Understand the Difference Between Revision and Editing

There is a clear distinction between revising ideas and editing conventions. Students need to understand the difference so that they know what to do during the two very different stages.

Revision makes the piece SOUND a whole lot better–which addresses the traits of ideas, organization, voice, word choice, and sentence fluency. Editing makes the piece LOOK better (conventions). Because kids already confuse the difference between revision and editing, the more you can do to separate the two, the better. Announcing that writers are to “revise and edit today” will only continue to mislead students as to the two different roles these stages play in improving a piece.

What Is the Difference Between Revising and Editing?

Revision involves making major changes to a document’s content, structure, and/or organization. Editing
involves making sentence-level changes.

When a writer revises, he or she will usually...

Write and rewrite entire sections of the paper for the purpose of improving the content;

Focus on the paper’s controlling ideas and the cohesion of ideas; and

Add, change, and/or delete large sections of the paper.

You are revising if you are...

Modifying your controlling ideas, especially your thesis or central argument;

Adding new information;

Moving around paragraphs or parts of paragraphs;

Removing unnecessary information; and/or

Changing your paper’s focus.

When a writer edits, he or she will usually...

Edit only after the paper has undergone major content and structural changes;

Focus primarily on sentence-level issues like sentence variety and word choice; and

Rearrange the sentence order of a particular paragraph or the word order of a particular
sentence.

You are editing if you are...

Deleting unnecessary words;

Rearranging words in sentences; and/or

Substituting less precise or effective words with more precise and effective ones.