Q&R #4

Q&R#4: Based on the reading, how do you revise? Is it similar to a student writer or an experienced writer?
Revision plays a big role when I write, it allows me to first analyze my work and then find ways in which I can develop it. I mainly focus on deleting, adding, substituting, and reassembling. Rereading my work profoundly can help me identify superfluous ideas, get rid of them and possibly insert some supportive ideas. I also look for words that can be replaced with synonyms. Inserting extraordinary lexical terms can help keep your reader interested. I often find myself jumping from one idea to the next, but eventually returning to the previous. Revision allows me to amend the way my paper flows, editing sentences out, and putting them in the right places; hence developing the quality of my writing.
I, like the experienced writers mentioned, “seek to discover meaning in the engagement with their writing, in revision” (386) and “seek to emphasize and exploit the lack of clarity, the differences of meaning, the dissonance, that writing as opposed to speech allows in the possibility of revisions.” (386) In other words, I take my revision very seriously; I look at the paper with the intent to edit, knowing that there are faults in my writing. I reevaluate my thoughts and ideas expressed in my passage and make sure they are structured in a coherent form.
Writing is flawed, and whether or not you think yours is or is not, it can always be written over and over again to sound better. “Revision is a recursive process,” (386) if someone wants to get the most out of it, one must repeat the process several times. It is good to keep in mind that your writing can always be made better.