Writing for Audience: The Revision Process in The Diary of Anne Frank

Overview

Featured Resources

From Theory to Practice

 

OVERVIEW

After reading or viewing The Diary of Anne Frank, students will learn that while Anne Frank wrote a diary, she did not write it for herself.  By examining her original entries and comparing them to her revisions, one can witness the revision process in action.  Students will be able to identify what she revised as well as her intentions behind the revisions.  Students will assist one another with these revision strategies and will produce a journal entry for an audience other than themselves.

back to top

 

FEATURED RESOURCES

• The Diary of Anne Frank: Revised Passages

back to top

 

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Students are frequently unmotivated or unable to revise based on comments from teachers from peers because they don't see the purpose behind such efforts.  Deborah Dean suggests "in helping students develop the conscious attention to audience that might help them build adaptive writing skills, teachers can provide writing opportunities that shift audiences-both real and fictional-and thus help students develop stances that fit the needs of different contexts" (88).

Further Reading

Dean, Deborah.  Strategic Writing: The Writing Process and Beyond in the Secondary English Classroom.  Urbana, IL: NCTE 2006.

back to top