Collab
The Revision Policy: Becoming a Reflective Writer
The more that you write and the more that you rethink and rework your ideas, the better writer you will become. This approach requires commitment and time and it also requires that you become aware of your processes as a writer. Becoming aware of your processes involves knowing what works for you and what does not, how to set purposeful goals for your writing, and, most importantly, it means knowing how to ask questions about your writing. The greatest gain that you can make as a writer is to see writing as having a larger purpose than simply fulfilling an assignment. Writing, in this course, is a both a process for learning content and a process for developing critical thinking skills.
As you move through the revision process with a given piece you will simultaneously be writing about your process of writing that piece. For example, as you revise you will be keeping track of the decisions you make and the questions that you ask that lead you from one draft to another. So, with every draft that you turn in you will also turn in a companion piece called the “Meta-Analysis.”
This meta-analysis can either be a narrative, or a web page, with pop-ups, or a draft with inserted comments that address the following:
§ While Writing (“posted” with each draft)
o How well do you understand the written comments that were provided to you? Write a summary of what these comments mean to you. What are they saying?
o What are the major content/critical thinking/writing issues that you were confronted with on this draft?
o What advice did you solicit for this draft? What was/were the source(s) of this advice? What advice were you given on this draft?
o What advice did you accept? Reject? Why?
o Provide evidence that you have listened to the ideas of others while withholding your own values, judgments and prejudices.
o How well do you understand the content/substance of what you are writing about?
o Do a self-evaluation of this new draft based on both the rubric and on your own goals.
§ After Writing (“posted” with final draft)
o What was your plan or strategy that you used to address these issues for this draft?
o How, and why, did you know those steps would work?
o Description of the major changes that you made on this draft.
o Provide a rationale for why you made these changes.
o Provide evidence that you have been “persistent” and have not just given up easily, because the answer was not readily recognizable.
o Provide evidence that you thought flexibly – that you considered various strategies for solving your problems.
o Provide evidence that you understand the criteria for quality work.
o What are your goals for your next piece? Where do those goals come from?
§ Always (“posted” at the end of each quarter)
o What are your over-arching goals for yourself as a writer? Why are these your goals?
o Provide evidence that you are becoming aware of your processes as a writer.
o Provide evidence that the revision process has allowed you to see content, in general, in a more sophisticated way.