revise

Revising is the pass over a draft that changes what it says. A writer who revises works on the ideas and on their order: moving a paragraph, adding the fact a reader needs, cutting the point that does not belong, or writing a sentence again because the meaning came out wrong. Nothing is too large to change at this pass, which is why a revision can move the whole shape of a piece. The test is the meaning rather than the surface: after a revision the draft says something it did not say before, and a reader is meant to take away something different. Revising comes before editing in the writing process, and it is deliberately the larger of the two passes, because a sentence that is punctuated perfectly and argues the wrong point is still the wrong sentence.