For over 15 years, I've been reading, reflecting on, and returning the writing of high school students. There are assignments I enjoy more than others, but there are none so challenging to grade as the revision: the moment when I'm faced with the revised version of the student's work and am left with the task of discerning what has been changed and what still remains the same.
As I read a set of revisions from my freshmen a couple of weeks ago, I found myself unintentionally separating the papers into two categories: the cover-up job versus the total overhaul. Allow me to explain.
The cover-up job is the one that seeks to fix all the cosmetic issues. The commas have been adjusted; the run-ons have been remedied; the typos have been banished; the citations are now in proper MLA format. On the surface, the cover-up job is glossier and more polished than the original, but the foundation hasn't undergone any real change.
The total overhaul, on the other hand, is often virtually unrecognizable from the original draft. The thesis has shifted focus; the evidence has changed; the previous analysis has been scrubbed and replaced with new ideas. However, all the substantive changes have also resulted in some new problems: new fragments have arisen; the title of the text still isn't in italics; the apostrophes are haphazardly placed. On the surface, the total overhaul is still a bit scratched and bruised, but the foundation is sured up and ready to take on critical eyes.
I understand why my students sometimes prefer the cover-up job: it's quicker and easier to complete, and it might even gain them the extra point or two that nudges the assignment grade from a B to a B+. But my notes on those essays are always the same: "I appreciate the small changes you made, but a real revision takes courage and time. It requires your willingness to erase all the hard work you put in originally in order to create something better. It asks you to challenge yourself to think new ideas and find new ways to put them on the page. Next time, I encourage you to consider completing a total overhaul. I'll be happy to support you as you do so."
As I read those revisions two weeks ago and wrote a variation of that note on many drafts, I found myself contemplating how I've responded to the revisions life has thrown at me. Have I been willing to do the work of a total overhaul, or have I been content with a quick cover-up job? Have I complained about the time spent on a revision only to find there are now new errors to deal with, or have I been willing to take a deep breath, put my head down, and continue the process for as long as it takes?
I'm not sure what the answers are to those questions--though I am sure I've met each of life's revisions with a slightly different attitude. What I do know is that, if this is the first post you ever read on this blog, and if you saw the picture of the top of my wonderful family, you might be tempted to think that you were looking at my original draft, no changes recommended, no revisions or edits required.
But then I hope you'd go back and read the years written here. The years of heartache and pain, of joy and hope, of love and sorrow. Then you might see what I see in that picture: an incredible revision of the life story I thought I was writing. The one that ends up still a bit cracked and bruised on the outside, but the one that is constantly striving towards a firmer foundation. The one that bears the weight of too many revisions to count but that somehow is the gift I get to live every day.
And, most importantly, the one that reminds me of this: when you get to the end of one revision, it's just the start of the next.
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