I just emailed Lisa my new draft of Chapter 1. I’ll be honest — I’m not the biggest fan of revision. The major revisions I do when writing are as I write, and often my writing is done in quick bursts that I barely revise. I’m finding though, that an extended argument or long piece of writing takes so much more revision than shorter papers, especially when I have to narrow my focus and really focus on organization more. Here’s a tag cloud of the new draft:
affect al audience baoill began being blanchard bloggers blogosphere blogs boards brooke chapter class classroom collaborative commenting comments community composition considered content conversation course definition democratic develop different discourse discussion electronic essays et exigence experience filter focus form genre goals graduate including inclusive individual interactive interest internet issues journaling journals knowledge krause links literacy males media miller online open order outside paquet perhaps personal political possibilities posts potential practices private privileges public purpose questions rather readers reading remediate research rhetorical scholars share shepherd social software specifically sphere state students talk teacher tools topic understanding virtual walker ways weblogs work writing
created at TagCrowd.com
And here’s what the previous draft’s tag cloud looks like:
academic argue baoill become being believes bloggers blogosphere blogs boards brooke chapter claims class classroom comments community composition considered content conversation course critical culture definition democratic different discourse discussion essays exigence filter focus form genre goals graduate grohol habermas ideas important including individual instead interactive interesting internet journaling knowledge krause links males media miller mortensen notes online order outside pedagogy perhaps personal political posts private public publishing purpose readers reading research rhetoric richardson share shepherd sites social society software sphere state students talk teacher theory thesis tools topic understanding university used value variety view virtual walker web weblogs work writing
created at TagCrowd.com
Hey, my name got smaller! What’s up with that?!
Seriously, though, are you finding that having the cloud helps you think about revision at all? Does it help you make sense of the revisions after the fact? Etc etc. One of the things that Derek and I have mulled over, without really reaching any conclusions, is the potential use of tagclouds in the writing process…
No worries if you don’t have time to answer now, but I’d be curious to hear your thoughts when you’ve got a chance…
cgb