Book Review: On Revision
Book Review: On Revision
The cover attractive me when I saw the book little Rewriting has crossed out and substituted by Revise, Revise, and then the writer has strikethrough it again and substituted by Second Draft and...
William Germano's book 'On Revision' attract me to read it because of its cover attractive when I saw the book little Rewriting has crossed out and substituted by Revise, Revise, and then the writer has strikethrough little again and substituted by Second Draft and then he still crossed out it until the final title On Revision. It was interesting to me. Overall, On Revision is the book that guides nonfiction writers on how to revise their writing and what they should know anyway but often they forget in the act of writing.
William denotes that revision is the main part of re-understanding what the writer tries to say and explain to the reader. It will tinker, reshape, rebuild and improve the writer’s thought through the text. By doing so, the writers needs their heart to encourage their work and accept feedback to their work, and an open mind to make any changes in their writing because they work for the reader not only for himself or herself. Revision, in other words, is the crucially important process by which writers get their work to the point that their reader is satisfied.
By reading this book, I noted three principles such as argument, architecture and audience are the main processes of revision that all writers should focus on when they rework their writing. These three principles are the key.
The argument is a unique contribution in the writing in which writers establish and defend their text through the careful use of evidence, and the evidence itself should balance accuracy and explain positively even counter argument evidence. William showed that the argument should flow in a logical order and be connected by using data sets, historical documents, fieldwork observations, and close textual reading to make it cohesive and coherent. In that meaning, William illustrates that good academic writers put more effort into describing and explaining arguments in a narrative idea rather than simplifying with a general explanation.
Good writers require time to build a prime architecture or structure in their writing. They write complicated work that develops in complicated ways and sometimes requires complicated architectures from a wide range of arguments to evidence, from voice to tone, from the language used to style, and from style to grammar. The writer should ask himself or herself about the shape of the text and the main point—and what way they can make it unique to keep readers easy to follow their text. That has a lot of questions to ask and William has provided guide questions in the book.
The last principle is to remember the audience. That is a challenging activity that the writer should carry for his or her reader. And more important to succeed at this task, we need to know who the audience is. What exactly do they already know and what do they want to know from you? The audience reads your writing because they want new information and knowledge. Thus, your job as the writer should be to bring something new and exciting to keep audiences turning from page 1 to the final page. For that reason, again, augment in which the dots are connected and smoothness is the key. If you succeed in building the architecture of your writing, you will win the reader. And to keep audience on the page, William wrote that the writer should listen to the elements in the text, not just to the word but also to the actors, the concepts, and the noises in the argument. The writers is responsible to their audience by sharing their voice and ideas which voice involves their position, perspective, attitude, and the way the writers say what the writers have to say.
Through this book, I can rate 7 on 10, not too low, not too high because I usually never rate something too high to 9 or 10. The author was good in explaining the concepts and guided the writer on what they should do and should know, providing good examples from many authors in economics, sociology, psychology and other social sciences fields. He used simple words with good structure. Generally, I recommend you to read it if you want to be a good writer.