Week 13 — Readings & Resources · Revision & Style

Course: English Composition (ENGL 1A) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Lindgren
Objective covered: Objective 7 — Revise globally and edit locally for style.

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser, the same way you'd open a YouTube link. Nothing needs to be downloaded, and there is nothing to buy.

This week's load is deliberately light: 3 short readings + 1 video, grouped by the week's two ideas (re-seeing vs. sharpening), plus one optional free reference. Read or watch one item per group and you're ready for the quiz; do all of them and you'll be very comfortable. Total time is roughly 35–45 minutes if you do everything, far less if you pick one per group.

Reading order that matches the lecture: ① global revision vs. local editing (re-see, then polish) → ② concision (cut the deadwood) → ③ sentence variety & emphasis (make it move) → ④ active vs. passive voice (a tool, not an error).

A habit to start now: before you call a draft "done," do two separate passes — a global pass (Is the argument in the right order? Is anything missing?) and only then a local pass (cut the wordiness, vary the sentences, end strong). And try to cut any paragraph by about 25% — the words are almost always there.

① Global Revision vs. Local Editing

Maps to Lecture Segment 2. Revision re-sees the big stuff — structure, thesis, argument, evidence; editing fixes sentences and surface. The line to carry: big pass first, small pass second — and you can't do both at once.

Reading — "Revising & Editing" (Excelsior OWL)
🔗 https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/revising-and-editing/
Why it's assigned: the cleanest plain-language split of the two jobs — "revising is about your content, while editing is about sentence-level issues and typos" — with a big-picture → mid-view → up-close revision process that matches the reverse-outline move from class. (Excelsior OWL is a free, college-run writing lab.)
⏱ ~7 min

② Concision — Cut the Deadwood

Maps to Lecture Segment 3. Concise writing isn't the fewest words — it's the strongest ones, with the deadwood fired. The target from class: try to cut a passage by about 25% without losing meaning.

Reading — "Concision" (Purdue OWL)
🔗 https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/conciseness/index.html
Why it's assigned: the standard, no-nonsense guide to cutting wordiness — replacing vague words with strong ones, interrogating every word, and combining sentences — from the most widely used writing lab in the country. Its line is the one we used in class: concise writing "does not always have the fewest words, but it always uses the strongest ones." Watch how each "wordy → concise" pair drops the word count and says more.
⏱ ~8 min

③ Sentence Variety & Emphasis — Make It Move

Maps to Lecture Segment 5. Mix short and long sentences, vary your openings, and put the idea you care about at the emphatic end, in the main clause.

Reading — "Sentence Variety" (Purdue OWL)
🔗 https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/sentence_variety/index.html
Why it's assigned: short, concrete strategies for the exact moves we did at the board — alternating short and long sentences for rhythm and emphasis, and varying sentence openings so prose doesn't drone. The "B.B. King" and "Super Bowl" before/after sets show how much one structural change can do.
⏱ ~7 min

④ Active vs. Passive Voice — A Tool, Not an Error

Maps to Lecture Segment 6. Default to active (clearer, shorter, names who acted); reach for passive on purpose — when the doer is unknown, irrelevant, or rightly de-emphasized.

Video — "Revision Techniques | Rhetoric & Composition | Study Hall" (ASU + Crash Course)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahn0Dp2tUnQ
Why it earns the click: a lively, first-year-composition-specific tour of revising as re-seeing — letting go of the idea that there's one right draft, and reworking structure, sentences, and style. From the Study Hall Rhetoric & Composition series we've used all term. Pair it with the active/passive reading below.
⏱ ~10 min

Reading — "Active and Passive Voice" (Purdue OWL)
🔗 https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/index.html
Why it's here: the clear rules on when active wins (almost always — it's shorter and names who acted) and when passive is the right choice (the doer is unknown or beside the point). The key takeaway from class: passive isn't "wrong," it's a tool you choose deliberately.
⏱ ~6 min

Optional one-stop reference (free online text)

If you'd like one optional reference to skim, the OpenStax Writing Guide with Handbook keeps its full text free to read online — a reputable, currently-available college writing reference whose later chapters cover revision, style, clarity, and editing.
🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/writing-guide
Why it's here: a free, returnable reference for the whole course — entirely optional this week. (Linked as a free reference; this course makes no open-license or copyright claim about it.)

Pick-one quick path (≈15 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these two and you'll be ready for the quiz:
1. Read "Concision" (group ②) — the cut-the-deadwood moves are the heart of the quiz.
2. Watch "Revision Techniques | Study Hall" (group ④) — re-seeing and reshaping in ten minutes.

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell Prof. Lindgren and use the free OpenStax reference above in the meantime. Nothing here is hosted by our course — these are all external resources, linked, not reproduced.