Improving My Writing Skills Essay

In Joseph Harris’s chapter “Revising” which was originally published in his book, Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts in 2006, Harris emphasizes the importance of the revising process, how to revise and improve effectively, and informs us about the fact that revising is overlooked and rushed by writers today.

There are, however, a few writers who do little formal rewriting, primarily because they have the capacity and experience to create and review a large number of invisible drafts in their minds before they approach the page. And some writers slowly produce finished pages, performing all the tasks of revision simultaneously, page by page, rather than draft by draft. But it is still possible to see the sequence followed by most writers most of the time in rereading their own work.

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.

Murray (1917-2006) was a scholar, journalist, and author among many other things. Murray wrote the essay “The Maker’s Eye: Revising your own Manuscript”, which was published in a magazine called The Writer. “The Maker’s Eye” explains why it is beneficial to revise no matter if you are a beginner or experienced. “As a word is changed, cut, or added, as a construction is rearranged, all the words used before that moment and all those that follow that moment must be considered and reconsidered.” This means when you changed any word in your writing that is the time to look at previously written words, but also consider the new words you are

The writing process is something that you figure out yourself as you go through school. I personally think that is why they make us take English for so many years. Through the years, I found that some teachers forced you to write certain ways. I believe that

1. My writing skills have fluctuated throughout the semester. I feel, although, I have mastered leads and headline writing. Leads and headlines were the first writing skills we practiced and have continued to practice throughout the entire semester. The continuous practice of leads and headline writing throughout the semester, I feel confident in my ability to write concise, eye-catching leads and headlines. For writing assignment three I needed to provide a follow-up headline and corresponding lead for a criminal case. The headline had to focus on the upcoming sentencing hearing because it was the newest information about the case. In order to do so, as I mention in my blog entry, I had to write several drafts for both my headline and lead. [INSERT BLOG PICTURE] After many drafts of the lead I settled on a summary-lead because the article was a follow-up story about an established criminal case. I wrote the headline after I wrote the lead because the headline had to be a shorter, more intriguing version of the lead. After many drafts I finally wrote a six worded, eye-catching headline that was about the sentencing hearing. [INSERT WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Revising a paper literally means to “renew again”, to look for something fresh in critical perspective. Revision is an ongoing process of rethinking the paper: reconsidering the arguments, reviewing the evidence, refining the purpose, reorganizing the presentation, reviving the paper’s perspective. At first, I thought revision was just fixing commas,

In the article Teaching Writing as a Process Not Product by Donald M. Murray, Murray argues that writing is a process of discovery not an end product. Rather than being criticized for a “perfect product” by the teachers, student should be provided with an environment of creativity to explore and discover. Murray states that many teachers focus on the end product rather than teaching students the process of writing in order to receive a better product. The writing process has three stages of writing which include: prewriting, writing, and rewriting. In the prewriting stage, students should take about 85% of their time dedicated to the writing process. Prewriting includes strategies such as daydreaming, note taking, outlining, and lead-writing. Next is the writing stage where it should take about one percent of a student’s time. The writing stage is where students produce their first draft. Finally, it is the

When I started out the year I had three goals when it came to English 101. The first of my goals was that I was going to try and make a good grade in the class so I did not have to take it again and move to 102 to

Sommers explains to the reader the mindset of revision in the eyes of college freshman vs. experienced writers. Based on her research she was able to establish that the term “revision” has two drastic meanings when it comes to experienced vs. inexperienced writers. The college freshmen referred to revision as simply rewording the preexisting writing in their first draft. Sommers explains that the “scale of concern” for the college students was “deletion, substitution, addition, and rewording.” (380) In contrast, the experienced writers had a very different mindset when it came to their revision process. They explained when revising they focused on finding “shape” and “form” to their writing. To further explain, they do not have simply one rough daft that becomes a final draft, but rather they have numerous drafts that they continuously dig through to develop “structural patterns.” (384) In comparison to the college freshmen their revision process isn’t just rewording, it’s continuously reframing each draft. Through this research Sommers explains to the reader the way revisions should be, and the areas that people lack with misconceptions that the word “revising” simply means rewording but in Sommers’ opinion it’s a total revamping

By examining the ideas in the essays Freewriting by Peter Elbow and The Makers Eye: Revising your own manuscripts by Donald Murray. One can gain a better understanding of the process of turning a piece of writing from an inspiration into a craft. By examining the elements lined out in each essay can be beneficial in creating a piece of writing that is beyond a college or student level. Elbows essay lines out the importance of a strong prewriting regimen. That editing too early can ruin writing. He believes that by using the method of free writing, it can inspire ideas that may be limited when worrying about grammar. While Murray emphasizes the necessity to create many drafts to form writing into its full potential. Saying each draft is an opportunity to discover what the author has to say and they the best way to say it. By transforming writing into its maximum potential it goes from being an idea an inspiration a masterpiece.

1) I have improved in numerous ways during this semester in Composition 1. I have enhanced my writing skills such as being able to write proficiently, and being able to form an essay in a set amount a time similar to the 50 minute essay tests in class. This course has taught me to broaden my vocabulary throughout my essays in order for them stimulating and captivating. While writing essays and creating the works cited pages, I have learned to accurately cite websites, books, and articles. I have also learned to suitably place and refer to where I found the material used for the essays within, and at the beginning of, paragraphs. When writing my essays I have learned to transition smoothly, however, I still struggle with it every once in a while, the writing I do continues to enhance. My speech has also improved from standing in front of the class and presenting a group project along with fellow classmates. I now know what it is like and what to expect the next time I do it. I have improved in many ways during this course and I feel, overall, the portfolio represents my progress greatly.

From revising and re-reading my own writing, I have learn that it takes a lot of steps to be able to organized your thoughts and putting them into writing, it takes time to make all this ideas to make sense; that it is important as a writer to transmit all perspective, for the audience that is target as the readers, it should bring them to your world and understand all the views you try to conveyed.

To approach writing, Elbow explains that “…Writing calls on two skills that are so different that they usually conflict with each other: creating and criticizing.” (7) That means writing requires the ability to come up with ideas yourself and also the ability to criticize and refine

In “Revising”, an excerpt from his book Rewriting published in 2006, Joseph Harris, a University of Delaware English professor, highlights common misinformation about revision, pointing to the popular media depiction of “one-draft” writers. In actuality revision is a vital process of “rethinking, refining, and developing [a] work in progress”, which differs from editing by locality(452). That is, editing carries little impact on surrounding prose, while revision leads to global changes .To better explain, Harris identifies four aspects of the revising process: Coming to Terms, Forwarding, Countering, and Taking an Approach. Ultimately, Harris hopes to provide a clear process in which readers build upon compositional strengths, consider topic