Doug Downs reveals the importance of revisions in his article, “Revision is Central to Developing Writing” by informing readers not every first draft is perfect, hence why revisions are crucial. Downs creates an analogy explaining how revising is similar to dr
iving down the road in your car with the headlights on. When initially writing your paper, you can ‘see’ the vision, or down the road. To further explain this concept, to complete the drive down the road, or in this case the paper, you must go back and make changes/re-read what you’ve wrote. The cycle continues on from here. Every time you read to the end of your ‘headlights’, you’ve completed one revision and see your writing from a different perspective than you originally did.
Expanding on this, The article, “Revision is Central to Writing Development” by Downs is comparable to Anne Lamott’s article, “Shitty First Drafts“. Both of these articles touch on the topic of revision and stress the fact that the first draft isn’t going to be perfect. In Lamott’s article, she mentions that majority of writers don’t sit down and write a perfect paper on their first try. In fact, it takes much time and effort to come up with where to begin. Downs mentions something similar in his article that many first drafts tend to have a lot more mistakes than polished drafts that have been revised multiple times.
As previously touched on, In the article by Downs, we learn that it is not normal or expected that your first written piece is going to be perfect. In order to create/end up with a perfect piece of writing, it is important to allow yourself time in between each revision to take a step back. This allows us to go back later and re-read changes that have been made. Downs states a couple different challenges writers who don’t revise could face. Those being, writers who don’t revise their work will almost always end up with a piece that is not well connected to its purpose. A paper connected to its purpose can be achieved through revisions. Second of all, when a writer choses not to revise their work, they have a greater chance at seeing more negative results/feedback compared to if time were put into the revision process.
Revising doesn’t always come naturally. It takes practice and many revised pieces of writing to discover which strategy works best for you. Although there are many different revision strategies, some ways to get started include, figuring out what your best and weakest parts are in your paper. By figuring out what the best and weakest parts of your paper are, you 
can begin developing a checklist. Finally, if someone isn’t already peer editing/reading your work, ask a friend or family member to re-read over your writing. Others who read over our writing tend to find mistakes more frequently than the actual writer.
With all this being say, I would agree with the content in both “Revision is Central to Developing Writing” and “Shitty First Drafts”. Coming up with a starting place for an essay is very challenging but coming up with the rest of the writing piece is even more of a challenge. It can be draining and discouraging writing a paper, article, essay, etc. When getting and the words down and re-reading it, you sometimes realize everything is a mess. This becomes very discouraging. But, between the two articles, it teaches that not everyone writes a perfect first draft, in fact, it is very rare. Lamott explains in “Shitty First Drafts”, “Very few writers really know what they’re doing until they’ve done it. Nor do they go about their business feeling dewy and and thrilled”. Lamott writes this to let readers know that all writers, even professions, struggle with ideas or their first drafts. As an experienced writer, you may have an idea of how to get started but, your first draft won’t always make you feel “dewy and thrilled”, as Lamott says. Revisions, as learned, are a very critical part of writing development. That discouraging, terrible first draft can be made into the perfect paper through many revision processes. As you take a step away from your work and come back, there is always more that can be changed to perfection.
