The Revision Process

Revising a paper…where to begin? The revision process has never been one of my preferred parts of writing a paper. Actually writing a paper in general has never been too much fun and this last mediation paper was not any different. In general this paper was one of the harder ones I have written in my life simply because it had to be unbiased. I chose to do my paper on abortion, which may not have been the best idea, as that is a very hard topic to be unbiased about. However, I picked abortion because I wanted to learn more about both sides of the issue. When it came down to the actual writing, I had already done a little research and I sat down and wrote my rough draft, five and half pages, in two days. That’s what I do when I write a paper. I almost always sit down and write the whole thing at once. This was one of the rare occasions where I spread it over two days. After I write my rough draft I usually don’t go back and look at my paper for a couple days so that when I do come back to it I don’t remember everything I have written and I can look at it from a new perspective, almost as if reading someone else’s paper. I also like for my friends to read my rough draft, they can always catch mistakes that I can’t, spelling errors, capitalization, commas, I count on them for that. After I have given it a few days and my friends have read through my rough draft I go back to the computer with my rough draft and make whatever corrections they have found. Sometimes I do a little more research if I know certain paragraphs need a little more information or something like then I might work on certain paragraphs for a little while then take a break. When I get towards the end of writing my paper I always print out my paper so I can proof read a hard copy. I always do a better job editing my own work when it’s a hard copy instead of a soft copy, still on the computer. Editing a revising a paper is never something I actually enjoy doing but it is never too bad and always easier the better prepared I was for the rough draft.