Revision Of The Writing Process

Furthermore, according to Duncan Carter’s article, Five Myths About Writing, “Years of well-intentioned English teachers have responded to students’ first drafts as if they were supposed to have been perfect. Combined with a pedagogy which suggests that revision is a form of punishment, it is not hard to see where students get the idea that good writers don’t have to revise” (Carter, 82). Growing up, high school teachers make it seem as if revising and editing your paper is the worst thing ever. Any student who worked long and hard on their assignment and turned it in to get revised, would hate to receive a paper back with nothing but red marks and errors written all over them. This initially gave people the mindset of forgetting about editing their work if all it did was tear them down and point out their mistakes.

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.

In the article “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts” by Donald M. Murray, it talks about how writers and authors see and revise their own work. After reading this I saw how time and discipline play a big role in this task. Murray quotes famous writers, one being Ray Bradbury, the author of the novel Fahrenheit 451. Murray explains his technique on how he revised his work, along with many other ways that authors edit their writing.

In his article "Coming to Terms", Joseph Harris takes the opportunity to share his knowledge with his readers and discuss things to keep in mind when drafting, revising, and editing assignments. In this specific chapter, Harris explains the revision process and suggest possible preliminary steps to take when formulating an essay. He emphasizes revision as a knowledge practice, in which there is a consistent set of questions you can ask yourself at any point while working on a draft (page 99). In addition, Harris refers the term "writer's project" throughout the section.

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. He shares tips on how to effectively revise and demonstrates using excerpts within his chapters.

Criticising one’s own written work can be challenging, but knowing how to do it properly can make it somewhat easier. In “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts,” Donald Murray provides many useful tips on how and why you should always review your work after it has been completed. He first starts off by stating that, “when a draft is completed, the job of writing can begin” (pg. 56). What this means to me is that although you have completed your writing piece, you still have a lot to do in regards to revising, editing, and organizing, if needed.

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

Within the past eight weeks, I have realized my strengths and weaknesses within the writing process. I have realized that I do not utilize the first step within the writing process of prewriting. However, for the drafting, revising, and polishing steps of the writing process, I am very familiar and use additional resources to strengthen the writing assignment. I create multiple drafts, which includes revising and polishing in each step. Therefore, I use all three of these steps in multiple drafts as I reach the final product for

Once a writer has completed the writing portion of an essay, it is often considered to be done. However, no one, even a professional writer, writes a perfect draft on the first attempt; in fact, it is often this revision stage of writing where a good writer separates himself from other, less experienced writers. A good writer understands the importance of revision and spends as much time as possible during this stage to craft the essay into the ideal state. Moreover, what exactly revision is? Revision refers to the changes that occur in an essay once

One of the main reasons I believe my writing has become stronger is due to revision. I always knew revision was an important step in the writing process, but in the past I always assumed that my papers needed no revision, I was wrong. The feedback that was given to me by my peers and professor was extremely helpful. A few of the comments given to me by my peers include, “The uses of quotes in your essay are fine. The

In Nancy Sommers’ article, “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers”, she addresses how to different groups, students and experienced writers, go about revising their paper. Sommers method of taking the results of her experience could have been much more effective if she would have added details about certain thing. How did the group’s final papers turn out? Where there significant difference in the final papers, and if so what were they. Did both group turn up with nicely written papers? These questions would have helped to understand the importance of revision toward the creation of the paper, then just the revision stage itself. Sommers mention of how most students repeat themselves in their writings by just

One’s writing is not always perfect. The idea that perfection lies within a piece of written work is justifiably erroneous. In an excerpt entitled, “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, Lamott explores how writing as a whole is a revisiting process. Lamott opens by simply stating, “all good writers write them [shitty first drafts].” She then goes on to address how people view successful writers as enthusiastically approaching writing and that it is ultimately “easy” to compose a piece of work; Lamott states that this notion is merely a “fantasy of the uninitiated.”

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

Joseph Williams and Lawrence McEnerney, in the third chapter of Writing in College, offer strategies for revising a paper, including suggestions regarding the point (or thesis), the organizational structure of the a paper, the evidence, and the attitude of the argument as a whole. The first step of the revision process “is intended to ensure that the beginning and end of your paper cohere with each other” (14). To accomplish this first step, Williams and McEnerney recommend isolating the point in the introduction and conclusion, and ensuring these sections communicate the same argument. Williams and McEnerney also suggest two different methods to communicate a point: point-first, in which the introduction contains a full statement of the argument

Explain your answer. Consult Figure 5.2 Choosing Communication Channels on page 97 in your textbook. (2/2 marks)