Thoughts on revision

Chances are, if you've ever written a paper, then you started off with a "shitty first draft". Chances are, you probably did some serious work on that first draft and made it into something you were very happy to hand in. The process used to fix up something so terrible as a "shitty first draft" is called revision. Revision is simply taking what you already have, cutting out parts that aren't great, and adding in parts that make it into your final draft. Revision is something that everybody can do, but not all people do it correctly. When I revise, I concentrate on following the rubric I'm assigned very carefully, and making sure that everything flows together in a neat, understandable sequence. The easiest way to accomplish a good revision is to have someone other than yourself read your paper. In most cases it's easy to overlook your own mistakes. If someone other than yourself reads your paper they can point out sections that don't flow well or has grammatical mistakes.