Poor planning early in the writing process often shows up later
in the form of redundant information in several body paragraphs
of the paper.
A revision checklist won't help. Solving the problem of redundant
information is a major reorganization job. It requires grunt
work.
Note, please, that if students have identical ideas in their introductory
paragraphs and body paragraphs, the problem is not poor planning,
but failure to understand the essay
structure.
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To see if they have redundant information, students lay body
paragraphs 1 and 2 in front of them. They read the first sentence
of body paragraph 1. Then they read body paragraph 2 looking for
another place where they said the same thing.
If they don't find any similar sentences, they read the second
sentence of body paragraph 1. Then they read all of body paragraph
2 looking for ideas that are similar to that sentence. They have
to read in that back-and-forth fashion through the entire first
and second paragraphs.
Put repeated ideas in 1 place
If writers find ideas that are appear in both paragraphs, they
have to remove those ideas from one paragraph and put
them in the other. It doesn't matter which paragraph they
choose as their dump site. All students must do is group the related
ideas together.
When they finish body paragraphs 1 and 2, there should be no ideas
in the two paragraphs that overlap.
Repeat the process
Students must repeat the process until they have compared
each body paragraph with all the others. If they have three
body paragraphs they must compare:
-
Paragraphs 1 and 2.
-
Paragraphs 1 and 3.
-
Paragraphs 2 and 3.
At that point, they will have all the related ideas grouped by
paragraphs.
Get rid of repetition
Finally, students must get rid of repeated ideas. If they
have one idea in a paragraph three times, they need to get rid
of two of the sentences or sections that repeat.
Such major reorganization of draft paper is a tedious, time-consuming
part of the writing process. Only the most dedicated writers will
do it even once, no matter how much their teacher talks about the
importance of revision.
A better alternative: avoidance
Students can almost always avoid having to do major revision
of the organization of a paper by making sure their writing
skeleton™ points don't overlap.
You must convince students to revise in the pre-composition
stages of the writing process. If you can convince students
to do that, you'll see a great improvement in the organization of
student essays.
How do you convince students to revise as they go?
Importance of trial and error
Some students will try revising during the planning stages of
writing because the teacher said to do it. Most students, I fear,
have to learn the importance of planning-stage revision the hard
way. They either:
-
Write disorganized essays on which they get a failing grade,
or
-
Write disorganized essays from which they are saved from failure
by being walked through the tedious process described above.
As much as it grieves me to say it, no amount of inspired teaching
is ever quite as effective at developing writing skill as personal
trial and error.
The remaining two problems that writers have to address during
the revision stage concern development
and coherence. For those issues, students can again use a
revision checklist developed from their writing process tools
and strategies.
