Responding to Sommers

"The Experienced writers see their revision process as a recursive process-a process with significant recurring activities-with different levels of attention and different agenda for each cycle." (Sommers, 386) The looming question after reading this article stems from the above passage: How does one transition from a novice writer to an experienced writer? Is it simply the amount of time one has been writing? The amount one has written in a lifetime? Is there a specific process that exists that moves a writer from novice to experienced? according to the case study Sommers completed, "student" writers look at revisions as a process of strengthening vocabulary and deleting words or fixing grammar, but not massive overhauls. Students are looking at the economy of time. They think about how quickly they can make a few surface level changes to satisfy the requirements of a second or third draft. Essentially they write one draft and then tinker with it a little bit. I immediately thought about my own classroom. What do I do to foster the idea that deep level changes in writing are important. How can I change my process having read Sommers' article? First thing I did was get rid of the peer review worksheet. Next thing I did was ask the class what the word revision means to them. This was an enlightening few minutes. For an overwhelming majority of students the revision process has never been made important. They look at as a box to check in the writing process to fulfill a requirement for the teacher. During our group time, I mentioned to my group that I do not remember learning how to do true revisions to essays. I am sure I learned at some point, but I do not remember when I realized that the revision process was, as Sommers points out, recursive. This is the crux of revisions. There has to be a way to show students that rough drafts are meant to be mounds of play-doh, from which they shape into a final product. It is not the final product minus a pinch of reshaping. The idea is not the mound, the draft is the mound. This is where I am now. In another few weeks my students will begin the essay writing process over again. I need to show students the importance of reordering and addition, not simply deletion, or word choice corrections. If only Sommers' article had included the magic pill of answers.