- For my revision project, I chose to focus on a paper I had written in my freshman year ENG110 course. This paper talked about different discourses and how those discourses can shape one’s identity. I thought this would be a good paper to revise because I can relate it to my own experiences through the science and humanities discourses, while also talking about how these experiences have shaped my own identity. The revision paper and presentation are mostly based off of works by James Paul Gee, but do include other sources and tons of my own insight and arguments.
- The creation of a new paper from an old project required tons of revision and rewriting. I had to go through the archival version of my original paper to decide which parts were worth keeping and expanding on, and which weren’t relevant anymore. This was somewhat difficult to do because my original paper lacked a lot of my own ideas. I focused entirely too much on summary. However, this made it easy to remember the sources I used originally and the quotes I found to be important.
- Under step one of my detailed revision process in my ePortfolio, you’ll see the notes and commentary of the source use in my original paper. I go through each source to outline how I used it originally, if I plan to continue to use it and how I will do so. This helped me to determine what is beneficial to keep and revise. This process follows a revision process talked about by Joseph Harris.
- The revision process showed me how much my writing has grown over my four years. Part of the benefit of using a paper from the first semester of freshman year is that it allowed me to compare my growth across all four years. My original paper lacked a thesis and provided far too much summary than needed. I now know how to effectively write a thesis and stick to that argument throughout my essay. My writing has become more argument based and meaningful.
- I was also able to recognize my personal growth throughout these four years at UNE. I came in with the goal of going to Dental School. I felt that I needed to focus on the sciences and ignore my love for the humanities in order to get there. I found myself trying to sub some sort of English or Writing class in for anything I possibly could. I’ve essentially flipped that mindset, where now I focus on the humanities and sub in my sciences. This allowed me to gather everything I need for Dental School, while also being able to take the classes I’m interested in. I got to focus more on reading and writing and no longer felt the need to surpress that.
