Student outcome #1: (recursive process) this outcome is focused on revising in ways that strengthen the ideas and structure of a project between the first and final drafts. (Word count 398)
Peer editing and revising is something I’ve been doing all through my English career, but it’s not always been my strong suit. In the past there were times when I would simply write my rough drafts, make little to no changes and then turn that in as a final. I’ve now come to realize that this behavior isn’t going to cut it in college and that actually taking time to revisit your rough draft makes the final that much better. I think that the essay that benefited the most from revision this year was my second essay. It was my essay that I was the least confident in for sure, at the start my thesis was very wordy and my conclusion was kind of everywhere. I went over that thesis a lot, even emailing it to my professor for help and my final product was almost completely different from what I had started with.
My before thesis from essay #2
My after thesis from essay #2
As you can see by reading the two different statements, I changed the point of view to first person and switched around the vocab. The second thesis is still far from perfect but it is definitely a step up, showing the effort I put in to try and fix it.
One thing that is particularly hard to revise is usually my conclusion paragraph. I always have the most trouble wrapping up my essay and my conclusions can tend to sound like a bunch of different points at once, rather than flowing. That one optional class we had helped me work on my conclusion for my second essay a lot. The student I was partnered with said I made good points but suggested I move my conclusion to a separate document and kind of move it around a bit. I proceeded to do that and I also used the sample conclusion we made from the beginning of the year to help guide me.
The separate document of my conclusion and also our classes sample paragraph
The biggest thing I have done to help myself since the beginning of the semester has been taking time to slow down and really focus on what I’m doing. I have still not perfected revising my own work and I’m not the best at editing my peers either, but I have been taking steps in the right direction.
