Bedford Guide Chapter 2: "The Writing Process"

Main Points:

Writing is not linear; writers go through a process of writing that includes the steps listed in the Longman guide. The big difference between this text and Longman is the description of the revising process, which is split into two stages in the Bedford Guide, global revision and sentence-level revision. When a writer is doing global revisions, they are making major changes to the overall structure of the piece. This is where writers move paragraphs and cut out or expand parts of a draft in order to clarify points or alter the flow of the entire draft. Sentence level revision is when a writer makes changes in word choice and the structure of sentences in order to clarify that individual sentence or paragraph. Like Longman, the Bedford guide stresses that writing coaches must be able and prepared to assist writers no matter what stage of the writing process they are in at that moment. They must also be able to identify the stage that the writer is in so that they can be effective.

What I Got:

“Please edit my paper” may mean, “help me make global or sentence-level revisions” to a writer who does not have the vocabulary to talk about writing, which many writers coming into a center will not have.

Questions:

What are some ways of figuring out what stage the writer needs help in?

How do you direct a writer away from editing if they are trying to fix grammar and really need global revisions or more work drafting?

What a beginning coach needs:

The information in this is essentially the Cliffnotes version of the information in Chapter 2 of the Longman Guide. The exercises, however, seem to be useful for a beginning coach, especially the exercise that suggests that a beginning coach go to the writing center as a student writer and be on the other side of at least two sessions. This can give the new coach an idea of what it feels like and what may or may not work in certain situations.

Best For:

Like the last chapter of this guide, I don’t know if there’s a lot of information in this that a more experienced tutor would be interested in, because the subject is covered in a much more in-depth way in the Longman guide. The more practical approach of this book does, however, give a beginning tutor a better idea of the kinds of problems that occur with the different stages of the writing process.