Revising has always been a little hard for me, as writing has. I do believe that revising is a bit easier, though as
a whole. I have a really tough time spitting out anything of an essay. I sit for a bit, and then end up just having to dive into
it. When writing an essay I definitely outline my ideas first. It seems a little elementary, but it really helps and acts as a
guideline. I throw everything that I feel needs to be in the essay (general stuff) and then go from there. Throughout the
writing process I am constantly revising. Re-reading each sentence, and asking myself, "Wait, is that right? Is it too much
or not enough?". I could do this all day, but my essay would never get finished, so I usually just go with my gut in the end.
The second draft revision process is sort of the same, for me. I like to go into it thinking that the paper has not been written
by me. I need that sort of mindset to just do revising on what I think needs changed. It makes it easier to try and look at the
paper from an outsiders stand point. I do read it over and over as well, also letting others read it and give me feedback.
Letting other epode read it gives me a real view on how the reader is feeling and what they are thinking. It usually ends up
that the other person reading it has found a weird spot or a mistake that I didn't notice after all of the re-reading.
With this essay, I hope to be able to bring it all together. I think the first step was really understanding the poem. I
thought that I really understood it, but maybe going back to it after a few days, I can grasp it a little better. I also feel I need
to get better vocabulary. In speech, I don't seem to reuse words, or repeat my thoughts, but for some reason I do in my
writing, and I'd like to change that!!
I though this was kind of cool for those of us who aren't the best writers… :)
http://www.you-can-teach-writing.com/becoming-a-writer.html
photo credit: http://cheezburger.com/andykatz/lolz/View/3246163456
Hi Jamison,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts on revising. Sounds like you have a hard time getting the thoughts that you want out to be the main ones. Writing a poem makes it even more difficult I think. Did you read the Global v. Local questions? I thought for this assignment they really made sense and will help in the second draft of Essay # 2. Also I put this link on my blog post: http://beabetterwriternow.com/2009/05/quick-five-step-guide-to-revising-and-editing/, feel free to check it out. Thanks for sharing.
Heather