SQR 3

Lucero Chinchurreta
ENG 1320/1301.158
Instructor: Trang Phan
September10, 2010
Nancy Sommers “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers” College Composition and Communication, Vol. 31. No. 4 (Dec., 1980), pp. 378-388
Summery
Nancy Sommers concluded to a series of studies that current models of writing process have direct the attention away form revision. Some of the linear models are Gordon Rohman’s with the process of prewriting to writing to rewriting and James Briton’s model of stages which consists of conception, incubation and production. The linear models mention in the about base itself on two specific ways one is the traditional rhetorical models and classical rhetoric. Later on Nancy Sommer mention how a study was done with twenty students who’s SAT scores on first semester of composition where 450-600 and twenty writer and editor. In order to distinguish them each group was refer as the student writers and the experience writers. Each group had their own strategies for revision for example the student writers actually did not used the term revision but instead they saw it as a term that their teachers used they saw it more like “scratch out and do over again”, “reviewing”, “redoing”, “slashing and throwing out “and others for students their main objective was vocabulary and the process of rewording. And experience writers in the other hand used the correct term as rewriting or revising. Since they were more experience their primary object to look for was to see was the form or shape of the argument.
Question
What are the revision strategies of experienced writers found in the Sommers’s studies? What can you learn from these strategies?
Response
The strategies that experienced writers used are the following one are to find the form or shape of their argument, in order to fin this they used framework, patters or designs. Another strategy they used is to imagine themselves as a reader so that way they can review their own work but sometimes what happens is that the writers tend to love their work so that makes harder for them. Others thing that writers revise is the transitional sentences. After reading about each of the strategies that experiences writers used I learned that I can used this strategies when revising my work and that the one that I can relate the most is when writers put themselves in the reader shoes because I think that is one of the more practical and easier way to check the work. Also some other things I learn and figure out is that in order for a piece of writing could sound good the transitional sentence play a big par of it know i need to work more since I have notice that my transitional sentence are weak. But after reading this article I learned more strategies to check my work and helpful hints that writers used in order to come up with a great piece of work. Another thing I learn is that when a writer falls in love with the work is not a good idea because sometimes they won’t see their mistakes and they won’t be able to rewrite or revise the work correctly. Besides all this things I learned that the last thing writers focus on is the grammatical and punctuation part of the work. In conclusion is that all I learned I just have to put it into practice next time I do a piece of work.