Revising for Your Lay Audience: A Case Study of an L1 Expert and Three L2 Graduate Students

The ability to revise texts to meet the needs and expectations of the target audience requires sustained and deliberate practice. Revision becomes more complex when working on somebody’s else text and in a second language. Against this background, we conducted an exploratory and descriptive case study qualitatively shedding light on the characteristics of the processes and the products of revision. We collected data from three graduate students revising a business text in English (their second language) and from an experienced writer/editor, native English speaker, revising the same text in his first language. Using keystroke logging, screen recording, and text analysis, we observed an alternation between revision and rewriting, as well as a combination of expert features (e.g., inclusion of reader-oriented explanations) and less expert features (e.g., fewer rounds of revision) among graduate students. There were also differences between the students and the expert in the way in which they spatially organised their tasks. We interpreted these results within the context of cognitive and sociocultural models of writing, and especially the notion of agency.