In her book, Bird By Bird: Some Instructions On Writing and Life, Ann Lamott says that every writer has an internal critic. A little voice who, when the writer has finished a piece of work, looks over his shoulder and says, “not bad, but it could be better.” And no matter how hard a writer tries to ignore the little voice, it persists until the writer decides to look over his work and make the necessary changes. Until the writer decides to revise.
What Is Revising?
According to The Encarta Dictionary: English, (North American), “Revising is a transitive verb to amend a text in order to correct, update and improve it.” It sounds simple enough, a writer goes over his work with the goal of making it stronger and free of errors, but the revision process is more complicated than that.
What to Look for in a Revision
Henry David Thoreau’s advice to writers was “Simplify, Simplify.” As part of the revision process, the writer should search out and banish redundancies and weedy words like adverbs. It may be necessary to rewrite sentences in order to accomplish this but the reward will be a tighter, more professional manuscript.
The writer should be on the lookout for telling when there is the opportunity to show. Strong, specific verbs, pertinent dialog, and sensory description take the place of writing that is general, passive, or wordy.
The writer should keep an eye out for typos, like misspellings, awkward and confusing sentences, and misused words, (He went too, (rather the correct version, to) the store.
It is also imperative to correct errors in punctuation and grammar
Tips on How to Revise
- Write first/edit later.” In other words, once the first draft of a project is finished, the writer should resist the urge to plunge into the revision right away. He should let the work sit and percolate and when he is ready to revise he will be able to look at it with some perspective.
- When it is time to revise, some writers prefer to edit on the computer while others like to take their red pen to a hard copy. A writer may want to experiment to determine which way works best for him.
- A writer should look at his work with an editor’s eye. Often, writers find this difficult because they have succumbed to the trap of falling in love with their words but a professional writer must learn to be brutal. He may first want to concentrate on the big picture. Does the overall flow of the piece make sense? In an article or essay are there any points that haven’t been backed up? In a story, does every word/every scene move the plot forward? Does the story move along at a good pace or are there spots where it drags? Once he is satisfied with the content, the writer will go back over his work correcting grammar, typos, misspellings and punctuation errors.
Why Revision Is Essential
Whatever a writer writes, it’s important for him to revise and edit his work, to make it the best it can be. Editors look for nothing less and neglecting to revise will garner nothing but rejection letters.
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