Throughout high school, I never really wrote free first drafts of my papers. Many of my teachers didn’t have us peer review, which led me to write out my whole essay in one day and barely touching it after that. I would go through and edit my grammar, but not much of anything else. This semester in English 110, I have learned a lot about editing my papers. I realized how helpful it is to write out the first draft and then later turn in a polished final draft.
For this paper, I wrote my first draft as no one would ever see it. I didn’t pay any attention to my format or grammar, I just wrote. I also didn’t focus on meeting the word count, because I knew I could go back and expand on my ideas. I also didn’t write a strong thesis, because I use the body of my essay to develop a strong one at the end. Once I completed my first draft, my peers reviewed it and left suggestions, which I went in and read them all. Once I take my peer’s suggestions into account, I then start to completely revise.
While I was revising this paper, I changed many things. I completely changed my thesis to make it much stronger and fit my paper better. I also combined a few paragraphs and completely rearranged my whole essay. I realized that in order for it to flow better, I had to change the order of my paragraphs. Another thing I changed was the sentence, “Strawson’s essay confused me a little.” to “I disagreed with Strawson’s essay because he went into detail about how people’s lives are not stories.” I did this because I wasn’t confused about what Strawson’s essay was saying, but realized I didn’t fully agree with him.
When I revise, I add and remove quotes, rearrange my essay, add points to help expand on my ideas, and more. Once I am happy with my final draft, revise my grammar. I have never been that good at grammar, which is why I wait until the very end to focus on it. I do use Grammarly, but I also like to go in after to double-check everything.
