The first attempt of even the most talented artists, musicians, and writers is seldom a masterpiece, If you consider your drafts as dress rehearsals (彩排), or tryouts, revising will seem a natural part of the writing process.
What is the purpose of the dress rehearsals and the out-of-town previews that many Broadway shows go through? The answer is adding, deleting, replacing, reordering, in other words revising. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Phantom of the Opera underwent such a process.
When Lloyd Webber began writing in 1984, he had in mind a funny, exciting production. However, when Phantom opened in London in 1986, the audience saw a moving psychological love story set to music. The musical had. undergone several revisions due, in part, to problems with costuming and makeup (戏服和化妆). For instance, Lloyd Webber rewrote some of the music because the Phantom’s makeup prevented the actor from singing certain sounds.
When you revise, you change aspects of your work in response to your evolving purpose, or to include fresh ideas or newly discovered information.
Revision is not just an afterthought that gets only as much time as you have at the end of an assignment. instead, it is a major stage of the writing process, and writers revise every step of the way. Even your decision to switch. topics while prewriting is a type of revising. However. don’t make the mistake of skipping the revision stage that follows drafting. Always make time to become your own audience and view your dress rehearsal, so to speak. Reviewing your work in this way can give you ___60___ new ideas.
Revising involves ___61___ the effectiveness and appropriateness of all aspects of your writing, making your purpose more clearly, and refocusing or developing the facts and ideas you present. When you revise, ask yourself the following questions, keeping in mind the audience for whom you are writing: Is my main idea or purpose ___62___ throughout my draft? Do I ever lose sight of my purpose? Have I given my readers all of the _63___ that is, facts, opinions, inferences—that they need in order to understand my main idea? Finally, have I included too many ___64___ details that may confuse readers?