My revision process has progressively improved over the course of the three different papers I completed during this semester. For the first paper, I did not invest as much time revising. I read the paper through once for edits to sentence structure and punctuation and, if I noticed that something didn’t make sense or needed more explanation, I added a few ideas here and there. Reading Anne Lamott’s essay, helped me to realize that my first draft does not have to be perfect and that it is through my repeated revision attempts that I process my writing and create a polished and adequate final draft. For the last two papers, I wrote the first draft by just putting my thoughts on paper first in whatever order I thought about it. I then revisited and revised my writing three to four times before I called it complete. This way I was able to take my disorganized first draft, that lacked correct grammar and mechanics and included a lot of long run-ons sentences and rearranges my ideas into actual sentences that made sense. I was also able to organize my thoughts into paragraphs that flowed. Another resource that I use more often now when revising my papers, is They Say/ I Say to get help and guidance for specifics such as inserting quotes into my paper or making sure I have correct MLA format. Although I have improved with my revisions, I still have a lot more to improve upon, I feel that with time, as I keep working on refining my skills, I will be able to produce stronger final drafts.
