“Revision Is Central To Developing Writing” by Doug Downs illuminates the idea that revising one’s writing is very key to improving as a writer. It’s always good to have another set of eyes critique your paper because the first draft is never going to be perfect. Even the polished version will never be flawless, there are always mistakes to learn from. Doug Downs stresses that writing is not something that you can master on your first try, therefore making revisions necessary is going to make your writing better.
Revising your writing does not mean that you are a bad writer, but in fact means the complete opposite. Revising your writing shows improvement and professionalism. Revisions open the writer’s eyes and shows them mistakes that they missed, and can now benefit by learning from them. First drafts are just half the battle of writing that one great paper. With revisions, the writer can see their own work more clearly, now that their mistakes are highlighted. Revisions can even bring a whole new perspective to how the writer interprets their own paper.
“Never think of revising as fixing something that is wrong. That starts you off in a negative frame of mind. Rather think of it as an opportunity to improve something you already love.”
– Marion Dane Bauer
“Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott is similar to the article from Doug Downs in that both readings emphasize the idea that first or rough drafts are not good enough to turn in as a final piece. Both articles say to have either yourself or others around you revise your writing because it will help you to become a better writer. The two readings are different in the way that “Shitty First Drafts” states that the writer should just write all of their ideas down first before doing anything. “Revision Is Central To Developing Writing” talks about the first draft as being more of an actual paper or essay that has structure, while “Shitty First Drafts” talks about just jotting down all your ideas first and then forming it into a first draft. At the end of the day it can be the writer themselves that revise their own work.
This video goes over three simple ways to revise your own writing.
- Imagine you are someone else
This first tip means go into your revisions with a different mindset or perspective. This will help to open the writer’s eyes to make sure that the writing has a clear meaning and interpretation.
2. Take an airplane view
The second tip is to not get hung up on little mistakes like punctuation or misspellings while revising your writing. It’s better to go over those things at a later time, it’s most important to go over the meaning of the paper, and make sure that the message can get across clearly to the reader.
3. Use a checklist
The final tip is to have a checklist while going through the writing. It’s always good to know what your paper might be missing and what you can implement into it.
