Throughout this course, I have made great strides in the literary revision process. This is evident as I have moved between drafts of major writing projects, including my chosen Significant Writing Project titled “Consider the Human Lifespan”. Besides length of the text, which is probably the easiest to visually distinguish between the first and final drafts, great changes have been made during the revision process to reach the final draft. As I added to the project, I also had practice taking away from the text, making the piece more concise and less “fluff” which, unfortunately, I am prone to. I figured out where sentences could be altered or deleted, and then merged together paragraphs that had become too short, yet had common topics that could fit together well as one idea. Mapping out the anatomy of the essay in terms of paragraph structure and placement was one of the more global revision tasks I partook in. Other global revisions/considerations I made involved reading over the project to ensure that the thesis was well-supported throughout the paper, evidence was used effectively, and that I was interacting with the texts I chose to include in my paper. I also reviewed the conclusion of the essay to make sure it not only wraps up the essay, but leaves the reader with something to think about. The paper took time, thought, and effort, and it has merit. The conclusion is supposed to prove that to the writer’s audience, so I always make sure to pay special attention to this last section. In addition to these global revision checkpoints, I also make sure that the essay flows from sentence to sentence, and that each individual sentence is well-constructed. This includes checking for any spelling, grammatical, or punctuation errors; I also make sure to pay attention to word choice and transitional phrases. By comparing the first draft of my Writing Project to the final draft, it is clear to see the time taken into the revision process. The revision of this last project was the most extensive of all three projects as I have learned and applied new methods and approaches of revision over the course of this English class.
