Fulwiler Outlined

Steps for Provocative Revising:

1. Limiting

2. Adding

3. Switching

4. Transforming

"Teaching writing is teaching re-writing"

-tutors can help keep a topic to a manageable size and depth

1. Limiting

"Generalization is death to good writing."

A key quality of writing is to tell the reader something they didn't already know

"Interesting" is in the details

a. Limiting Time, Place, and Action

-In a first draft, most writers generalize rather than particularize

-They evaluate their experience too early, prejudging it and telling readers in advance how to react to it.

-For second draft, take one paragraph and turn it into 2 pages

(turns general story into "telling" details that engage the reader)

-For third draft, limit the time, place, and action

(discuss a specific experience)

b. Limiting Scope and Focus

-All first drafts are first explorations

-While discussing a general topic (i.e. abortion) pick a local scope (visit local planned parenthood)

2. Adding

-Add new information and explore previous information

-Continued emphasis on local knowledge

-Introduce the idea of dialogue to localize issue

a. Adding Dialogue

-"Adding talk allows readers to see and hear a story in a dramatic rather than narrative way, increasing reader involvement and interest."

-Fiction isn't allowed-approximate recreation is okay in experimental & autobiographical writing

-Interior monologue

b. Adding Interviews

-Adding other voices (i.e. onsite interviews) helps credibility & readability

-"Helps writer argue, report, and evaluate, their arguments, reports, etc., are both more persuasive and exciting."

3. Switching

-Tense of perspective

-Provokes writers into re-seeing the content

-Often makes them reconceptualize

a. Switching Point of View

-It's only natural to write, originally, from your own perspective

-Changing pronouns or taking on a third person character gives a different perspective of your own story.

b. Switching Voice

-Changes the nature of the information as well as how it is received

(objective third to subjective first)

-Keeps the readers interest by switching to unexpected voices

4. Transforming

-Recasting a piece into a form altogether different from what it has been

(person-experience paper, letter, diary entry, formal research paper, etc.)

-"Re-seeing writing in a different form is, at the same time, generative, liberating, and fun."

-Adds possibilities to audience and purpose

4a. Transforming Research Reports

-Change basic report to "60 Minute" interview

-It is important, as a tutor, to be careful in suggesting transformation

-Many professors who assign research reports have a specific idea of what they want

4b. Reforming Narrative

-Using narrative anecdotes to change things up

-Tutors must be cautious based on assignment