Four Revising Strategies to Teach Revising

 Revising Strategies:

1. Adding (Pushing In): Writers can make their drafts longer by adding words or phrases. This strategy involves inserting details such as more action, feelings, specific nouns, descriptions, or literary devices to enrich the writing. It’s often the first revision strategy taught.

2. Replacing (Trading): This strategy involves replacing weak or vague words with more precise or descriptive ones. Young writers may substitute synonyms, adjust verb tenses, or change phrases to clarify and enhance their writing. It requires a wider vocabulary and understanding of language.

3. Reordering (Cutting & Sorting): Writers can improve their drafts by reorganizing sentences or paragraphs. This strategy may involve cutting unnecessary words or deleting repeated ideas. It can be challenging for young writers, who often have an attachment to all their words.

4. Revising While You Write: Writers don’t just revise after completing a draft—they can revise as they write. Teachers can model this strategy by thinking aloud during the writing process, demonstrating how to adjust or refine ideas as they go.

Example Revisions:

• Cutting & Sorting: For the first passage about a mall trip, unnecessary repetition could be cut (e.g., "And then" used repeatedly), and the events could be reordered for better flow and clarity.

• Adding/Pushing In: For the cat description, additional details like "Tammy has soft fur and loves to curl up near the window" would enhance the writing.

• Replacing/Substituting: In the bike ride passage, replacing vague terms like “bad dog” with more descriptive words like “angry dog” or “loud growl” and refining sentence structure would make the passage clearer and more engaging.

In summary, these strategies help young writers understand revision as a crucial part of writing, focusing on refining ideas, improving clarity, and enhancing the quality of their work. Teachers play a key role in modeling and guiding the revision process, showing students that writing is an evolving craft.

By Faith Henry