Summary on "Revision of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers" by Nancy Sommers

In the article Revision of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers, Nancy Sommers find distinctions between writers on different levels: experienced writers and student writers. sommers conducted a series of studies in the course of three years. Her research examined the revision process of student writers and experienced adult writers to see what role revision played in their writing processes. She conducted her research on twenty freshmen student writers from Boston University/University of Oklahoma and twenty experienced adult writers (them being editors, journalists, and academics) from Boston and Oklahoma City. Each writer from both groups wrote three essays (expressive, explanatory, and persuasive) and they also had to revise each essay twice. Sommers interviewed each writer and made a transcript with a scale of concerns that each writer had. 


Ronald Barthes was also a research conductor and found that writing and speech have vital distinctions; Inexperienced writers feel the need of constant revision and experienced writers imagine a reader. In this article, Student writers believe revision is defined as "a sequence of changes in a composition-changes which are initiated by cues and occur continually throughout the writing of a work." (Sommers, 1980). But, according to Sommers, revision is located after the first or second draft. The idea of revision being at the end, gives the writer better evolution in thoughts.


With this being said, she found that student writers would become too in focused on their revision. In addition while students were revising their paper, they would "scratch out" certain things for easy replacement; Sommers found that most student writers used certain operations: deletion, substitution, addition, and reordering.  The student writers emphasized levels of revision which is being more on the specific words they were using, the phrases being written, the way the sentence is structured, and then their theme. 


The elements that were included in the experienced writers were that they envisioned a reader reading their product, their first draft would be made solely by figuring out what their argument is and trying to figure out what they want to say, and by seeking meaning in the engagement. Sommers  found that the emphasis on this rather than their organization was much more effective and stronger in comparison to student writers.


In concluding terms, Sommers found that Ronald Barthes theory of speech and writing is valid because you cant revise a speech. Sommers believes that writing should be more similar to a speech because through a speech the audience (readers) become more engaged. I'm in compliance with Sommers findings because my own personal experiences have led me to realize this. These ideas relate to the current topic in class because we're writing a paper and we're not focusing on any revision for the most part. 




Bibliography

Sommers, N. (1980). Revision strategies of student writers and experienced adult writers. College Composition and Communication, 31(4), 378-388.