The Craft of Revision, Fifth Anniversary Edition

Cover
Title
Statement
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Ch 1: Rewrite Before Writing
Introduction
Why Do We Resist Rewriting?
An Invitation: Write with Me
How Do You Find Something to Write About?
Brainstorming
Interview Yourself
Circle the Subject
Try Out Lines
Play with Images
Make Connections
What If
Be Specific
End-of-Chapter Interviews
Interview with a Published Writer: Elizabeth Cooke
Ch 2: How to Get the Writing Done: Tricks of the Writer's Trade
Introduction
Nulla Dies Sine Linea
Establish Achievable Deadlines
Break a Writing Assignment into Small Daily Tasks
Know Tomorrow’s Task Today
Keep a Daybook
Rehearse
A Writer's Place
Ch 3: Reading for Revision
Introduction
Test Readers
Where Do We Find Test Readers?
What Test Readers Do
The Danger of Test Readers
Setting the Reader's Agenda
Reading Writing in Process
Techniques of Responding
Methods of Reader Response
Ch 4: Rewrite with Focus
Introduction
Elements of Focus
Selection
Emphasis
Clarity
Premature Focusing
How to Focus
The List
The Discovery Draft
What if I Don't Discover in My Discovery Draft?
How Do I Make an Instructor's Idea My Own?
Understand the Assignment
Interview the Assignment
Rewrite by Context
Connect
How Do I Make the Boss's Idea My Own?
Focus Repair
Diagnosis: No Focus
Testing Your Focus
If the Diagnosis Is Positive
Say One Thing
How Can I Find That One Thing?
But What about All the Other Good Stuff?
Frame Your Meaning
What to Leave Out
What to Keep In
Set the Distance
When to Use Close-ups
When to Step Back
When to Zoom
Interview with a Published Writer: Christopher Scanlan
Ch 5: Rewrite with Genre
Introduction
Choosing the Genre
Genre Provides Meaning
The Five-Paragraph Theme
The Unshaped Material
Diagnosis: Ineffective Genre
Genre Communicates Meaning
Discovering the Genre for the Draft
The Internal Genre
The External Genre
The Essential Narrative
Narrative's Clock
Questions Answered; Questions Asked
Walking Beside the Reader
Reading the Listener
Entertaining the Reader
Design Your Own Genre
The Discovered Genre
The Invented Genre
Create an Effective Design
What Is Saved
What Is Discarded
Case History of a Student Writer: Maureen Healy
Ch 6: Rewrite with Structure
Introduction
Diagnosis: Disorder
Answer the Reader's Questions
Outline After Writing
Expose the Structure of a Draft
Outline After Writing
Adapt the Structure
Redesign the Structure
Interview with a Student Writer: Kathryn S. Evans
Ch 7: Rewrite with Documentation
Introduction
Diagnosis: Too Little Information
The Writer's Eye
The Importance of Information
Provides Reader Satisfaction
Establishes Authority
Produces Lively Writing
The Qualities of Effective Information
Accuracy
Specificity
Significance
Fairness
The Basic Forms of Information
Where Do You Find Information?
Memory
Observation
Internet
Interview
Library
Attribution
Writing with Information
The Craft of Selection
Style
Interview with a Student Writer: Jennifer Bradley-Swift
Ch 8: Rewrite to Develop
Introduction
Diagnosis: Superficial
Techniques of Development
Develop with Information
Develop with Authority
Develop with Clarity
Put Meaning in Context
Rewriting Starts with Rereading
Read Fragments
Read What Isn’t Written
Problem: No Territory
Solution
Problem: No Surprise
Solution
Problem: No Writer
Solution
Problem: No Respect
Solution
Problem: Too Little
Solution
Problem: Too Much
Solution
Problem: Too Private
Solution
Problem: No Significance
Solution
Problem: No Connection
Solution
Rewrite within the Draft
Emphasize the Significant
Pace and Proportion
Length
Ch 9: Rewrite by Ear
Introduction
What Is Voice?
Hearing Your Own Writing
Diagnosis: No Voice
Hearing the Writer's Voice
Hearing Your Own Voice
Your Language or Mine?
The Importance of Voice
The Expected Voice
The Formal Voice
The Informal Voice
Genre Voices
The Voice of the Draft
Case History of a Professional Writer: Donald M. Murray
Ch 10: Rewrite with Clarity
Introduction
Twenty Ways to Unfinal a Draft
The Attitude of the Editing Writer
Writing Is Editing
Imagine the Reader
My Ear Is a Better Editor Than My Eye
The Draft Will Tell You What It Needs
Welcome Surprise
Language Is Alive and Changing
Accept Limitations
Establish Achievable Standards
Interview Your Draft
Solutions to Common Editing Problems
How Do I Recognize Surprise?
How to Read to Edit
How to Edit a Boring Draft so It Isn’t
The Craft of Editing
The Tools of Revision
A Student Case History: Roger LePage Jr.
The Student's Original Draft
A Professional's Editing
The Student’s Reaction to Professional Editing
The Student’s Revision
Ch 11: The Craft of Letting Go
Introduction
Why Writers Don’t Let Go
Fear of Exposure
Obsession with Correctness
Continuing Discovery
How to Let Go
Deadlines
Collaboration
Decreased Discovery
When You Let Go
Readers Make the Draft Theirs
Free to Write
Index