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Revision Analysis
When I arrive home, I decide to check on the Portrait of a Writer assignment again
before turning it in.
0-5: I begin correcting errors while I am reading the assignment aloud. [RO]
6-10: I start searching the essay for any sentences that seem out of place or could
be replaced with something more fitting. [EDEL] [EADD]
11-15: I decide the essay is good enough and proceed to upload it on Blackboard.
The next day after I uploaded the draft, I went to the University Writing Center and
asked a tutor to review my paper and possibly mention something that I could
improve. The advice I got from the tutor was to check a dictionary while I am
writing, because he noticed various false cognates, which are defined as pairs of
words that are similar in form but have different roots. The reason why those were
in my essay is because I couldnt find the words to describe what I wanted to write
in English, so I traduced some words in Spanish to similar sounding words in
English, but these did not always have the same meaning. Therefore, whenever I
did this, it ended up being confusing and often was interpreted as something that
was not related to what I wanted to write.
So, now that I have seen the video and written all the behaviors that I noticed, I
would like to give my new interpretation about the various aspects of my writing
process, such as the patterns that I follow during the process, my strengths and
weaknesses in composition, and other aspects related to the writing process.
The where and when I am writing is actually important to me because when I write,
I prefer doing so in a place I know I will not be interrupted frequently. This I
because if I do not concentrate when writing, I am easily sidetracked. I prefer to
write and submit assignments early, so that I do not have to stress about them
when it is almost due.
One pattern that I have identified during my writing process is that I stop between
paragraphs to make revision. I noticed it various times during my recordings. I
check for grammar errors and sentences that could be improved. I do this to have
something to do while I am thinking on how to continue on the next paragraph. I
always try to have a larger amount of words than the minimum required, because I
often feel the minimum is not enough to express everything I want to write. I also
noticed that most of the time I write in silence.
When I was in high school, I was told that in an academic essay, I should have at
least three important points I should cover about the lecture or article that is being
analyzed. I was not in favor of this process because it seemed too strict a rule. I
still think that how many important points you make does not matter that much,
because the most important thing is understanding what you are writing about and
knowing how to develop that knowledge in written form.
I think most of these patterns are positive, but others I might try modifying or
getting rid of. I am not sure what I want to do about my habit of revising every
paragraph. The way I see it, it has both advantages and disadvantages. The
advantages would be that I spend less time on the revision of the entire essay and
I correct errors that could possibly be overlooked in the latter revision .
I would say that my writing process is almost the same as the one I described
during the Portrait of a Writer assignment, except for a few things that I did not
notice at that time. Until recently, I did not know what a false cognate was, and I did
not realize that sometimes I try to traduce Spanish words to English with the
purpose of filling in when I cannot find a word for what I am trying to say in English.
My strength in writing is being able to interpret articles coherently, having a
moderately good vocabulary, having no problems on being able to concentrate on
the essay I am writing and being accustomed to reading. I also think that the
techniques I use for prewriting are very helpful to my process; they allow me to
understand larger bodies of text, which in turn allows me to write a better essay.
My weaknesses in writing is that sometimes I have to pause for long times just to
get an idea of what I will write about next. I am always worried if what I wrote
before is going to be good enough and if it makes sense.
In conclusion, I would like to say I have gained a lot of insight on my writing
process. I have identified many behaviors that are valuable to my writing process,
and others that slow it down. Identifying a problem is the first step to have it solved,
so I hope I will be able to eliminate or modify those blocking behaviors and be
more productive and efficient in composition.