Sentence-level errors are often the most overlooked in writing and literature, however of extreme importance. When we write, we write for the ideas – the opinions, the arguments, even potential lessons. Written work has the global outcome of communicating ideas to others. With this in mind, it can be easy to forget about the small scale technical components of literature. Although this may be true for many, myself included, it is important to not forget about the proofreading process. Personally, I leave proofreading until the end of my revision process; I don’t want to perfect the technicality of my work until the overall argument is solid and meaningful to me. Just because I leave proofreading for the last step does not mean it is not important. Having a paper free of sentence-level errors is a sign of great maturity in a writer. This is not because the writer understands the principles of spelling, grammar and usage, punctuation, etc. but rather it is a sign of careful crafting. Surely the author could have made mistakes in any of these realms during the drafting process, but to see that they later revisited and thoroughly reviewed their work demonstrates integrity. Before perfection, we have strived for integrity in our projects throughout this course. Writing in this class has been a process of growth and development; I would probably be ashamed as a writer for my first paper because I feel that I have grown so much since then. Although I feel that my most recent work is better than my earlier work, it is important that when we turned in a project, it was the best it could have been for our ability at that time. Of course if we returned to project one and resubmitted a revised version of it, it would probably be better than the initial final draft. This is due to the natural process of improvement with time. I feel that with time I have improved greatly as a writer, on both local and global levels. I have become more aware of the big picture while constructing my projects, but also more careful when it comes to local revision. I have also practiced paying attention to detail more closely in terms of sentence-level errors, MLA formatting errors, etc. and I think it shows through my most recent piece of writing, Project 3.
