Tag Archive for: instructor-none-2

What is Revision?

• Rewording
• Deletion
• Adding
• Substituting
• Proofreading

Revision IS a Creative Process. It requires one to reflect on what is written, what is meant, and what is missing. Is not just crossing your T’s and dotting your I’s. It is part of it, but not the most important part.

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DIX STUDY


Proposed two types. Text Based. Surface.

Text-Based (T) – Meaning of the writing.
Surface (S) – Spelling, Grammar without changing meaning.

Study looked at three writers, and how they revised. They were tasked with one Poetic piece and one Transactional.

Poetic – “creative” story, poem, etc
Transactional – “academic” essay, how to, etc

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1. Wiremu – Aware. Comics, Dairy, Songs.

Poetic – 22S 18T – Picture book about wizards. Mostly Text based, meaning changes. 

Ex: “The army of goblins and stuff were coming towards him,” but then I thought they didn’t know that I was inside the mansion, so I said, “Inside there was an army of goblins, wolf-weres, vampires, and evil wizards and fighters marched towards them.”

Meaning-preserving substitutions, such as changing thought to wondered.

Transactional – 9S-4T –  Debate. There was a checklist. Teacher was the judge. Easier to stick to guidelines. To hit all points.

“He was metacognitively aware of his revision practices—he recognized that many of the changes he made with his poetic writing were to manipulate, create, and refine his ideas. However, the revision changes he made to his transactional writing were in response to meeting the criteria of the genre as well the demands of accurate use of spelling and punctuation conventions”

Wiremu does not see it as proofreading at the end. It is something always happening

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2. Anna – Observant. Narratives, Journaling, Flow.

Poetic – 32S – 14T. Poem school camp. Big on addition. She adds more and more to imagery. She goes back and forth.

Transactional – 17S 18T. How to make a paper tree. Paragraph to steps. Added diagrams. Capitalization.

“basically I made it a bit more precise in basically all of it, so that it’s just easier to read.” – Anna

“She was aware that revision changes involved two key processes and that it was acceptable to rework large amounts of text, which would ultimately involve Text-based changes, as well as to correct the Surface features for accuracy.”

Anna used addition and substitution to make the poetic poem to build imagery and get her point across. The transactional was input from outside.

“Anna wanted her writing to be more interesting.  Driven by a need to match the written text with her intended text. Content to play with words and construct a particular image.”

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3. Jon – Structured. Assignment, End, Non.

Poetic. 17S – 1T. Poem about experience. Unsure what to write. “What color are leaves” Once he figured what he wanted, he stuck with it. No deviation. Generating/Organizing.

Transactional. 24S – 5T. How To, Paper Tree. Accuracy was the goal. “Roll paper vs Tightly Roll” – microstructure changes.

“The checklist, it just tells what you should have done, and if you’ve done it, you tick yes, or no if you haven’t done it.” – Jon

“He perceived revision as a procedure done at the end of writing, requiring the writer to ‘get it right.’… revision was to read the finished draft, making sure it made sense and correcting Surface errors.”

Jon decisions at planning and organizing. Hesitant to create ideas. Saw no reason to make major changes to the meaning of his text.

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My Thoughts on Revision

I am someone who has trouble with surface corrections. I can work on text based with ease. The grammar and spelling is the hard part. It can seem immense because I don’t know all the rules.

Revision has a bad connotation. I see it as having to correcting something wrong.  I don’t like to feel like I have made a mistake.

Writing creatively is a form of art and art isn’t bolstered in school. I was taught there is one “right answer” so I search for that in my writing and revision. That there is a series of sequential steps with revision always at the end. It’s possible to unlearn that.

Revision is a creative process. I claim, that Revising IS writing.

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Take away

• Yes, surface revision is a thing, but that is minor for what we call ‘creative writing’.
• The rules are situational. No one person will know all the rules of writing, how can you?
• Context of revision matters.
• Don’t be too focused on hitting the notes (surface editing). You can be Mariah Carey or Katy Perry. It’s all fine.

When you see a sculptor working on statue, you cannot tell if they are creating or “revising”. To them, creating is removing the material in the way of their vision. That is their artistic process.

 

You “revise” the ideas in your head into what you want to say. You put those onto paper, and make what is written match what is in your head.

Revision is the process of writing.
Don’t be scared of it. You are doing it already.

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Questions

Are you more Wiremu, Anna, or Jon?
Do you think revision has a negative connotations?
Do you think of revision as writing?
Do you think Revision as a creative process?

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Works Cited

Dix, Stephanie. “I’ll Do It My Way: Three Writers And Their Revision Practices.” Reading Teacher 59.6 (2006): 566-573. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

Summary

Elizabeth Dinkins realized that revision, thought it is an important element of writing, is often ignored by not only students, but teachers as well. She conducted a study along side a teacher to see if an effective teaching method for revision could be found.

Other studies show that revision is “recognizing a dissonance between what is written and what is meant” and then being able to use your knowledge to make the appropriate changes (76). It is important that students see revision as not just a way to get a final product, but as part of the process. Most students viewed revision as a chore and would often skip it entirely.

Dinkins found that in many classrooms pre-writing was emphasized much more than revising. She found that students had a limited understanding of revision. They focused mainly on “neatness, word replacement, and mechanical error correction” (77).

