Week 10: Summary of Nicholas Coles, "Empowering Revision" (Chapter 6)

Nicholas Coles, “Empowering Revision” (Bartholomae and Petrosky, Chapter 6):

Summary:

Coles begins by addressing the fact that inexperienced writers often do not understand the need for revision, and can see revision as “a form of punishment – especially when it has been assigned as extra work” (167).

This chapter discusses the ways in which revision has been used in Bartholomae and Petrosky’s BRW class, and how instructors have tried to move beyond making revisions at the level of the sentence or vocabulary, and toward broader, conceptual kinds of changes. This takes place more easily within the context provided by the semester-long sequence of assignments on a single topic in the BRW class; this singular focus approximates “the experience of sustained immersion in inquiry which gives our rewriting its meaning and its context” (168).

• Because the BRW’s sequence of assignments is “persistently recursive” (169), it provides a useful context for reengaging with previous readings and writings and is thus conducive to the revision process.

Revision should be seen “as part of the ongoing process of invention – that is, as a technique for producing meaning” (167), from a perspective informed by “disciplined self-awareness” (169).

Coles distinguishes between “sequential revision,” which involves occasionally citing quotes from previous assignments, and “textual revision,” which involves actively confronting problems with the “luxury of knowing that [the writer] can make changes later” (170).

“Re-seeing” must be taught through two methods: in-class reading and discussion of first drafts, and teacher commentary (170).

Coles describes a class’s discussion of multiple versions of one student’s draft on paid versus unpaid work, which shows how the students function as a kind of scholarly community that promotes the writer to consider other possible interpretations of the topic.

Through class discussion, the instructor aims to show students that writing is a process of representing an event or idea, and that it is thereby not simply a literal reconstruction of history. It is important to maintain this self-awareness throughout the revision process (177-178). Through the choices the writer makes, a narrative can be reshaped to highlight particular ideas and to de-emphasize others.

Coles notes that “at the moment of revision . . . it is the writer who must become [the] reader” and this requires attaining a sense of estrangement and distance from one’s own writing (185).

Coles discusses how teacher commentary can promote deeper kinds of revisions than those promoted by class discussion: teacher commentary can “encourage changes of mind or radical reformulations” (190), as opposed to thinking about “matters of intelligibility, proportion and emphasis” (189).

Coles argues that revision can be an empowering process if it encourages students to better understand the subject that they are engaging with.

How these ideas might inform my own teaching unit:

• I really like Coles’ point that revision can be used to transform and deepen students’ understanding of the subject matter, and I’d like to incorporate revision activities into my unit that promote this new understanding. However, I’m not sure that I could conduct the in-depth dissection of a student’s essay in the meticulous way that Coles describes, as I’ve found it to be difficult to critically deconstruct one student’s writing in front of an entire class.

• I like that time has been provided in this course for the revision process, in order to move it beyond focusing on sentence-level changes and toward a deeper re-evaluation of the writer’s argument and of the topic itself. I think I will have students produce multiple drafts of their essays both in my unit and in the classes I teach in order to realize this goal.

• Coles’ discussion of how teacher commentary can promote a reassessment of the subject being engaged with has encouraged me to find ways to ask probing and guided questions in my own feedback, to point students’ toward a new awareness of how they are constructing their ideas.