Revising is the rearrangement and fine tuning of a fully developed—if not totally completed—draft so that the thesis or hypothesis is aligned with the writer’s purpose, the development of the argument and its persuasive conclusion, and the audience’s needs and characteristics.

Often, writers perform the multiple drafting, revising, and editing stages concurrently. Similarities among these writing tasks permit such concurrent task performance.

The Art of Revision

Revising a written document sometimes closely resembles the multiple drafting stage of the writing process. The main difference between drafting and revising probably lies within the completeness of the document itself. Rough drafts are characterized by varying degrees of completeness, which the writer attempts to finish in a less-than-polished manner. The overriding need to write details down on paper or record them in electronic form drives the writer during the rough draft stage. The task during the rough draft stage is to include all the features of the proposed thesis and supporting details. These rough drafts are akin to an unformed block of stone into which the artist is chiseling an image that is not yet fully recognizable to the audience.

Revised drafts are based upon a completed rough draft that now needs to be chiseled into a fully recognizable work of art. During the revising stage, the chiseled image becomes clearer, more developed according to the controlling thesis, and less defined by unnatural, awkward angles. However, the ultimate task of the revising stage is to make that recognizable but still ill-defined image into a beautiful work of art.

The writer considers the succinctness of the thesis (meaning precise and concise wording), the adequateness and relevance of the supporting details, the fluency of development, and the concluding finishing touches during the revising stage. Paragraph structure and transitions are also considered. So too are diction and rhetorical strategies examined for appropriateness to the task. Sometimes, these considerations might lead the writer to rewrite the entire piece, including the thesis or hypothesis, once the writer realizes that the purpose and the audience require a more focused or different written expression. When such rewrites occur, many writers engage in a recursive process of drafting and revising, often simultaneously. Some writers might even begin again with the pre-writing stage as they realize that this rewrite is actually a completely different writing task.

A Critical Step

Revising, for many writers and teachers of writing, is the critical step in any writing process. It is the step that often frustrates many writers because it can be tedious and tiresome to pay such close attention to details that might become lost or unrecognizable in the repeated examination of what one has written.

Many writers at this stage find it beneficial to have someone else read a document that is too close to the writer’s controlling thoughts and frayed emotions. The intellectual and emotional investment into one’s writing is typically the reason why many emotionally developing students accuse an English teacher of disliking the student when the teacher critiques or grades an assignment.

The need to revise undeniably acknowledges that one’s writing is not perfect as presented in the latest draft. One’s willingness to revise means that the writer recognizes the dynamic nature of communication, which requires revisions in order to clearly articulate ideas and meet the expectations of the audience. Effective written expression is the result of careful revisions.

A Three-Step Revision Process

The following video recommends writing 3 additional drafts (yes, after your first and working drafts are already done!) to fully revise an essay. The final stage recommended here conforms to the Proofreading stage of the process, so it’s a way of completing multiple steps at the same time, as noted above.

A System for Approaching Revision

Generally, revision should be approached in a top-down manner by addressing higher-order concerns (HOCs) before moving on to lower-order concerns (LOCs). In writing studies, the term “higher order” is used to denote major or global issues such as thesis, argumentation, and organization, whereas “lower order” is used to denote minor or local issues such as grammar and mechanics.^[1] The more analytical work of revising HOCs often has ramifications for the entire piece. Perhaps in refining the argument, a writer will realize that the discussion section does not fully consider the study’s implications. Or, a writer will try a new organizational scheme and find that a paragraph no longer fits and should be cut. Such revisions may have far-reaching implications for the text.

Dedicating time to tweaking wording or correcting grammatical errors is unproductive if the sentence will be changed or deleted. Focusing on HOCs before LOCs allows writers to revise more effectively and efficiently.

Revision Strategies

Bearing in mind the general system of revising from HOCs to LOCs, you can employ several revision strategies.

• Begin by evaluating how your argument addresses your rhetorical situation—that is, the specific context surrounding your writing, including the audience, exigence, and constraints.^[2] 
  • For example, you may write an article describing a new treatment. If the target journal’s audience comes from a variety of disciplines, you may need to include substantial background explanation, consider the implications for practitioners and scholars in multiple fields, and define technical terms. By contrast, if you are addressing a highly specialized audience, you may be able to dispense with many of the background explanations and definitions because of your shared knowledge base. You may consider the implications only for specialists, as they are your primary audience. Because this sort of revision affects the entire text, beginning by analyzing your rhetorical situation is effective.
• Analyze your thesis or main argument for clarity.
• Evaluate the global organization of your text by writing a reverse outline. Unlike traditional outlines, which are written before drafting, reverse outlines reflect the content of written drafts.
  • In a separate document or in your text’s margins, record the main idea of each paragraph. Then, consider whether the order of your ideas is logical. This method also will help you identify ideas that are out of place or digressive. You may also evaluate organization by printing the text and cutting it up so that each paragraph appears on a separate piece of paper. You may then easily reorder the paragraphs to test different organizational schemes.

Completing a Post-Draft Outline

The reverse outline mentioned above is also known as a post-draft outline. Guidance for how to complete one for an entire essay draft, as well as for an individual problematic paragraph, are found in this presentation.