Dix on Revision
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.
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
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
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
