Editing specialised texts in advanced English University Courses

This paper makes a case for the inclusion of modules on revising specialised English texts in advanced language courses at university. In particular, it recounts an experiment with students from the International Relations stream of a second level degree in Foreign Languages in Italy. The students were given non-edited and edited versions of the same text, and encouraged to reflect on the reasons why the revisions were made, using printed dictionaries, reference corpora and printouts from a parallel concordancer. They were also given extracts from works on clear writing such as Cutts (2007), Williams (2007) and the European Commission’s booklet How to Write Clearly. The results were positive in that students found the exercises motivating, and remembered the principles of clear writing months after the experiment had concluded.