ‘the tenure whisperer’ for good reason. Any scholar who hopes to attract a wider audience of readers will benefit from the brilliant, step-by-step guidance shared here. It’s pure gold for all aspiring nonfiction writers.”—Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America Writing and revision are two different skills. Many scholar-writers have learned something about how to write, but fewer know how to read and revise their own writing, spot editorial issues, and transform a draft from passable to great. Drawing on before and after examples from more than a decade as a developmental editor of scholarly works, Pamela Haag tackles the most common challenges of scholarly writing. This book is packed with practical, user-friendly advice and is written with warmth, humor, sympathy, and flair. With an inspiring passion for natural language, Haag demonstrates how to reconcile clarity with intellectual complexity. Designed to be an in-the-trenches desktop reference, this indispensable resource can help scholars develop a productive self-editing habit, advise their graduate and other students on style, and, ultimately, get their work published and praised.
Every person follows a script for living, a life guide that directs our behavior and shapes our choices. As believers, we find the original script for living woven throughout the Bible. Yet while the Christian message is simple, it can become complicated by our environment, our culture, and our religious ideas and traditions. For this reason, we are all in constant need of revising the scripts by which we live. Author Frank Viola believes we need to revisit and revise what it means to live the Christian life. Drawing from his rich background in ministry, Viola examines ten key areas that impact every believer and explores fresh ways to revise them. Conversational, insightful, and practical, Revise Us Again encourages us to examine those religious habits that we unconsciously pick up from others and rescript them with new habits that line up with our new nature in Christ.
When Improving Performance: Managing the White Space on the Organization Chart was published in 1990, it was lauded as the book that launched the Process Improvement revolution. This was the book that first detailed an approach that bridged the gaps between organization strategy, work processes and individual performance. Two decades later, White Space Revisited goes beyond a mere revision of that groundbreaking book and refocuses on the ultimate purpose of organizations, which is to create and sustain value.This book picks up where Improving Performance left off and shares what we have learned about process in the past 15 years since it was published and how the reader (primarily practitioners) can capitalize on these notions in their own pursuit of process excellence. White Space Revisited is a comprehensive resource that offers process and performance professionals a conceptual foundation, a thorough and proven methodology, a set of remarkable working tools for doing process work in a more significant way, and a series of candid observations about the practice of Business Process Management (BPM). The book’s time-tested methods, models, tools, and guidelines serve to align people, process, and technology White Space Revisited includes information on a wealth of vital topics and Describes the difference in impact of focusing on single processes vs. large scale improvements Provides an integrated step-by-step blueprint for designing, implementing, and sustaining process management Offers a detailed methodology for strategic and tactical process definition and improvement Spells out how to leverage the power of IT to optimize organizational performance Shows how to integrate the energy and value of Six Sigma, Process Improvement and Process Management into an effective Process Excellence Group
