Step by Step
This kind of revising is tough. Looking at a paper you have written and revised once is standard fare in the college world. Revising again and again is hard work. Eventuall you get sick of your own writing and you want to run from the room screaming “NO MORE, NO MORE!!!!” Then you realize you need to pass college, and suck it up and you start to learn some things that you may not have known before.
It isn't so much about quantity, it's about quality. From the in class work the class has done this semester, I have learned to be more careful with my words. I hope it has translated to my papers. When I revised my reflection paper I did a lot of cutting. I had added a lot experiences in the paper, but none of them seemed to fit. They were just words on a page. Also, a lot of the stuff I had on the page didn't make a lot of sense to the reader, so it took a lot of trimming. With the trimming I saw a clearer and more focused paper come through in the end.
With all three papers I tried to make my thesis statement line up with the beginning and end of my paragraphs, just like I'm trying to do now. I know this paper is supposed to be what I learned from my papers in the process, but I learned a lot in the class and applied it to my papers. I can't remember which book it was from, but Mrs. Luna always put dots with dashes on the board, showing us how the end of one sentence should tie to the the beginning of the new sentence and so on. This works with paragraphs as well. I really feel I did that best in my reflection paper as well. Connecting one sentence and paragraph to the next is not the only thing I learned.
I learned that comma splices are a real issue, and I am not the only one who has a problem. No there is a group that meets once a week, and some that meet more often, for people with a problem with comma splices. I really tried to make all three of my final papers, and this one, free of comma errors. I know that, that is not going to happen. I am sure there is at least one so far, but I feel I have really improved my error percentage rate. Working on dialogue, and editing the commas involved is very hard.
My paper, one I enjoyed writing the most, was about magic being real, but it had a lot of dialogue. In my dialogue I made some pretty grave errors, which I was told I may be able to get away with, because some people talk the way I write. I have read Hemingway and Twain, if they can get away with what they do, and still be called masters, I may be one myself. I wrote that one four or five times at least. I got really excited, and sit down to write and realize I needed some kind of structure before I went on. I am not a person who can just write a book beginning to end. I need to sketch out what the plot is, what each character wants to do, and some of how they will accomplish that. Planning on what to write, is just as hard as writing and revising. What made me the happiest about my story about magic, was that I used one of my own prompts to start it. Then I got to show it to my classmates for revision. I really wish there had been more time for that. I was very nervous showing other people that work, it isn't easy taking criticism from peers; criticism is a lot easier to take from a teacher. Still the input I got from both was very valuable, I got a lot of encouragement from my peers, and some things to focus on. Mrs. Luna kept me on track though, she knows how to keep a story on the rails. If I continue that story further I am sure I will learn a lot more about story development.
Story development wasn't a goal when I started class. I mean I've always wanted to be a good story teller, but I usually stuck to short stories; just kind of vomiting on a page. From the readings we did, I learned that is okay, but revision is what really makes a piece of writing good. That is something I have learned from every piece. Each time I refine a paper, it gets a little more... refined.
The most polished, and refined piece of work I wrote was the reflection. It was maybe the hardest to write as well. It isn't easy letting people know about how I got to where I am. No one like s to let other people know about their failures. I have taken my failure in highschool, and turned it into an accomplishment in college. I am proud of doing that and my paper reflects some of what I went through. The paper helped me focus on what I am doing in school, sometimes I need to be reminded of the goal at the end, and stop focusing so much on getting worked about due dates and work. I am going to change lives for the better, fixing one comma splice at a time. Thinking of comma splices, and what I've learned, I can't forgot to stay excited.
Being excited by writing is part of why I wanted to be an English teacher. I love books, the way they feel, smell, everything but the endings. Having a hard time with endings reflects in my papers. Conclusions don't always match with the opening paragraph and one paragraph doesn't tie in with the next. I learned that drafting can allow you to fix those errors.
This paper reflects a bit of what I have learned this semester. It is hard to get it all down on paper. I really just write whatever comes to mind, and only sometimes use prompts. I really like to sleep in between doing a draft. Or once I do my research, I take some time, do something else, then come back to it. It is like my subconscious has had time to process and then I can put what I have worked through on paper. Revising is a key tool, and I should use it more.