In an earlier post, Revising By Grammar, we looked at the construction of the opening and closing sentences of a short descriptive paragraph. The writer, a student of mine, succeeded in capturing some fine images from her memory of a trip years ago to Thailand. As is ever the case with first drafts though, discoveries …
Tag Archives: Revision
Revising By Grammar
It’s all well and good to claim that a little knowledge of grammar can help in revising a draft, but how about a demonstration? Here is a first draft from a student who is envisioning a short piece about her travels to northern Thailand a number of years ago: Three Hill Tribe men and a …
Freewriting, Then Revising
As an exercise in freewriting, a student of mine recently wrote this droll little sentence about two birds she imagined sitting, for quite some time as it happens, on the branch of a tall oak tree: After fifteen minutes of waiting for Marty to start building a nest Clare took it upon herself to gather …
Another Short Revision
In an earlier post (Got Five Minutes?), I suggested that a quick revision of a single sentence can be a good exercise in clarifying the first thoughts we put down on paper or screen. The difficulty many of us have in moving from mind-work to word-work—I know what I want to say, but I just …
Got Five Minutes?
Read and Revise One Sentence
In the study of music, an étude is a short composition written to practice technique. Musicians play études to exercise their skill and improve their proficiency. Writers can do something similar by revising one short sentence for a few minutes over and over, knowingly changing structure and design to see the different effects that result. …
Continue reading “Got Five Minutes?
Read and Revise One Sentence”