Revising Like an Expert

1. Revising Like an Expert Whitmore/Stevenson: Strategies for Engineering Communication

2. Specific Revising Strategies • Leave sufficient time for revising • Take time out • Read the document critically • Revise on all levels  Content quality  Persuasive emphasis  Format conventions  Paragraph organization  Sentence structure  Word choice Whitmore/Stevenson: Strategies for Engineering Communication

3. More Revising Strategies • Revise in several sweeps • Make a paper copy • Read your document aloud  “The engineer prepared the specifications, purchased the materials, supervised the construction and reviewing the completed job.”  “The engineer preparing the budget.” • Read the document backward • Check the outline of the document Whitmore/Stevenson: Strategies for Engineering Communication

4. More Revising Strategies • Make a list of recurring problems Things to Edit for: 1) Comma Splices 2) Unnecessary Passives 3) Empty Openers 4) Vague “This” Subjects 5) General Words 6) Talkie Verbs 7) Too many qualifiers 8) “Indeed” & “Really” Whitmore/Stevenson: Strategies for Engineering Communication

5. More Revising Strategies • Find a reader • Use the buddy system • Rewrite the introduction • Carefully review edited sentences  “Abracadabra Incorporated now has ownership of 60% of the stock.”  “Abracadabra Incorporated now owns of 60% of the stock.” • Break the so-called “rules” when appropriate Whitmore/Stevenson: Strategies for Engineering Communication

6. Perfectionism and Revising • Set clear limits on the amount of time and energy you will invest in editing. • Focus more attention on the high-level task of revising rather than on the low-level task of editing. • Ask readers to clarify their reactions to documents that you have written, noting the differences between your assumptions and their actual responses. Whitmore/Stevenson: Strategies for Engineering Communication

7. Boredom and Revising • Increase the challenge of the task by focusing on more complex elements of the task (i.e., revising to address readers’ expectations rather than editing for correct word choice). • Increase motivation by considering the task as a small part of something with a more important purpose. • Do the least interesting tasks first and save the more interesting tasks for later. • Ask whether the boredom is actually masking a difficulty with the tasks. • Accept that not everything is interesting and set up a system to help return your attention to the task when it wanders (e.g., use a checklist). Whitmore/Stevenson: Strategies for Engineering Communication

8. The Problem with English Spelling Whitmore/Stevenson: Strategies for Engineering Communication

9. Spelling Checkers How did the following errors get into documents that were spell checked? • gurantee  guarantee • effiecient  efficient • inexspensive  inexpensive • farady  Faraday • indepenent  independent • accross  across Whitmore/Stevenson: Strategies for Engineering Communication

10. Grammar Checkers Whitmore/Stevenson: Strategies for Engineering Communication