William GermanoOn Revision: The Only Writing That Counts (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

I stumbled on this book in my public library’s new nonfiction section. (Shout-out to public libraries!) As soon as I finished this book, I immediately ordered it for my graduate-level academic writing center. There is no higher praise – except that to read Germano’s work is not only to learn, it is to enjoy. Germano’s prose is lovingly readable, an eminently suitable compliment for a book on writing instruction. His novel contribution to the field is to insist that writing isn’t to spew out a first draft, with revising as an entirely new step. Instead, Germano sees revision as part of the writing process all along – and it doesn’t only happen one time. (He quotes Toni Morrison on her eleventh draft, and reminds us all that we have no cause to complain about only revising four times!) The book is filled with useful exercises like taking out all your important writing to reduce it to the bare bones, and see the beauty in what you’ve taken out. He also introduces the “writing W” – write your intro, write your conclusion, write the middle, revise your conclusion, revise your intro. Perhaps the best thing about Germano’s book (for my purposes, anyway) is that it is intentionally geared toward academic writing, but mandates the need for clarity and creativity in constructing and supporting your argument. I intend to make this book mandatory in my introductory and thesis-level writing courses. And I intend to use it for all of my personal writing projects as well.

I am a professor, write all the time, and I teach undergraduates and graduate students how to write.I've used this book for my own revision process, as well as in my classes to help students think about revision.It's a GREAT book! Highly recommend.

I'm glad I read a positive review of this book and decided to buy it. If you spend a lot of time writing, this book is an invaluable tool. If you are a teacher who needs ideas about how to suggest strategies for writing to your students, you should buy this book. Germano manages to break down the writing process, which inevitably involves many revisions, into an easy to understand process and helps make suggestions for ways to improve a writing project. Where this book really shines is in the suggestions for how to scaffold or outline a project and some jump starts for beginning and maintaining it (workarounds for writers block, etc.). I only wish I'd had this book when I was writing my dissertation, but I now have a book I will recommend to my future students.

Thank you for a brilliant book in its emphasis on iterating and revising as foundations for creativity. This message is lost in the haste of the current milieu which neglects process and slowness in writing, and by extension design development in the arts. We forget that the great thinkers performed much unglamorous work in crafting what seems to be inevitable outcomes.

This book is a blessing for the prospective author or for someone who is experienced.It is filled, page upon page, with practical advice and practical strategies.I learned a great deal from this very important book.Should you purchase it you will unquestionably value your consequential acquisition.

This one goes right next to Bird by Bird on my list of writing favorites. Germano's target audience is scholarly journals, but it works for any kind of writing. From a practical perspective, he provides a variety of different lenses to look through as you analyze your writing. From an artistic perspective, books on writing are my favorites since you can feel the love of language coming through. I've no idea how long this book took to put together, but so grateful he took the time to create it. No question it will become a classic inspiring readers for decades to come.

The secrets are out: The best writings are those that have been through many rounds of editing. The author wastes no time, he begins with the helpful advice that good writing ‘doesn’t just look good on the page. It sounds good’. That is because ‘Good writing has a convincing shape’. Thus, he advises writers that the best rule for revision is to read the work aloud. When we do this, we will realise how confusing our writing sounds, and will pick up the repetitions that we make, and the bits that we sound bored ourselves. A great deal of editing is not just re-writing in itself, but culling. Original drafts tend to appear like an archive of words and ideas, but we need to know that not everything we think will in fact be worth the time to record. Yet research is important. The point about research is that the end product is likely to engage other experts. In that regard, Germano reminds us that for academic writing, we must remember that footnotes exist for a reason and we should make judicious use of them. In the course of this book, we learn that the main purpose of writing is to persuade; and in this book, we learn the rudimentary rules of persuasive writing. We learn about the architecture of writing, and how the structure of our work does the hard part of persuasion. This is not a book that we read once, but a manual we refer to time and time again.

I really don't understand why this book has been praised so much by everyone for years. I understand there are not many books about revising scholarly work, but it doesn't give any groundbreaking information or anything. Still useful, and at least is cheap, but not too special in my opinion

The secrets are out: The best writings are those that have been through many rounds of editing. The author wastes no time, he begins with the helpful advice that good writing ‘doesn’t just look good on the page. It sounds good’. That is because ‘Good writing has a convincing shape’. Thus, he advises writers that the best rule for revision is to read the work aloud. When we do this, we will realise how confusing our writing sounds, and will pick up the repetitions that we make, and the bits that we sound bored ourselves. A great deal of editing is not just re-writing in itself, but culling. Original drafts tend to appear like an archive of words and ideas, but we need to know that not everything we think will in fact be worth the time to record. Yet research is important. The point about research is that the end product is likely to engage other experts. In that regard, Germano reminds us that for academic writing, we must remember that footnotes exist for a reason and we should make judicious use of them. In the course of this book, we learn that the main purpose of writing is to persuade; and in this book, we learn the rudimentary rules of persuasive writing. We learn about the architecture of writing, and how the structure of our work does the hard part of persuasion. This is not a book that we read once, but a manual we refer to time and time again.

Based on the rave reviews I was expecting a book that was practical and useful. Instead I’ve been bored to tears by 200+ pages of philosophical meanderings on revision. Not at all helpful.