I agree that revision is an important step that is often overlooked. I must admit that I am guilty of taking a quick proofreader’s glance at my own work instead of trying to flush out major errors. On the other hand, some papers I will painstakingly read over and over and I find a major difference between these works and the ones I’ve rushed through. I don’t notice the difference until I go back and read it much later, but it is definitely there.

I can testify to the lack of time and training spent on revision throughout school; it seems teachers have a schedule they must stick to and if they “waste” time with revision they won’t cover all the material. They understand that more writing will reap better writing, but many have a mental block when it comes to realizing that if students don’t know what was wrong with the first paper then they won’t know what was wrong with the tenth paper, either.

I took a creative writing course in college. We would critique each others’ stories and receive a short critique from the professor that was based more on the plot (or lack thereof) than the writing style. He often discussed recurring writing problems (placement of quote marks, wrong use of semicolons, overuse of clichés), but he left individual issues for the writer to figure out.

I always appreciated it when I received comments that told me what was wrong with a paper. I too often took the comments personally, but that only made me remember to watch for that type of mistake. I had a professor who would call out the smallest detail (bored of or bored with?), but he would take the time to explain why one was correct and one wasn’t.

Unfortunately, I have fallen out of the habit of writing. Although I miss it, I find being out of practice makes it difficult to start up again.

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-Ali

Amen to that! I never could understand why, after laboring over something onscreen to assure it was all correct, I often saw mistakes just glancing at the moving paper coming from the dot matrix printer. (At least it’s less embarrassing now that the hardcopy comes from the laser fast and face down.)

The first rule of proof-reading: Have someone else do it. I have always read over the "final" copy of everything I have written or just transcribed, and it is amazing the typos that my eye can miss. I see what I expect to see, not what is actually there. (Spell-checkers are of some assistance in countering this tendency.) Overnight is not long enough; next year works!

This holds for copy-editing too. The person who wrote something knows what is meant; a reader may not be able to figure it out. Sometimes this is due to confusing (or confused) text; sometimes it's from absence of crucial items. I've noticed this most in recent history works (fifteen years is recent, yes?) when the author thinks everyone remembers the events. It happens in popular science books, too, and especially in anything "explaining" computers! The most important first reader is the one who can ask, "What are you talking about?"

Regarding confusing or difficult text, I found it best, when writing policy or technical procedures, to have my copy gone over both by the most well versed and by the least capable persons available in that subject area. One would ask himself, “What’s wrong or missing here?” while the other might wonder, as Pogo mentions, “What does this say?”

Yes, Pogo, it’s very difficult dealing with differences in writer’s vs. readers’ ages, origins, educations, and walks of life. Don’t most people my age know what a mallet locomotive is? I evidently thought so, until a person three weeks older than myself wanted to know after reading what I had written. It can be hazardous explaining either too much, where the reader feels like he is being considered ignorant, or not explaining enough, where another reader doesn’t get the picture.

All of you raise excellent points. I should probably have noted in my column that "one is one's own worst proofreader." When I have written something that is going to be public, I almost always give it to someone else (usually my wife) to read for obvious blunders or anything that is not clear. That person almost always finds something.

A notable exception is this website. If my wife had to review everything I do here, it would be a full-time job, and I would have to pay her. Fortunately, I have a number of readers who are eager to pounce on my mistakes. Nevertheless, not everything gets caught. Just about a week ago, a student found a typo on one of the pages in the "MCCC Students' Pages" section. It had been there for several years.

I would, therefore, never declare that reviewing one's own work is a guarantee that it will be error-free. That doesn't negate the value of self-critical revision. Even though the audience is the ultimate judge of an artist's performance, the artist's self-evaluation is the best means to improve the performance.
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Rich Turner (The Curmudgeon Himself)

For that reason, teachers who thoroughly analyze and critique students' writing not only benefit their students but themselves as well.