On Book Sprints v1.1 by See Book

Author:See Book [See Book]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Book Sprints
Published: 2014-05-18T23:00:00+00:00

Revising

In revising, participants read and reread, restructure, edit, rewrite, and reorganize the text. Although there may be sections that remain to be written, the contributors will edit chapters started by others, add or change content, smooth and unify language, and even alter the overall structure of the book.

Actions

Revising ranges from high-level restructuring to line editing for style and syntax, to proof reading. As soon as some contributors come to the end of writing one section of the text, that section may be revised by others. This often happens at the same time as other sections are still being written, and time-keeping and coordinating by the facilitator become crucial. The revisions may be done individually, in small groups, and sometimes in plenary group discussions.

The facilitator may assign texts to specific participants, for example pairing-off an expert with a non-expert to work together to make technical language accessible. Printed paper copies can be extremely handy, not only for a granular revision of the text, but also to get a spatial overview of the relative length and order of chapters. A print-out of the written text may be laid out on the floor, cut up, and re-arranged.

In this phase, contributors get a general feel for the book, and individual efforts will be merged into a more coherent body of text. As a result, texts may often be significantly restructured, changed, or even deleted. This introduces potential conflict – especially when people have to give up their sole control of something they have just created, and when diverging perspectives are reconciled into one single narrative. An experienced facilitator will empower each contributor to make decisions in this process, at the same time creating an atmosphere of trust to ensure that editing is done respectfully.

In Book Sprints that are in an extractive mode, where the type and purpose of the book being written is obvious and the contributors share a defined and specific vocabulary from the beginning, the initial structure of the book often will not change greatly once it has been generated by concepting.

In a generative mode, the writing usually takes a more exploratory approach, where the kind of book being written has not been decided and the participants come from very different fields or perspectives. Restructuring the book may lead to identifying new subject areas, and the group may need to return to concepting to generate a revised structure.

When writing comes to an end, all writers begin revising, working on the editing and general composition of the book. Copy editing, checking of the flow of the text, and final proofing are crucial parts of the last stage. A designated "target reader" or a pair or sub-group may be asked to go through the entire text from the top to the bottom. The end of this phase is more about getting things done, finishing small leftover tasks, checking consistency, verifying references, and so forth: anything to prepare the book for publishing.

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