The teacher chose to teach the CDO-ADM revision strategy. This is a three-step process which includes comparing, diagnosing, and operating.

• Comparing: Read each sentence and ask “Is this what I meant?”
• Diagnosing: Mark sentences that need work.
• Operating: Add, Delete or Move text.

They focused on five eighth grade students who were at different writing levels. The teacher taught the revision strategy using Self-Regulated Strategy Instruction which has six stages:

1. Develop Background knowledge
2. Discuss the Strategy
3. Model the Strategy
4. Memorize the Strategy
5. Support the Strategy
6. Independent Strategy Use

My Connection

I have never done very much revising when it comes to my own writing. I relate a bit to Stephanie because I have always felt that I just revise as I go along. Looking back, though, I can’t remember ever being taught how to revise. I do wonder now if I would be more comfortable revising if I had been taught a strategy like this one early on. 

Questions

1. Do you relate to any of the five students when it comes to your views of revising? How?
2. Do you think a larger focus should be put on revising in schools? Why or why not?

Works Cited

Dinkins, Elizabeth G. “Middle School Students’ Perspectives of and Responses to Strategic Revision Instructions.” Middle Grades Research Journal 9.2 (2014): 75 – 90. Web.

This week I was able to disconnect on two separate occasions for a total of 7 hours. Both occasions took place at my home. The first occasion was when my parents returned home from a week long vacation. I spent two hours (with no technology) talking to both of my parents about my past week, discussing clinicals, simulation lab, the cancellation of lecture, my other classes and assignments and of course, the details of their vacation. I spent my time catching up with my family and reflecting on the week; mine and there’s. I always enjoy spending time with them. I can tell that they appreciate spending time with me because most of the time I am up in my room studying. Another time I was able to disconnect was when my aunt came over for dinner. She came over on a Sunday night with her dog and I took a long break from studying and spent it socializing with my aunt, who I had not seen for a while. I love catching up with my aunt because she is a retired nurse and a blast to be around. I get to talk to her about my clinicals and how my experience is so far in the nursing program and it allows me to “see” the light at the end of the tunnel. Overall, I value the time I get to spend with my family and with school, that time is often limited. I have found that balancing my study time with family/social time can be challenging but is so worth it because it allows me to take a break from school, relax and refocus. My family always explains how much they enjoy it when I can spend time with them. Our time is filled with laughing, joking and sentimental discussions about life. I think this friendship and relationship I have with my family is what assists me to be a good (student) nurse. It helps me to converse with patients easily, while also picking up on subtle ques.

Resistance is futile!

I chose to disconnect from social media, internet and text messaging on Saturday. I reasoned that it would be easier to ignore digital media because I would physically be interacting with friends and family and too busy to look at my phone. In fact, it turned out to be the opposite and I maybe lasted 5 hours, if I am generous with the timing. Checking my phone later, I found that the same people who I saw on Saturday texted me about the location of the restaurant, parking, appointment time and who had already arrived. We were all attending a surprise birthday party and everyone felt that they needed a minute-by-minute update of the whereabouts of others. During the actual party I did not notice anyone texting. However, phones were used to take pictures and show pictures posted on social media. I felt the strong urge to reach for my phone as well, I myself not wanting to miss the opportunity to capture a memory. Although well intended, the need to put moments on record can become an excuse also. In this era we are too keen on saving memories for tomorrow. As cliche it is to say, for a long time now the truth has been that we do not spend enough time living in the actual moment. I too am guilty of this crime! I only started using a smartphone last year and have already become the very thing I used to scoff at.

I have experimented with the “disconnect” exercise before and found that the best and only solution is to not have a phone or digital device with you at all. This past summer I went on vacation with my family. I was free from impending test dates and upcoming assignments and realized to really be on vacation I also had to be free of social media updates from my friends. Part way through the vacation I decided to leave my phone at the hotel each day of the vacation; we were typically outdoors from morning to evening. It was one of the best decisions I had ever made! I could not check for text messages, I could not receive phone calls and I could not even check the time. Not having a timer on vacation is an added bonus and it was my favorite part of abandoning my phone. It was liberating not knowing what other people back home were doing and knowing that other people did not know what I was doing either. And I did not care.

This week our challenge is to engage. Since we have been researching our topics and finding sources, now we must “make moves.” It took me awhile to figure out how I wanted to do this, I was really unsure about what I wanted to say or where I wanted to go with engaging. Being a shy person made this that much harder for me, but I knew it had to be done. The approach I took on for this weeks challenge was simply acknowledging the woman’s blog post that I came across last week. Not only do I think what she did was completely incredible, but sharing it with the world is such a brilliant idea. So many people here about this stuff on the news or elsewhere, yet fail to try to put themselves in those peoples shoes and that’s exactly what she did. Reading and hearing things from someone who has experienced first hand makes my connection to my topic much deeper than just reading articles on the web. I posted a comment where I originally discovered this blog post, which was on Instagram, recognizing her for her work and letting her know why I am engaging in this topic. I look forward to growing with this engaging process and not letting my shyness interfere by making an account for the blogging website this woman used, and also creating a Twitter, both of coarse to improve myself and create a digital footprint that will eventually make a difference. Let’s see what next week brings!

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