How To Revise My Writing

As someone who can look at a blank paper for hours at a time and not have a single idea on what to say, drafting can be one of the most crucial steps in writing. It allows you to have many different ideas before setting your mind on one solid point. Drafting allows you to release all your ideas onto the paper, no matter how good or bad it is. It makes writing 7 pages of just pure nonsense, okay, giving yourself enough to work with later on when editing. It can also help you develop your ideas into more solid pieces, by taking specific parts and allowing you to elaborate on them. My Favorite quote from Anne Lamott’s Shitty First Drafts is “For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get

I finally figured out why, Writing the same paper for the second time while staring at the first draft comes out better than the last. For years I’ve done this and never considered it to be a method writers use to better themselves. Donald M. Murray defines this writing as revision where the author continuously edits his or her words to clarify their purpose. We all can put words on paper, but true writing comes with placing the right words at the right time, that says exactly what you want to say. Within Murray’s “The Maker’s Eye,” which goes in depth about revising, He mentions a final product mentality to holds academic writer back. Readers are always shown a polished version of the words on paper, and transitively assume that was a first draft creation. Murray introduced lots of new ideas to me about ways of approaching revision, and how it truly should take.

In the article, Richard Marius said that he actually wrote four drafts of his book. I thought about what he said about finding it helpful to completely retype the final draft instead of just editing it on the computer screen and I think that it is a very good idea. By, “letting all the words run through my mind and fingers one more time”, I can, initially proofread at the same time as I am generating my final draft. (Marius paragraph 12) If a sentence or a word does not seem quite right to me, that would probably be the best time to catch it and

Lamott’s idea helps me the most because she encourages all writers to start off with something on their paper before turning in a final draft or feel confident about it. This process is very beneficial because as Lamott says “very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it” (1). There’s times where I become frustrated and give up before even trying, to the point that I even start to burst into tears. I often hate putting words on paper or turning in an essay because I do not want to be judged by my lack of writing, but the help of writing shitty drafts and the strategies that these two articles provide reduces my frustration and insecurities. Allowing me to do drafts provides a safety net especially if I feel like my writing isn’t good enough. Lamott rightly states, “The first draft is the child draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later” (1). The child draft is needed to build my confidence, especially being free in my own writing knowing I can always come back and revise. Letting everything come to mind ideas, opinions, and what I’m feeling. But the point is all writers should always have something written on paper even though you don’t feel

My writing styles have changed drastically over the past four years of high school. This memo will explain how my writing has changed and how my knowledge of writing has improved.

Another thing that I have learned that goes with writing multiple drafts is using the reader’s feedback in order to craft my next draft. I have learned through the semester that the audience plays a huge part in

In my experience with writing, I never wrote drafts (unless my teacher required me to turn one in). Whenever I wrote essays I

When looking back five weeks ago, I struggled with confidence in my writing. I had much trouble expressing my thoughts on paper. Through time, I feel that I am stronger in my writing abilities and my writing skills have improved greatly. So far, I have learned to be more confident and I no longer struggle with getting started. There have been many instances where I have thought long and hard about submitting a document fearing that it was not good enough. Now, I realize that preparation is the key to great writing. When writing, many times I would write one section of the paper and immediately would start to revise before completely finishing. I soon realized that this method is a very long process and it’s

I have used visuals to present to a specific audience, like the college literacy, and I reflected on my experience with the UC Davis Pastured Poultry Farm, like the literary narrative project. At first, I wanted to present my discourse community in essay format, but I changed to a website, because a website offers more organization options than an essay. The language used in an essay is also slightly different from that of a website. In a website, I can write with a more informal tone than an essay. I think that my composing process changed immensely when compared to the beginning of the quarter. Before, I tried to do one draft and call it my final, but now, I have realized the importance of making multiple drafts. I now start my assignments as a brain storm with points and thoughts in every direction. After brain storming, I would choose a focus point and start my first draft from

Over the eighth grade year, I have learned to effectively use feedback and reflection skills to strengthen my writing. These writing processes taught me to include peer and teacher feedback along with self-reflection to earn a better grade on my writing pieces. In the beginning of the year, I would simply complete the drafts my teacher assigned. Proof of my original writing process is shown in the essay, titled One Necessity of a Hero: Personal Sacrifice, in which it reflects on the Thematic Unit. To demonstrate my poor writing process, a segment of my original introduction stated, “After analyzing documents from The Hobbit Thematic Unit, I discovered that the principles of heroism involve personal sacrifice. I also learned that a hero is

Over the course of my studies at university, I have grown and learned more about academic writing and numerous writing styles. I believe there is so much room for me to master my writing skills to succeed and complete my degree and improve my academic writing and personal skills through more practice. However, I have become concerned with my first attempt submitting my piece of paper through the online test in the Writers’ Diet diagnostic tool and was labelled ‘flabby’ in my writing. Analysing my errors and referring to the textbook ’Communication Toolkit’ by Grellier and Goerke (2014), also submitting my piece of writing to Grammarly and paper rater I was able to measure my weakness in the area of sentence structure, punctuation and grammar.

So far, taking this English course has impacted my writing skills in a good way. This class has helped me to acquire skills to become a better writer in college and for my future. In this class I have had the chance to make important revisions to my papers when needed. I learned how to use the writing process effectively so far by brainstorming ideas for my topic, making multiple drafts, getting in groups for peer editing, and revising my paper into a final draft. By following this writing process it makes me look deeper into my essay and explore all the ways I can make revisions until it’s perfect. By using that writing process it has changed my writing and the way I look at “writing papers” as a whole. Although, there are some challenges that I still face with my writing that I will have fixed by the end of this course.

Also I have learned that by doing the draft step by step as in introduction, body, and conclusion also helped me get through the process of writing the draft. Not doing all the draft at once really helped because if did not feel the pressure of having to finish it all together. First, I would do the introduction and then maybe thirty or sixty minutes later, I would do the body, then after another short brake, I would do the conclusion. This has helped a lot with my draft because between those breaks I would think of something else to include in the paper. As well as giving my self time to think this way of drafting gave me an opportunity to check me paper more thoroughly because I would check each section individually and that way I found mistakes I would have missed before.

Writing helped me get all of my thoughts down before constructing my essays. In my years at high school, I've always needed to write my rough draft before typing it because I felted that this was a better way for me to get all the details down before I lose my train of thought. But, now there are other ways that I have met that I believe will

My biggest struggle in writing would be starting my introduction because I never really know what information to add in my stating my thesis statement. Although, one way I’m trying to improve this struggle is by either adding small quotes or definitions to hook the reader and to add some info about my topic. Furthermore, one essay that I feel reflects my writing the best would be the midterm essay. I picked the midterm essay because even though it was timed I still took my time and carefully picked which examples I thought would best represent my opinions. In addition, I feel using the quote “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” by Nelson Mandela was a very powerful way to keep the reader interested. Ultimately, while I still haven’t overcome the obstacle of writing an introduction I know I’m slowly starting to find my way towards my goal of not struggling when it comes to starting my essays.