How to Write a Revision Plan

EFFECTIVE ASSIGNMENT SEQUENCING FOR SCAFFOLDING LEARNING SUPPLEMENT THREE: HOW TO WRITE A REVISION PLAN The  purpose  of  revision  plans  is  to  re-­‐visit  your  work,  to  think  through  what  you’re  trying  to  accomplish,   how  well  you’ve  done  that  so  far,  and  where  you  still  need  to  make  adjustments.  How  can  you  make   your  argument  stronger?  Revision  plans  ask  you  to  articulate  substantive  alterations  that  will  improve   your  argument  and  specifically  address  how  you  will  make  them.  Instead  of  just  starting  at  the  beginning   of  the  essay  and  racing  through  to  make  changes  that  occur  to  you  in  the  moment,  or  focusing  only  on   the  places  where  your  instructor  has  made  a  comment,  you  need  to  decide  ahead  of  time  which  kinds  of   changes  are  most  important  for  your  project,  prioritize  them,  and  approach  them  in  that  order.     Remember,  "revision"  is  not  editing.  When  you’re  thinking  about  "proofreading"  or  "correcting,”  you’re   not  thinking  about  revision,  you’re  thinking  about  editing.  Editing  takes  place  separately,  as  the  final  act,   after  revision,  just  before  submitting  the  essay.  Revision  is  substantive.  It  involves  clarifying  your  ideas   by  moving  things  around,  adding  material,  and  cutting.  Your  job  in  a  revision  plan  is  to  decide  specifically   what  you  need  to  add,  cut  or  move.  And  you  need  to  be  specific  about  your  tasks.   Here  is  a  bad  revision  plan:   1. Revise  my  thesis 2. Develop  my  solution 3. Add  more  examples 4. Correct  my  citations 5. Cut  out  some  unneeded  material 6. Fix  grammar This  list  is  no  good.  Anyone  could  write  out  these  tasks  about  any  paper.  They  do  not  describe  specific   actions,  do  not  refer  to  a  specific  essay,  and  do  not  address  how  the  writer  will  make  the  changes.     An  effective  revision  plan  is  specific.  It  needs  to  demonstrate  that  you  are  making  sound,  controlled   revision  choices.     Here  is  a  good  revision  plan:   1. Revise  my  thesis:  Right  now,  my  thesis  argues  an  issue,  that  not  recycling  is  immoral.  Since  this  is  a proposal,  I  need  to  make  the  topic  a  problem  to  be  solved  rather  than  an  issue  to  be  argued.  Here's what  I'm  thinking:  "In  order  to  solve  the  problem  of  consumer  waste,  consumers  should  be  given incentives  to  recycle  .  .  .". 2. My  solution  is  clear,  "Consumers  need  to  be  given  incentives  like  tax  breaks,"  but  the  details  need work.  How  can  I  make  this  solution  happen?  How  can  legislators  be  convinced?  What  kind  of  tax  breaks am  I  talking  about?  How  would  the  breaks  be  applied  (no  pun  intended)? 3. I  need  to  give  more  examples  of  how  the  problem  has  been  solved  in  the  past,  and  failed.  I  admit  I need  more  focused  research  on  the  history  of  the  problem.  Some  resources  I  might  consult  this  time around  are… 4. My  in-­‐text  citations  seem  to  include  years  of  publication,  which  aren't  needed,  and  I  need  to  remove author's  last  names  from  citation  markers  if  I  have  the  author's  names  in  the  signal  phrases,  and  then put  the  article  titles  in  the  citation  markers  instead.  I  also  need  to  set  off  a  couple  of  long  quotes  (of more  than  four  lines).  Beyond  following  convention,  these  kinds  of  changes  will  help  my  argument because… 5. I  have  a  whole  section  after  the  problem  that  repeats  a  lot  of  the  information  in  the  intro.  It  defines the  problem  more  as  the  conclusion  of  the  essay,  but  I  already  defined  the  problem,  so  I  think  I  can  cut most  of  this  material.  I  was  just  padding  space  to  meet  the  page  count  requirement,  but  I'll  meet  the requirements  by  adding  in  good,  purposeful  information  to  develop  the  solution  by  adding  more  details to  my  solution  and  giving  more  examples  alternative  solutions  (see  2  and  3  above). 6. [There  would  be  no  "correct  grammar"  statement;  that's  a  given  for  everyone!  And  fixing  grammar and  spelling  and  punctuation  should  take  place  AFTER  you  revise.  Remember,  PROOFREADING  IS  NOT REVISION.] To  begin  constructing  your  revision  plan:   1. Synthesize  the  comments  you've  received  from  your  peers  and  from  me. 2. Note  the  most  recurring  comments  first,  issues  that  most  people  reviewers  agree  on.  Consider how  you  can  address  those  concerns  in  your  own  voice.  Which  advice  will  you  take,  and  why? How  will  you  incorporate  it? 3. Then  make  a  list  of  the  kinds  of  less  frequent  comments,  or  where  people  disagreed.  As  you consider  them,  think  about  your  goals  for  your  project.  Which  advice  will  you  take,  and  why? How  will  you  incorporate  it?  Which  advice,  after  careful  consideration,  have  you  decided  you need  to  alter  before  you  adopt  it?  How  and  why? Do  not  include  grammar,  spelling  or  punctuation  as  part  of  the  revision  plan  -­‐-­‐  those  considerations  are   important  during  the  proofreading  stage,  which  should  occur  after  you  revise.   And  once  you've  completed  your  revision  plan,  revise!  Use  it  as  your  map.