- Prior to this phrase, Brock Dethier states that “revision is a sign of failure”, ultimately arguing that some people say they have a negative feeling when they are given criticism or feedback on their work and told to do some revision. Some people want their first draft to be their last because they’ve put so much effort into simply getting the assignment done and receiving a grade, whereas they haven’t really taken the time to actually read over their work and look for ways to make their writing even better. When Brock states “For most of us revision is the only road to success”, he argues that not only professional writers, but ordinary people usually tend to spend more time on finding ways to improve their work rather than officially completing the work.
- Revision can be compared to the process of doing any task for a certain period of time. You need to spend some time on working on your writing, but sometimes if you spend too much time, it can lead to repetitiveness and ultimately can make your writing bad.
- “Good writing is essentially rewriting”: This statement by Donald Murray is very similar to what Dethier was arguing in his “Revising Attitudes”. Murray states that most writers tend to revise their own work many times even before realizing the fact that they are. As he states that the writers are revising every time they delete a phrase or sentence and edits a paragraph, they are essentially improving their own work as they go.
Identity, Rhetoric & Propaganda in the "Fake News" Era
ENG 2100: JMWA f18 Baruch College
