TA - What is Revision?

Revision:
1. the act or work of revising.
2. a process of revising.
3. a revised form or version, as of a book.

I seriously thought of being cheeky and using a similar answer in class (thanks Dictionary.com) when we saw this question on the board (and thus be rebellious, as only real BYU rebels can do it). Granted, the real question was implied, and I assumed it was along the lines of "What is your idea of revision in relation to you becoming a better writer?" That question is a bit different than the first.

This is what I came up with in the first 5 minutes of class: "Revision, as the word means, is the 'looking again' at something, in this case a paper. You first do the paper so that you can see it as a whole, then you go through the paper making corrections and edits. The purpose of it is to make your paper function better as a whole. When you first write a paper you tend to write in blocks of ideas; revising the paper allows you to make the flow more organic. Revision is a terrific tool/tactic, since you will almost always make 'dumb' mistakes the first time through a paper."

Nicole then let us know what we'll be doing for our next "paper," only a few class days away: We're revising our first papers to make a spanking good one. Apparently, a part of Revision is not only to clean up and edit - but to cut from your paper. At this point I had to ask myself: "How can you cut out a part of your paper without feeling some semblance of shame?"

Logical Ben: Well, you cut things out if (A) the audience doesn't care, (B) you are overly redundant, or (C) you have parts that are extremely weak. Sounds great, right?
Emotional Ben: But wait! This is still your paper! Didn't you spend a lot of time on this?
Logical Ben: No, no, don't think of it that way. You are making your creation something even better than it was in the past. This is for the best; your paper won't feel a thing.

Once again, the question must be posed: "How can you cut out a part of your paper - your beautiful, altruistic, helpless paper - without feeling some semblance of shame?"

Emotional Ben: Face it. You can't.