Revising your own writing (AKA: Own Your Writing)
Revising writing must take into account the rhetorical character of any text. Remember: every time you write (or speak), you are entering a rhetorical situation. There are particular goals you want to reach in regard to a particular audience. You write in such a way that fits those goals and that audience.
Revision is more than simply checking for misplaced commas or spelling errors. Revision looks again at your writing and considers what you were trying to accomplish. You want to literally “see it again,” perhaps trying things in a new way. Revision is not the “almost done” feeling of checking your spelling or commas. Revision is a big job. It’s a creative job. You might end up overhauling a lot of what you’ve done so far. You might cut a lot, add a lot, or simply move things around. That’s the point of revision.
I’m going to talk about two different approaches to revision. The first I will call prose revision, which you can use to revise any kind of writing (academic, informal, professional, whatever). You can use this in almost any of your writing situations in the future.
The other approach I will call a reperspective. This method helps you for those areas you find lacking, somehow, but you aren’t sure how or why. This revision method helps to generate some new perspectives on the text.
Prose Revision
(From Richard Lanham’s Revising Prose)
- 1a. Circle the Prepositions. Too many prepositions can drain all the action out of a sentence. Get rid of the prepositions, and find a strong active verb to make the sentence direct:
Original: In this passage is an example of the use of the rule of justice in argumentation.
Revised: This passage exemplifies argumentation using the rule of justice.
- Original: The point I wish to make is that fish sleep with their eyes open.
Revised: Fish sleep with their eyes open.
- Original: Burning books is considered censorship by some people.
Revised: Some people consider burning books censorship.
- 3. Put this “kicking” action in a simple active verb.
- Original: The theory of relativity isn’t demonstrated by this experiment.
Revised: This experiment does not demonstrate the theory of relativity.
- 4. Start fast–no slow windups. Stick to the action and avoid opening sentences with phrases like these:
- My opinion is that….
The point I wish to make is that …
The fact of the matter is that…
Use the Paramedic Method in the sentences below to practice making your sentences more concise.
- The point I wish to make is that the employees working at this company are in need of a much better manager of their money.
- It is widely known that the engineers at Sandia Labs have become active participants in the Search and Rescue operations in most years.
- After reviewing the results of your previous research, and in light of the relevant information found within the context of the study, there is ample evidence for making important, significant changes to our operating procedures.
Example Concise Solutions:
- Employees at this company need a better money manager. (Original word count: 26. New word count: 10).
- In recent years, engineers at Sandia Labs have participated in the Search and Rescue operations. (Original word count: 24. New word count: 16).
- After reviewing the results of your research, and within the context of the study, we find evidence supporting significant changes in our operating procedures. (Original word count: 36. New word count: 25).
