The Purpose of a Revision Memo
For the final draft only (meaning you will not submit this with your rough draft), you will submit an accompanying 2-page revision memo that details what changes you made during the revision process and why. The revision memo must give specific examples of how you responded to instructor and peer feedback on your rough draft; it should also describe your personal revision and editing process. The revision memo must conclude with a self-assigned letter grade and justification for the grade.
FAQ:
Q: Can you explain the assignment?
A: Simply put, the revision memo tells your readers what you changed between the rough and final drafts of your major assignment. It is a document that explains how you responded to peer and instructor feedback. Finally, it is an evaluation of your work and a reflection on what you accomplished (what you're proud of) and what can still be improved.
Q: Do you have a sample I can look at?
A: Yes (although it is a revision memo for a different writing assignment). You can find it by clicking here Download here.
Q: How important is this part of the assignment? Does it affect my grade?
A: Yes, this assignment is very important. After all, there is a reason you do not receive a grade until the end of the course! The whole idea behind 39A is to provide students with ample time to revise their work and implement what they've learned between drafts. The revision memo showcases this important work. Because revision is so important to the course and your learning, underdeveloped revision memos can significantly lower your grade.
Q: What tips do you have for writing the memo?
A: Remember to explain WHY you made the changes and HOW those changes affected the draft. In other words, an average or failing revision memo will only catalogue WHAT was changed. While it is helpful to know what you changed between drafts, your ability to analyze the effects of the changes you made demonstrates your rhetorical knowledge. In other words, explaining the WHY and the HOW reveals your understanding of how those changes affect the reader.
Beyond this important point, I recommend offering concrete examples of "BEFORE" and "AFTER" where you can walk us through the changes. Furthermore, I recommend organizing paragraphs based on specific rhetorical elements (transitions, for example, or introduction strategies). Paragraphs should feel unified and explore different areas of the draft. Avoid "dumping" all of your changes into one or two paragraphs. Treat this assignment like any other piece of persuasive writing.
Finally, the revision memo can be more informal. Feel free to explore how events outside the classroom influenced your work (having a heavy load of summer classes, for example) or describe difficulties you may have had with the readings or the assignment. You can also celebrate your accomplishments! Tell us what part of the draft you really love or what part exemplifies your unique voice or talent as a writer. The best revision memos have a rigorous rhetorical analysis balanced by thoughtful, personal reflection.
Introduction
The purpose of a revision memo is to tell readers about the changes between a rough and a final draft of an assignment or a project. According to Bardine and Fulton (pp. 9), revision memos act as reminders that the instructors need to focus their commentary on for students to revise more effectively. The current paper, therefore, is a revision memo on a recent essay called How Jim Chen is Creating an Empire Single-handedly. It is a brief article about Jim Chen, whom I consider an ideal manifestation of an entrepreneur. Areas of Revision
The most important aspect of revision was the transition from one paragraph to another. Transition, as learned, is a word or phrase that connects one idea to another. Since each paragraph can be assumed to be discussing a unique subject, the transition is necessary for readers to make connections between these paragraphs and each paragraph to the overall theme or message of the essay. The original draft produced these overall ideas, but the transition from one paragraph to another was not ideal in presenting the connection between paragraphs. Instead, paragraphs appeared as though they were independent of each other. Paragraph 2 of the draft, for instance, began with the word now, which indicates the difference between what Jim used to do and what he is doing now. This word, however, fails as a transition because it makes the second paragraph independent of the first, yet it is a continuation of the ideas that made Jim successful. In this view, the word now was eliminated. The resulting paragraph, therefore, proved to be a continuation of the first. Similarly, the last paragraph begins with the word, an indication that the contents of the paragraph are additional information to the contents of the previous paragraph. Revision, however,...
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