Mackenzie Casey

Professor Gardiakos

4.2.20

ENC 1102

Reading Response for Nancy Sommers

In the article, “​Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers”

Nancy Sommers discusses the experiment she withheld and analyzed freshman college students

as well as experienced writers. The study was based around revision and how both groups

visualized and utilized revision. In order to study the revisions made for each group, she

analyzed an essay and the changes that were made from their writing. She noticed very different

methods come from each group, which was something I had suspected being how very different

types of writers these people are.

Throughout her research, after analyzing the student writers Sommers was able to

identify a very common theme amongst all of them. She was able to see that they all carried a

common theme of changing things around/ taking things out until they fit the guidelines of the

paper and things seemed to flow properly enough. This wasn’t neccissarily something they were

doing out of laziness; it was strictly something that they had been taught in the past. They were

taught to cross out words and add them until your paper sounds efficient and fits requirements.

“The predominant concern in these definitions is vocabulary. The students understand the

revision process as a rewording activity.(381)” This is not something that they have decided
themselves but something that they have been taught and were practicing throughout their

duration of schooling.

For the experienced writers, they have an opposite method of the student writers. They

focus mainly on rewriting. This is a recurring theme amongst all of the writers, they all strongly

believe in the theory of rewriting their papers. They believe it benefits the paper, because they

can see what they don’t like and add things they have thought of until they believe it is perfect.

They continuously rewrite their papers until there is nothing left to change. “The experienced

writers describe their primary objective when revising as finding the form or shape of their

argument.(384)” This is a very different take then the student writers, who don’t rewrite and just

cross out words and change things around. The experienced writers take more time to fix the

detail and structure of their writing.

I view revision as a very important step of writing, it is key to making sure your paper

flows and makes sense and that you have met all requirements. I believe Sommers has conducted

a very accurate study. A lot of student writers do revise in this way. I believe that most people

my age will not rewrite their whole papers, including myself. We were never taught that way in

school, the idea of changing around words and phrases and making sentences sound better and

crossing off all steps of requirements was what was engraved in our minds. I feel my revision

steps are more mature, however they are not and they never have been to the full extent of the

experienced writers.
 When I am revising, I read each paragraph several times to understand if it flows and I

change my words and sentences to reach requirements and guidelines. I then will reread my

whole paper until I believe that it as a whole flows together and makes sense and is to what I

believe is up to parr. I believe the professional writers obviously have the most successful pattern

of revision, and that will be something I will take into consideration from here on out. I believe

that Nancy Sommers, has written a very well-developed study that really shows the differences

in revision and what she believes is more effective.