Spring 2020: Mastering Revision

Revision is one of the most challenging parts of the writing process. How do we dig deeper and color in the edges to make our writing more evocative? How do we use the senses to make it come to life? What would happen if we approached the same material from a different point of view (third person as opposed to first-person say)? In this four-week class, we will take an editor’s perspective on polishing our work.
The class will be structured as a mini-workshop and we will devote most of our time to peer reading and critique with an emphasis on elements of developmental editing as well as line editing. We will focus on refinement of style, structure, and content. Sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph, we will sharpen our tools for revision. Strong editorial feedback will be shared to help each writer shape and strengthen the material. Additional light reading will be assigned for class discussion but mostly we will concentrate on personal work.

Students should have a short prose piece they consider done (or close to) done. This can be excerpted or complete works of fiction or nonfiction