October 31, 2008

There are three steps to revising your work. These steps are identifying possible improvements you could make in your draft, deciding which of the possible improvements to make, and making the selected changes. While all are necessary to produce your best work, the third step, making the selected changes, is no different than the process of writing your draft and therefore is not included in this section. The two parts of identifying possible improvements are checking and reviewing. Chapter 14 lays out guidelines for both of these activities. The second step of deciding which of the possible improvements to make is also included in the chapter.

Guidelines to follow for checking your draft yourself are as follows.

• Check from your readers' point of view
• Check from your employer's point of view
• Distance yourself from your draft
• Read your draft more than once, changing your focus each time
• Use computer aids to find (but not to cure) possible problems
• Consider the stakeholders' perspective

Guidelines to follow for having your draft reviewed are as follows.

• Discuss the objectives of the communication and the review
• Build a positive interpersonal relationship with your reviewers or writer
• Rank suggested revisions--and distinguish matters of substance from matters of taste
• Explore fully the reasons for all suggestions
• Use computer aids for reviewing in a reader-centered way
• Review from the stakeholders' perspective

While the guidelines for checking your own work is more obviously steps you will perform on your own work, the guidelines for reviewing can be used whether you are the reviewer or the one being reviewed. Ultimately, what I took from the information is making sure your writing is useable and persuasive can be more important than the spelling and grammar, since most of these guidelines focus on the point of view your reader will use when reading. This is not to say spelling and grammar can be thrown aside, because surely a piece of writing draped with errors will distract from both the usability and the persuasiveness. It is important, however, to not get caught up on the detailed things and view the writing as a whole and try to determine where whole ideas are ineffective and intended meaning is lost.

Once possible areas for revision are highlighted, you have the task of performing the revisions. Sometimes you will not have time to do all of the suggested revisions, you may have received advice from multiple reviewers that contradict each other, and you may even have received suggestions from someone such as a boss you think will weaken the effectiveness of the writing.

The following guidelines help deal with these issues in the revising stage.

• Adjust your effort to the situation
• Make the most significant revisions first
• Be diplomatic
• To revise well, follow the guidelines for writing well

Taking the time to do this step, and do this step well, will greatly improve your writing. Deadlines sometimes get in the way of making all the possible changes, but that is why a timeline of your writing process is so important in the beginning of the project.

Chapter 15 gives guidelines for testing your draft. I had a hard time distinguishing this process from the reviewing step of identifying areas of improvement, but perhaps it is not meant to be a separate process. I suppose I can see how testing is more specific than reviewing because testing is done with an entire process of planning, conducting, and interpreting. Testing your draft, like the entire writing process, goes to improve both usability and persuasiveness of your communication.

The following are guidelines for conducting a test of your draft.

• Establish your test objectives
• Pick test readers who truly represent your target readers
• Focus on usability: ask your test readers to use your draft the same way your target reader will
• Focus on persuasiveness: learn how your draft affects your readers' attitudes
• Interview your test readers after they have read and used your draft
• Avoid biasing your test results
• Interpret your test results thoughtfully
• Test early and often
• With communications for readers in other cultures, choose test readers from the culture
• Obtain informed consent from your test reader

By performing the testing process throughout drafting, you can ensure you are staying focused and not putting too much effort into something that will be ineffective. What I have taken from both these chapters and the class as a whole is to not become too attached to your writing. When constructing technical writing, you are not writing for you. You are always writing for the reader, and you should take every opportunity to change the piece to accommodate what will work best for your reader. Your ideas will not be lost but better received.