The relationship between revision and text improvement was explored as part of a study investigating the effect of systematic revision instruction on L2 writing. Students in two Form Four/Five classes in a Hong Kong secondary school were taught to revise their first drafts for six writing tasks completed over one academic year. A selection of 30% of student original and revised texts were analysed for revision changes. This analysis showed that all revised texts were longer containing more elaboration. Six student writers were then interviewed to examine how they interpret the influence of their revisions on their texts. These interviews indicated a common belief that text 'improvement' was beyond the writers' capabilities as it entailed 'more' accurate texts.
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