SQR3

"Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers"

The article basically explains the differences between the methods of revision used by student, and adult writers. A case study was taken on twenty students from Boston University, and the University of Oklahoma with "SAT verbal scores ranging from 450-600."(pg.380 2nd paragraph) The twenty experienced writers were adult journalists, editors, and academics, form Boston and Oklahoma, the main difference was the level of experience between the two groups. "Four revision operations were identified: deletion, substitution, addition, and recording, and four levels of changes were identified: word, phrase, sentence, and theme."(pg.380 4th pg.) Once the study was done they found that student writers are not comfortable using terms such as revision or rewriting, but instead the phrases scratch out and do over again. This is somewhat the same concept as revision just with minimal differences. This case study shows that most of the student writers were still a bit unsure of their full potential as young composers. Adult writers however, have grown from these amateur habits and "describe their primary objective when revising as finding the form or shape of their argument"(pg.384 pg. 2) In the conclusion of the article it states that students need to rely on their own internalized sense of good writing in order to fully understand the concept of revision, and once this is achieved their skills should increase, so on an ending note to student writers, "try taking a look at your writing through your "own"(pg.387 pg.2) eyes for a change"

Q: "How can Student writers gain the necessary skills to become classified as "experienced writes?"

R: Perhaps students lack confidence levels that experienced writers have gained over the time they've spent as authors. Lack of intellect may not necessarily come into play, but possibly lack of knowledge in specific areas. "It is a sense of writing as discovery-a repeated process of beginning over again, starting out new-that the students fail to have"(pg.387 pg.2) This can almost answer my question completely, but i feel that students writers just need the right motivation, or inspiration to lead them to composing as proper as an experienced writer does. "Students need to seek dissonance of discovery, utilizing in their writing, as the experienced writers do."