Recursive Writing vs. Linear Writing

There are different ways to teach students how to write and how to revise. The purpose of this paper is to explain the differences in two popular revision styles taught in the United States. It will contain research of Nancy Sommers; as well it will contain some findings of my own research. My research was an attempt to shed light on the revision processes of my classmates in order to compare my findings with Nancy Sommers findings from her student research.

Nancy Sommers published Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers in 1980. Her purpose was to perform a study of revision styles. She used a case study approach in gathering her information and organized two groups of twenty writers. The first group was composed of experienced writers who held different professions including journalists, editors, and academics. The other group was composed of students in their first semester of composition. She then had all forty writers compose three essays each, the subjects then had to rewrite each paper twice.

Sommers interviewed each subject after the completion of the final draft of each paper. Each writer

was then asked to give revision suggestions for the other authors. “The essays were analyzed by counting and categorizing the changes made.”(137) This allowed her to gather information about each authors’ revision process. She used this information to compare the differences between the experienced writers and the student writers.

For my study, I interviewed my fellow classmates; since we are students in our first semester of composition. I composed a set of questions to gather information on each student’s process for revision. This information will allow me to compare my findings with those of Sommers.

The recursive form of revision is similar to the linear model. It doesn’t have a set time for each step to be carried out. Instead it allows students to rethink and change ideas while writing the paper. “The experienced writers see their revision process as a recursive process – a process with significant recurring activities – with different levels of attention and different agenda for each cycle.” (143) This process allows writers to start over again to express their meaning and develop how they want to organize their thoughts. “Students need to seek dissonance of discovery, utilizing in their writing, as the experienced writers do, the very difference

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