The Effects of Revision Approach on ESLWriting

The aim of this paper is to explore the effects of revision approach on the teaching of writing. The main hypothesis in this study is that there are differences in the quality of writing due to the application of the revision approach used inside the classroom as compared to a nonrevision approach (i.e. concentration on the end product). This investigation is based on the above assumption; the hypothesis is tested by conducting an experiment on two groups of learners; both were following writing II course; one followed the revision approach, the other followed the non-revision approach. The results of this study clearly indicate that in the area of coherence, group A students who followed the revision approach wrote essays which were more coherent than those produced by group B, who did not use revisions in their writing. The same applies to cohesion; group A essays were more cohesive than group B essays. Moreover, in the areas of syntax and writing mechanics, both groups (A and B) exhibited significant differences: 28% of group A essays exhibited syntactic errors whereas 56 % of group B essays did so. In addition, 12% of group A essays exhibited mistakes in writing mechanics compared to 32 % of group B. In conclusion, the study would stress the importance of the revision approach in the teaching of writing.