A study and review of the revisions of professional writers reveals 11 functions of revision: (1) altering form, (2) organizing information, (3) creating transitions, (4) deleting information, (5) expanding information, (6) emphasizing information, (7) subordinating information, (8) creating immediacy, (9) improving syntactic structures, (10) improving language usage, and (11) cleaning up. While the revisions of professional writers are encompassed in these categories, students' revisions appear to be concentrated only in the last two categories. Most students spend their time on "surface" level revisions--changes in single words, in vocabulary and grammar. One reason students do not engage in "deeper" level revisions is the writing instruction they receive. Assignments often eliminate the need to revise in such categories as altering form and organizing information. Furthermore, many of the writing assignments imply that the audience is the teacher and the purpose is a grade. Students need to be able to write for a variety of audiences and purposes if they are to learn how to manipulate such aspects as voice and person. But changes in assignments need to be accompanied by an expansion in the repertoire of composition skills which an instructor teaches and assesses. Until all 11 categories of revision are emphasized and all other aspects of written discourse (prosody, logical thinking, and the relationship of content to structure) are taught and assessed, students will continue to concentrate only on the "lower" levels in revision. Teachers should help students approach revision with a problem orientation so they can recognize all of the functions that revisions serve. (HOD)