Download For Writing - Amy Benjamin

The Difference Between Revision and Editing
Revision is about transforming:
Content: Through the pre-writing and
drafting stages, the writer may develop
a new conception of where the whole
piece wants to go.
Organization: The writer may rearrange
sentences or paragraphs. The writer
will probably want to add transitions:
in and out of paragraphs and from
sentence to sentence within paragraphs
Language: The writer should be upgrading
vocabulary to be interesting, varied, and
appropriate for the audience. The writer
should also be combining sentences,
eliminating redundancy, and using other
rhetorical techniques that make the
language more powerful and efficient.
Editing is about correcting:
Grammar:
Agreement:
Subject-verb
Pronoun-antecedent
Pronoun case
Adjectival
Adverbial
Usage:
Proper verb forms
Consistency of verb tense
Clarity:
Placement of sentence elements
Spelling
Capitalization
Punctuation
Inadvertently omitted or ineffectively
repeated words
Overall presentation and “look”
of the piece
GRAMMAR IN THE HEART OF THE WRITING PROCESS:
Pre-writing
experience:
(non-sentence
form)
Drafting
Sharpen your nouns
Minimize your modifiers
Replace BE verbs and weak verbs with strong
action verbs
Achieve parallel structure
Combine sentences: create complex sentences
use appositives
use absolutes
Expand and shrink noun phrases. Turn clauses
into modifying phrases. Decide where
to place modifiers for desired effect.
Revising
Publication
Editing
Point of
intervention for
substantial
language
improvement
Point of
intervention
for surface
error correction