As a writer, and as a writer in a college course that is all about writing, I wrote a great deal about the craft of writing itself. Sure, we all should have done a fair amount of actual writing too, what with five to ten page short stories to write and edit…and edit, and edit and so on and so forth. But that is one important thing that I will take away from these past eight weeks: the importance of the revision. I have previously learned how to revise and edit a work, and I have learned why it is important; however, I did not learn why by doing, rather, I was told, over and over again, that editing and revising one’s work is a very important thing. Going over an essay I had in my very first course here at SNHU, I found that I kind of enjoyed doing it because it was like writing another story, or one inside of the one already there in print before me. But I was really …show more content…
I was basically consulting with other mad doctors as they were doing very much the same thing as me. Here, though, I will not lie. I had a bit of personal rivalry going that only I was aware of. Nobody else was in on this thing that I used to drive me for so many weeks. Sure, I was attempting to make my story, Regression be the best that it could be because I wanted it to be that good, otherwise what would be the point of writing in the first place? But while I was reading the other works coming my way, I wanted mine to be the best of the bunch. I would read what the other two writers, classmates both, were writing and I wanted Regression to be something altogether different from what they were doing-and I wanted it to be better. That may seem like something petty, but it is a skill I have acquired
Writing essays was never my forte, it just never came easy to me like it would to others. Since other subjects came easy to me and I had to focus more than others on writing, I had a negative attitude toward the process as a whole. During this summer semester, I was able to grow as a writer, and gain a more positive attitude toward how I write and a better feel for writing in college. Writing a paper is a process in which there are many different stages. In high school I would never write outlines or any sort of pre planning work. Other struggles I encountered in my writing were my theses, and framing quotes.
The art of writing is a complex and difficult process. Proper writing requires careful planning, revision, and proofreading. Throughout the past semester, the quality of my writing has evolved significantly. At first, I struggled with the separation of different types of paragraphs, and I found writing them laborious. Constant practice, however, has eliminated many of my original difficulties, and helped to inspire confidence in my skills. As a collegiate writer, my strength lies in my clear understanding of the fundamentals of writing, while my primary weakness is proofreading my own work.
In “The Maker's Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscript,” Donald Murray explains how the writing process truly begins after a progression of rough drafts. Murray addresses how revising your draft is essential to discovering the real meaning to writing. The purpose of this excerpt is to demonstrate to readers how important revisions can be on improving your writing.
In “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscript,” Donald M. Murray makes it clear that any individual who writes their first draft is only just beginning the true process of writing. As Murray states, writing is a never ending process that constantly needs new revisions. His main goal of this passage is to allow writers to understand some of the strategies and approaches that come with revising a draft. Murray does provide many supporting evidence to convince a reader of his strategies to be very useful and I agree with this author on improving writers’ writings.
Similar to my “one and done” mentality, my lack of revision on my writing pieces is because of meer laziness. Revision is in fact very important because it offers you the chance to look at your writing pieces from a critical perspective. It allows you to analyze all of your points and change anything that needs to be changed for the better. In Shitty First Drafts, I like how Anne Lamott describes this process as dental work. She says, “check every tooth, to see if it 's loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy”. This sums up revision in an very alternative and pictorial way. Lamott and Shirley Rose would see eye to eye in the subject of revision because in All Writers Have More To Learn, Rose discusses what I conveyed to be a form of revising called Externalization. Rose states that Externalization allows the writer to see how clearly it reads, what it is conveying, and if it can be improved in any way. In conversation I feel Kathleen Yancey would introduce a similar yet interesting outlook on revising to Rose and Lamott because in Learning to Write Effectively Requires Different Kinds of Practice, Time and Effort, Yancey illustrates revision in the form of seeing if what you wrote was what you thought you were writing and the question of if it will fit with the perception of the audience. I thought that this was a pretty interesting outlook for Yancey to develop in the context of
According to Donald M. Murray in The Makers Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts “A piece of writing is never finished”. Before this class, I didn’t really revise my essays
When it comes to revision, I am very lazy and I lack the drive to change my paper drastically. I do exactly what Nancy Sommers, author of the article “Revision Strategies of Student-Writers and Experienced-Writers,” says not to do; I become attached to what I have written. The thought of starting new and throwing out what I have already written ...
I have been a San Jose State University student for 4 years now, and over the course of my learning I have grown and learned more than I thought possible. I came to SJSU knowing that English was my least favorite subject; I consistently dreaded writing assignments professors would assign in class. Going through English 1B has taught me to face my fears about writing papers, whether they are short reviews or extensive research papers, I have become more comfortable in writing. I have learned how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things I don’t know. Most importantly I have learned that revision is essential.
English 102 has taught me a lot about my writing. Becoming a better writer and pushing myself to the next level was my goal for this semester. Therefore, I learned how to use research to back up my arguments. We wrote many different essays based on different types of literature, which is something I had not done before. Initially, I had a few problems, but learned from those mistakes to become better at writing. I definitely have things that I need to work on in the future. However, looking back on my semester I have overcome many of my writing obstacles and have become a better writer.
this area but I’m going to improve on it. The process of using multiple drafts has
Multiple essays have been formulated during the duration of Composition 1. These essays have taught me an important lesson about my writing, failure is acceptable in order to grow. On the other hand, I made an important discovery last year that I want to study journalism and advance further in that field after college. From taking journalism classes, to blogging in my spare time, to always getting an A on my papers, I thought I had no room to improve. I was mistaken. Therefore, because of the rigorous essay work each essay brought, I learned more about how to write different pieces and grow from my “failure”.
In the beginning of English 101 I was what you call a novice writer a person who only wrote what they felt was required. However, certain techniques that I learned in English 101 made me realize that writing was not about filling requirements; it’s about speaking out, exploring and proving a point. “Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” (Trimble, 17) In John Trimble’s quote he tries to point out that writing is something that you grow with and learn as you go along. I believe this growth was achieved with a technique that was introduced to me by my professor called repetitive revision. What I found out was that revision of your essays helps in recognizing your mistakes and enhances the flow of your essays. By providing me...
Writing is an important part of everyone’s life, whether we use it in school, in the workplace, as a hobby or in personal communication. It is important to have this skill because it helps us as writers to express feelings and thoughts to other people in a reasonably permanent form. Formal writing forms like essays, research papers, and articles stimulates critically thinking. This helps the writer to learn how to interpret the world around him/her in a meaningful way. In college, professors motivate students to write in a formal, coherent manner, without losing their own voice in the process. Improving your writing skills is important, in every English class that’s the main teaching point; to help students improve their writing skills. Throughout my college experience I have acknowledge that
Throughout the Mid-SEE I have written reflections on my writing and participated in group activities. I have received comments back from my peers and suggestions to help with revising my paper. With the help of my professor, Professor Church and my classmates, I was able to comprehend their suggestions to me to make my essay better and by revising my classmate’s essays, I was able to point out mistakes that I might have made in my essay, which made myself go back to my essay and check and see if I had mistakes that just flew by my eyes.
Taking a creative writing class was a good way for me to express my thoughts and feelings onto paper, as well as read my other classmates stories. Reading stories created by other people lead me into their mind brain to experience what type of writer they were, it was an overall exquisite class. I believe that every person has a way of expressing who they are through writing stories of their own, fiction is the best way to express your creative imagination. This class that I took for two years helped me become a better writer and helped me understand the types of writers we have.