Student vs. Experienced Writers

In Nancy Sommers, “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers”, she compares students with experienced writers. In doing this the point of view that shifts from the students to the experienced writers on the topic of revision is very interesting. On one hand the experienced writers tried to find form to their writings and tried to look for a sense of engagement. The student writers did not enjoy the idea of revision and would rather call it rewording. This is because one of the main problems that student writers came across was their use of vocabulary, they did not use it to expand their ideas. Therefore, when it came to revision many of the students found themselves rewording their work and finding new words to put in place of others. I feel that I resonate with these students because I too feel that when I go back and revise my work I generally find myself rewording. Saying the same thing in a sentence but switching the organization of it around to create a different point. Or finding a more sophisticated or different word because it creates a different impact on the reader. However, on the flip side, Sommers says that the experienced writers do the opposite of this and tend to use their vocabulary to expand their ideas and persuade readers. I do, however, in the end agree with Sommer’s final words “Good writing disturbs: it creates dissonance. Students need to seek the dissonance of discovery, utilizing in their writing, as the experienced writers do, the very difference between writing and speech- the possibility of revision (387).” I acknowledge this final sentence because as a student writer I am able to create new ideas and so I need to use this capability  to persuade writers using vocabulary just like experienced writers do. If I change this into a habit such as experienced writers then my view of revision shifts because instead of rewording sentence structures and vocabulary it comes naturally so then I can focus on how it persuades and engages the readers such as experienced writers do.