Reflection on Project 3

A Look Back at My Revision Process

Crossett Library "ThINK: Books and Tattoos - Katie" (9/19/2011) via Flickr
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After publishing Project 3, I'm going back and taking a look at my revisions from draft to draft and how my revisions process affected my final product. I'll be answering some questions about revision and how this process changed my drafts and my writing identity.

What was specifically revised from one draft to another?

• Each revision of my draft contained both local and global changes. I would change sentence structure, sources, and even add more context.

Point to global changes: how did you reconsider your thesis or organization?

• I ended up changing and refining my organization each time I revised, partly to fit the genre, and partly for just plain clarity. I ended up giving a lot more context to convince readers than I had initially planned on, but I do think it will end up working better for me than less.

What led you to these changes? A reconsideration of audience? A shift in purpose?

• Throughout, my purpose has remained the same, but I have had to put a bit more emphasis into convincing my readers that Book Banning is still a problem than I had anticipated. To make an effective argument, my purpose - my solutions - needed to have something to actually solve, or my text would be pointless. This created the need for more context.
• Somehow I had begun to create fairly large paragraphs, when my genre tends to keep them smaller and organizes them differently. This led me to re-organize and cut some material to be more in-line with an op-ed and keep my argument coherent.

How do these changes affect your credibility as an author?

• By giving more context and concrete examples of book banning today, I appear to be more knowledgeable and correct. Without that evidence, my argument and credibility would be much weaker.
• By fitting into my genre and having a well-organized article, I will come across as logical and my readers will appreciate the easy to read layout.

How will these changes better address the audience or venue?

• More context and better organization will make the audience's experience of reading my text more enjoyable and effortless. These will also help my article fit in on its venue, and make my audience think more critically about what they need to do and why.

Point to local changes: how did you reconsider sentence structure and style?

• I had much fewer issues with complex sentences getting away from me in this project. I only had to make a couple sentence structure changes for clarity. I mainly tweaked my word choice and hyperlinks.

How will these changes assist your audience in understanding your purpose?

• Sentence clarity will make it easier for my audience to understand why I even have my purpose. Word choice will convey the right tone to convince my audience that something must be done. Hyperlinking can help to give examples of why we must do something, and examples of what we can do.

Did you have to reconsider the conventions of the particular genre in which you are writing?

• I definitely had some trouble with the conventions for hyperlinking, but I realized that pushing my genre a teensy bit for the sake of style is perfectly okay.

Finally, how does the process of reflection help you reconsider your identity as a writer?

• This exercise has made me come to realize that my writing and revision process has changed drastically since I bean the semester. I have become less of a procrastinator, and have been spreading out my writing and revising in time. I revise more than I did before, and I actually think I am getting better at revision because of reflections and peer review.