Blog #4

Revision is kind of a nicely therapeutic process for me. I like to take what I have, usually a pretty rough draft of a paper, and then turn what I have into a real, substantive, coherent paper. I like to have other people read it to me, so I can identify what sentences work and which ones don’t. Often I’ll write something with a certain intended inflection that doesn’t carry over to writing, so I have to rephrase in order to make it make sense. I’ve also in the past used text to speech software to have my computer read me what I’ve written, because if a computer can say it the way you intended, so can most people. I’ll also go over the structure of my paper and see if my thoughts make sense where they currently are. Do my ideas lead to one another well? Are there any sentences which don’t really make sense next to their neighbors? I’ll also go in and add more detail, something that drafts are usually lacking. Revision also gives me an opportunity to go in and make my use of voice more vibrant, too. I’ll look for opportunities to make jokes or point out irony, massive exaggerations and analogies are among my favorites, too.