ABSTRACT
A section written by Doug Downs in Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies(2015) is titled “Revision is Central to Developing Writing” (p. 66), a statement with which all writers and writing teachers are likely to agree. This chapter traces varying perspectives on what is involved in revision and discusses what research and theory have revealed about the ways that writers, especially student writers, revise and sometimes resist revising. It emphasizes the importance of teaching and demonstrating revision and suggests ways for teachers to encourage students to revise in ways that develop and shape the meaning of their texts and result in effective pieces of writing. Revival of classical rhetoric in the 1960s led to a renewed interest in Aristotle’s rhetorical principles, particularly his concern for audience and purpose, adapted for written rather than oral discourse.
