Part One of Five:
Looking at my progression throughout the semester, it is brutally clear that my revision strategies have improved. Not only have they improved, but I don’t think I even knew what revision truly meant before taking this course. It is vividly apparent when you look at my first and final draft of my entry prompt. It seems as though I only made local revisions, and really minor ones at that! I now understand that revision is a lot more than finding loose commas and putting periods in the right spots. It is clear that I’ve improved if you look at my significant writing project to see that my rough draft is long and distorted. I then made global AND local revisions and made an essay that is clear and coherent. What I ended up doing is breaking up the paragraphs one by one and highlighting how they relate to my thesis. Then, I organized them into a story so the essay could flow in one direction. I had to cut a lot out and put my sources in the right spots to get my desired result. It seems as though while I write my draft for a paper I tend to dance around a thesis instead of shining a bright light on it. It’s usually midway through my revision process that I feel really comfortable with the material and can produce a concrete thesis. Although the revision process is tedious and difficult, it is surely a great way to produce a much better product. I didn’t realize how far I have come until starting this portfolio; and looking back makes me extremely grateful to have learned these new skills.
