Reading Nancy Sommer's article "Between the drafts" has extremely changed my idea of what revising means. I too, like all the students that Sommer wrote about in her paper, revise my work simply to fix grammatical errors, spelling problems, and the simple things like that. I now see revising as something so much more! I am really glad I was able to read this article before I started to revise my work for my portfolio due soon here at the end of the semester. My plan to revise my work is going to be so much more in depth. I need to work on speaking for myself and let my research tie into what I have to say and not let the work of the research take over my paper and speak for me.
I really like the idea of stepping away from my papers and giving them time to sink in. This way I can go back with a fresh new mind and see if this paper really reflects me. I have actually had it happen to me once before, this occurrence of reading a paper and not even recognizing it as something that I would write. I have gone back and read papers on my computer that I wrote when I was in high school and to be completely honest, I realized that I was writing for the teacher. But in all defense for myself, that is what we were taught to do! All of my english teachers wanted strict research papers, they taught us how to sound smart and scholarly, and I, wanting good grades, did exactly that, but at the same time, I wasn't speaking for myself.
To be honest, Professor Martin is the first writing teacher I have ever had that has encouraged me to write for myself and say what I have to say. Before now, I have been using research and other "authority" to speak for me. I am ready to work on my three pieces of work and revise them in this new way that I now see revising as. I am going to make them my own and re-create them, reorganize them and make them mine. I don't need someone else to make their ideas mine. I can certainly base my ideas off of some of theirs but I know I can think for myself. I am looking forward to re-looking at my work and doing more then just fixing spelling errors and grammatical errors which is typically what i would have done.
A few quotes I found to wrap it up that have encouraged me to speak for myself:
It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes. ~Sally Field
“A choir is made up of many voices, including yours and mine. If one by one all go silent then all that will be left are the soloists. Don’t let a loud few determine the nature of the sound. It makes for poor harmony and diminishes the song.”
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