Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Revision Notes

From Dartmouth:

But more important than grades is that revising your papers teaches you to be a better writer. Studies have shown again and again that the best way to learn to write is to rewrite. In the revision process, you improve your reading skills and your analytical skills. You learn to challenge your own ideas, thus deepening and strengthening your argument. You learn to find the weaknesses in your writing. You may even discover patterns of error or habits of organization that are undermining your papers.

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https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/support/writingcenter/resourcesforwriters/revsion

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with this you can learn a lot from your own mistakes. Sometimes I think we spend to much time critiquing other peoples work when what we really need to do is pay attention to our own.

maryn said...

When I first started writing I did not pay attention to what I wrote. I used a lot of words like that. That is a filler word not usually needed in the paper. I now can catch myself as I am writing and not use so many filler words. Reading my paper out loud has also helped me to catch words that are not needed.

Unknown said...

I agree with John here. Mistakes mean the most to you if you committed them yourself, and even though I hate revising and editing, it always does help my paper to be a better piece in the end.

Unknown said...

I enjoy the peer editing when you get papers that are similar to your own and peers who actually help you! its really great for all sorts of things; spelling, ideas, quotes, etc. plus i like reading the other people's papers!

JCampos said...

Yeah me too! Reading somebody's paper really gives me ideas for my own. I do not copy but it gives me ideas and shows me the different approaches that can be taken.

Alycia said...

I think a combo of peer and self edit would be most beneficial. I too think it can be strenuous and sometimes "pointless" to reread my own paper. I mean, I know exactly what is coming next so why keep doing it? But in reality it helps, and Mr. Peters hint about reading the whole paper word by word backwards really helps with spelling!

maryn said...

I usually try to have my mom or sister to read my paper. Since they are not in our class they don't know what my paper is talking about. It has helped me to be clearer in what I am saying.

Amy said...

I am glad that we have the option to re-write. I am still deciding if i have the time to do this or not, but i agree that it is good to do this and learn from our own mistakes. I found so many things wrong just reading through the essays again.

Unknown said...

i usually intend to have someone else read my paper, but i seem to never get around it, pretty sure i'm just lazy. :) if i had more time i would try revising an essay for tomorrow but really all i can do is more research, which i hate doing, and know i wont do, so i'm just gonna hope Mr. Peters gives me a good grade on the Angela Whitiker essay!! fingers crossed anyway!

Anonymous said...

I agree with that statement. Even though I want to get a good grade, I really don't learn anything unless I work hard. By working hard that means spending the extra time revising and rereading my essays in order to make them as good as I can.

Jessica said...

i really wish i had enough time to revise my first essay, there's just so much more i could do with it. After looking over it i found all these really little mistakes. Revising is a really good way to learn from your mistakes and i like that Mr. Peters gives us this option at the end of the quarter.

Unknown said...

I'm very glad it is an "option", because it gives you the freedom to choose and decide, instead of being all stressed out about it. its true that revising and editing are very important in growing as a writer, it helps you learn to communicate...and like Friedman says, we gotta be able to communicate effectively, or we might not get the job...

Alycia said...

So I am copying and pasting my comments into word to turn in tomorow, and all of a sudden i see tons of squiggly red and green lines under words. Looks like my quick proofreading in the comment boxes isn't quite making the cut! GREAT!

Unknown said...

i like the idea that you can learn from your mistakes and thanks for letting us have that chance. but i am mostly revising this paper for a better grade though, sorry.