Through the course of the semester, I have become much better at revising. At the beginning, I would only restructure something if it was blatantly obvious that it needed to be changed. All of the changes that would be made to the essay would relate to grammar and mechanics. After lots of practice, I now have a much more tedious revision process. I now move around paragraphs, add completely new ideas, omit different sections of the essay, and much more. After reading the “Shitty First Drafts” selection, I understood the reasoning for the large changes to be made and began practicing it. One key thing that I have realized about revisions is that you need to have ample time to make them. It is best to write the first draft of the essay, maybe look over it once, and then not look at it for awhile. When I would come back to the essay, I would then have fresh eyes and notice more of my mistakes. I also needed to come to terms with the fact that a lot of ideas that I had would be completely changed. This was apparent in the first essay when last minute, I had a conference with my professor about the essay and decided to completely restructure the essay. It ended up being a very good essay, but if I was not open to getting rid of a big portion of my essay, the changes would never have been possible. These are the main improvements that I have experienced since August, and I am proud to say that I am more open to revisions now.
