A study investigated the effects of direct instruction in the process of revision on students' knowledge of the revision process, their ability to make revisions on paper, and the quality of their writing. Subjects, 30 sixth grade students, were divided into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group received instruction in the revision process while the control group read quality literature. After instruction, all subjects wrote a brief story. The next day, subjects were given an opportunity to revise their stories and to write another draft. Experimental group subjects were interviewed about potential revisions while control group subjects received no advice. The main variables analyzed were the number of areas suggested for revision, the average specificity of suggested changes, the total number of revisions made, and the quality scores obtained for the first and final draft. Results indicated that instruction did affect knowledge of the revision process and enhance revision efforts. Specifically, findings showed (1) that when compared to the control treatment, direct instruction in the process of revision did affect aspects of sixth graders' knowledge of the revision process; (2) that the instruction affected efforts to make revisions on paper, though there were no differential effects on types of revisions made; and (3) that the revision instruction affected the quality of the children's stories across drafts--judgments of quality for the experimental group increased substantially, while the same judgments for the control group remained relatively stable. (Six pages of references are included.) (JD)