Giving Them What They Want: Student Views of Revision.

To elicit some written comments about student views of revision, an English professor surveyed about 100 students in several different composition classes regarding what they would do if given the opportunity to revise a class paper. More than 80% of the responses explicitly mentioned errors in spelling, mechanics, or grammar. Several students explicitly equated revision with editing. Students who tried to see revision as something more than mere editing met with varying degrees of success. Many students seemed to tie revision closely to teacher requests. In a related study, over 400 students rated the "helpfulness" of a variety of teacher comments. Findings offer additional evidence that students want to do what they think teachers want them to do. Students preferred teacher comments that told them just what to do and how to do it. Students might see revision in hierarchical terms--until they correct the errors pointed out by the teacher, they are not going to worry about trying to improve the content or organization of their ideas. The challenge for teachers is to decide what they really want and then let students know what it is. (Contains a diagram illustrating a hierarchy of needs.) (RS)