to revise and improve writing

David S. Martins, Ph.D.

To Revise and Improve Writing

Using Gen Ed Assessment to Inform

and Influence Teaching

David S. Martins - FITL 2011

Guiding Questions How do you teach revision?

What do we learn about revision from the direct assessment of student writing?

How might you restructure your revision pedagogy?


How do you teach revision?


Revision Activities In-class Peer Review Take-home Peer Review In-class Analysis of Peer

Reviews Instructor feedback Revision Plans Teacher-Student

Conference In-class Discussion of

Evaluation Criteria/Rubric

In-class Workshop on Student Writing

In-class Modeling of Revision

In-class Sentence or Passage Revision (Using Computer)

“Self-Assessment” Questionnaire

Reflective Essay “Track Changes” Draft Writing Center visit


What do we learn about revision from the direct

assessment of student writing?


MethodPortfolio

Collection Basic Writing, Writing

Seminar (incl. CLA &NTID), Honors Seminar

Fall and Winter

N=174 (11.6%)

Drafts of “Documented Research Essay”

Scoring Guide Communication

Team – Revision Types Lit Review – Feedback

Types Program Faculty –

Revision Activities Pilot Workshops –

Test Scoring Guide


Scoring Guide1. Portfolio #: 20091/20092-RA- 2. Please indicate which of the following documents are

contained in the portfolio 3. Comparing the three drafts included in the portfolio,

what revisions do you see the student completing or attempting to complete while preparing the final draft:

4. Which of these revisions improved the essay the most?

5. Where were the completed revisions targeted? 6. Considering the feedback received, what revisions

did the peers/instructor believe were necessary to improve the draft?


Scoring Guide (cont.)7. Who seemed to provide comments that lead

to the most significant revision? 8. Considering all of the feedback received,

what kinds of comments seemed to lead to the most significant improvements to the essay? (Check no more than three.)

9. Considering the revisions made and the feedback offered, where was the most generative feedback located?

10. Evaluation of revision and final draft


Revision Types Source Information

Complexity and Audience Awareness

Organization

Editing & Stylistics


Source Information Source information has been added,

removed, or modified to support claims/thesis

Sources are more fully integrated into the essay (e.g., through signal phrases, inter-textual references, etc.)


Complexity &Audience Awareness

Focus of essay has been changed, narrowed, or expanded (e.g., through changes in word choice, organization, and/or use of sources)

Multiple or alternative perspectives are considered showing increased complexity of thought and audience awareness

Implications and/or questions are articulated showing increased complexity of thought and audience awareness


Organization Transitional words of phrases, between

and within paragraphs, have been added or modified to improve coherence and flow

Paragraphs have been added, removed, or moved to demonstrate intentional organizational structure


Editing & Stylistics Copyediting has reduced distracting

errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and format

Sentence-level changes in word choice, word order, and redundancy make essay clearer and more concrete


Most Frequent RevisionsOverall, the most frequent types of revision observed in the portfolios addressed changes that preserved, rather than changed the meaning of the text: Source information added, removed, or modified

(68%) Copyediting that reduced distracting errors (67%) Sentence-level changes in word choice, word

order, and redundancy (55%). Paragraphs added, removed, or moved (55%).


“Complexity”The issue of complexity, presumably the most difficult area to address in revision, accounted for the two least frequent types of revision observed:

Implications and/or questions articulated (26%)

Multiple or alternative perspectives are considered (30%).


Revision Trends and Grades

The greater variety of revision types = higher grades.

In A/B portfolios and A essays, the two most successful revisions were: 1. the articulation of

implications or questions (.89), and

2. the consideration of multiple or alternative perspectives (.79).

Those same two revisions were seen in 0% and 13% of the portfolios with D/F essay.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 100

2

4

6

8

10

12

Revision Trends Based on Im-

provement Grades

ALinear (A)DFLinear (DF)

Number of Revision-Types Observed

Num

ber

of P

ortf

olio

s


Peer Feedback & Revision Location

92% of student respondents report peer response experiences in their classes, and 100% of faculty reported assigning peer response.

Instructor feedback was seen as leading to more significant revision (67%) compared to that of peers (9%).

Revisions occurred only where comments were written locally on the page in 60% of portfolios


Benchmarks Established 70% revise source

information to support claims or thesis.

70% revise to address errors in editing and mechanics.

55% revise organizational structure.

30% revise to show increased complexity of thought and audience awareness.

DiscussionProgram-Based Impact


How do these findings influence how might you restructure your revision pedagogy (e.g., class activities, assignment sequences, readings, peer response)?

DiscussionClass-Based Impact


Think back to your most successful assessment experience…

How did you make the assessment useful?


Key References Dave, Anish M. and David R. Russell. “Drafting and Revision Using

Word Processing by Undergraduate Student Writers: Changing Conceptions and Practices” Research in the Teaching of Writing 44. 4 (2010), 406-434.

Faigley, Lester and Stephen Witte. “Analyzing Revision” CCC 32.4 (1981), 400-414.

Horning, Alice and Anne Becker. Eds. Revision: History, Theory, Practice. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press (2006).

Huot, Brian. “Toward a New Discourse of Writing Assessment for the College Writing Classroom.” College English 65 (2002): 163-180.

Sommers, Nancy. “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers.” CCC 31.4 (1980), 378-88.

Straub, Richard. “The Concept of Control in Teacher Response: Defining the Varieties of ‘Directive’ and ‘Facilitative’ Commentary. CCC 47 (1996), 223-251.

to revise and improve writing

Documents

martins fitl

evaluation of revision

significant revision

passage revision

revision activitiesdavid

revision pedagogy

class modeling of revision

audience awareness david