Strategies for Drafting & Effective Revision

Planning a draft is a major part of the writing process. Determining what the topic of the paper will be as well as the direction the paper will take occurs during the planning and drafting process.

Revision is a process most writers engage in as they prepare to submit a manuscript for publication. Similarly, your instructor has asked you to participate in the revision process. There are many stages to the revision process. 

Key Terms: drafting, writer-based prose, reader-based prose, global revision, local revision, higher order concerns, lower order concerns. 

Drafting

Beginning a draft may be an arduous task for some writers. What is most helpful to writers is to have a plan for the writing task.  Planning a draft can mean anything from choosing a topic and how the information about that topic will be conveyed to the actual writing of the draft.  It is a good idea to plan to complete the draft at least three days prior to when it is due.

Some questions to consider when starting your planning and drafting process are:

• What is the topic of the paper?
• Who is the audience?
• What information is to be conveyed?
• How will the information be organized?
• How will the information be introduced, developed, and concluded?
• What should the title of the piece be?

Remember, drafting is the process of just getting ideas out on the paper and these ideas are what make most sense to the writer.  As the writer moves on to revise during the two phases of revision (Global & Local), the attention will move from a writer-based draft to a reader-based draft.

Writer & Reader-based Prose

Writer-based prose is writing for the writer. At this stage in the writing process, the language, tone, style, and clarity of the writing is based only on what the writer knows. The writer is trying to get his/her ideas out on paper and make sense of what is being discussed. 

Reader-based prose is writing for the reader. At this stage in the writing process, the writer has revisited the draft to clarify ideas, terms, examples, circumstances, and details that may be unfamiliar to the reader. Here is where the writer checks for sign posts, transitions, clarity of the introduction, thesis, and conclusion.

One tip: If the reader was from the planet Mars, would the reader understand the context, main points, terminology, and logical flow of ideas that the writer uses? Is everything clear or is explanation needed to clarify for the reader?

• Avoid making the reader work to understand the meaning
• Never let the reader try to guess what the meaning of what is written

Global & Local Revision

Global Revision examines the “big picture” or higher order concerns of the document.

This type of revision helps move from” writer-based” prose to “reader-based” prose.

What are Higher Order Concerns (HOCs)?

• Audience and Purpose:
• Can the audience for the paper be named?
• If “general audience” is the answer, what are the shared characteristics of this audience
• Is it clear what the purpose (reason for writing) of the paper is?
• Does this purpose match the assignment criteria?
•  Focus
• Clarity of introduction and thesis
• Focus of the text (is there anything that just doesn’t belong?)
• Organization:
• Check for flow of ideas. Can some sections of text be moved? ( “reverse outlining;” “idea mapping,” pg. 85-86 of  Pechenik)
• Should there be some combining or separation of ideas into paragraphs?
• Is similar information kept together (apples with apples and oranges with oranges)?
• Is each section organized around only one main idea?
• Content:
• Does EVERY sentence say something or is it just filler?
• Eliminate “running jumps” (pg. 88, Pechenik).  
• Is the argument or central focus clear throughout the piece? Is it well supported by:
• Specifics, examples, or facts?
• Are the main points/ideas emphasized and clear for the reader?
• Clarity:
• Does each sentence say what the writer intends it to say?
• Clear and simple sentences are best, especially when dealing with dense material.
• Are there ambiguous pronouns such as it, they, these, their, this and them?
• Point of View:
• First Person: “I view” (personal and subjective). Used in reflections.
• Second Person: “You view” (the writer addresses the reader.) Use this with caution! Is this appropriate for a scientific audience?
• Third person: “bird’s eye view” (writer objectively discusses the issue/subject) Appropriate for academic, objective, scientific writing.

Local Revision examines aspects such as word choice, sentence structure, spelling, and punctuation (lower order concerns [LOCs]).  Attention to these aspects of writing help to revise to clear and concise writing that the reader with appreciate.  Proceed through these in stages:

Stage One: Sentences

• Are sentences clunky or too long?
• Are there any more “running jumps” (hedging)?
• Are sentences repetitive?
• When reading, is there a feeling of gasping for breath? Some attention to run-ons or fragments may be need advised.
• Is parallel structure used?  Think of a seesaw: what happens on one side of the sentence needs to happen on the other side of the sentence to create balance.

Stage Two: Word Choice/Conciseness

• Make every word count
• Clear and precise is best (more words does not equal better writing)
• Overuse of acronyms
• Jargon and fancy $20 words can lose the reader. Remember, the reader may be a Martian! Ignore the thesaurus.
• Eliminate excessive preposions
• Clichés and idiomatic language may not have a place in an academic paper
• Vague words: Stuff, things, everything, a lot ….Be specific

Stage Three: Grammar & Punctuation

Begin this stage with reading the paper out loud. If there are stutters, trip-ups, or stumbles through a passage, some punctuation or attendance to grammar issues may be needed.

• There are plenty of online resources to guide through a grammatical or punctuation issue.  It takes three seconds to look it up. Why not?  It is better to look it up than to guess.
• Punctuation to keep in mind: the comma, the semi-colon, and the period.

Stage Four: Polishing & Proofing

• Read slowly for spelling errors (“their” vs. “there”) and typos. Don’t rely on spell-check feature. 
• Make sure all key terms are spelled correctly (misspelling can substantially decrease the writer’s credibility).
• Format & manuscript style