In my writing process, I rely heavily on the revision part of the process, especially the peer revision portion. I enjoy being able to just do what I can for writing, get my thoughts down, and then being able to go back and sort out my ideas. This portion I do several times on my own, but then eventually have a friend or a classmate read it over and incorporate their ideas to strengthen my own. This pushes me out of my comfort zone by letting someone read my work, but I know it makes me a better person and writer in the long run. Everyone has their own thoughts and ideas on how things work and having someone giving feedback to your ideas on paper only helps strengthen my ideas.
In my junior year, we did a project called the “American Author” project. For this year-long assignment, we had to choose an author from America from some point in time, past or present, and we had to read three books that they wrote. For each book we read, we had to write an essay briefly summarizing the book, analyze what we thought was the moral behind the story, the themes found within the book, and the author’s purpose in writing the book. We wrote three of these and one final paper, going more in-depth in analyzing and discussing overall themes in his books. The peer revision process was pushed very hard on us when we were in the process of writing these papers, and I am very glad it was. This was where I really developed an understanding of the importance of revision and having others view your work. This not only helped me make my work better quality but talking about it out loud and thinking about it helped me analyze my author’s thoughts and ideas. Because of the deeper understanding, it allowed me to explore more complex analysis’ of his works in my following papers. Jenks talks about the importance of revision all throughout his article, but a quote that stood out to me was “the strength and worth of work depend on deliberate artistry as much as, if not more than, the writer’s talent, desire, and inspirations.” (2) I hold these words high because that idea of practice makes perfect is applicable to so many different aspects of life, whether it be in the classroom, on the field, playing an instrument anything you could think of. Repetition of the work is the best way to solidify a skill and get to where you want to be.
In Jenks “Category of Revision” section, one of the bullets he hits is revising transitions. Whenever I revise a paper, especially if I just write and I’m going back through to organize my thoughts, transitions are one of the things that I have to touch up every time. A lot of people have trouble with this concept in writing, this is where you have to think and analyze the deeper thoughts of the author through their writing, and use that to link your own thoughts together in paragraphs. I liked how he explained the importance of transitions, he explained: “casually assumes the reader’s intimacy with the story and fails to provide necessary direction and orientation.” (3) If the way your writing is set up without clear transitions to put together everything you are trying to get across to the reader, it will just appear as a bunch of your jumbled thoughts. This is why transitions are one of the crucial elements of writing that I am constantly thinking about throughout my revision process.
