These words refer to changes in an existing system, especially a written one, usually with a view to its betterment. Revise suggests large or small alterations, mostly in a piece of writing, in order to bring it up to date, or to make it sounder or more in keeping with a given intention: revising the whole book to make it more compact and give it a tauter, more dramatic forward movement; ideologies that are constantly revised in the light of changing circumstances; revising the earlier edition of his textbook. Rewrite , by contrast, suggests a more thoroughgoing change and is more exclusively restricted in use to refer to manuscripts or documents. While it may be used in reference to a single sentence or to an entire book, major alterations in structure or theme rather than in style or expression are most often indicated: arguing that the resolution before the United Nations General Assembly, to give New Guinea independence, be rewritten ; the film star who insisted that her part be completely rewritten ; rewriting the conclusion of the novel in such a way as to change the them and outcome of the whole book.

Amend indicates the change in a document by adding on new sections at the end: amending the Constitution so that it gave specific rules on state rights. While amend , thus, would seem to suggest less possibility for change than previous words, a document can in actual theory he amended so that all its provisions are nullified and replaced by complete opposite or different provision. Emend , by contrast, suggests a textual change, small in extent, that is accomplished in the body of the work itself, usually by someone other than the original author: scholars who emend Shakespeare freely when they decide that the existing texts are garbled or unsound; lazy minds that wrench a great writer’s words out of context and then further emend them to suit their own taste.