This reading was all about how to revise your papers, and not just revision when it comes grammar, but revising with an actual purpose behind it. Ballenger starts out this chapter by describing his high school girlfriend and how he wasn’t sure if he really liked her at first, and then went on to describe qualities about her that made him hesitant to date her, but they stayed together for three years because “I persuaded myself … that I couldn’t live without her. There was no way I was going to break my white knuckled hold on that relationship. After all, I’d invested all that time.” Ballenger then went on to explain how this is similar to the relationships writers have with their drafts. We’ve worked so hard and when we finally finish it we’ve developed such a tight knit relationship that the problems within our draft are difficult for us to see. But Ballenger points out that revision is a process where we need to “step back from the draft and change your relationship with it, seeing it from the reader’s perspective rather than just the writer’s.” You can do this in many ways, my favorite listed in this reading is “wrestling with the draft.” This is an exercise where you choose a random page from the draft and have two different colored highlighters. With one color you go through and highlight parts where you are a less active author (this includes: facts, quotes, or any ideas presented that are not your own.) And with the other color you highlight where you are an active author, which is your interpretation and analysis or synthesis or these facts and quotes. By doing this you are able to see whether you rely too heavily on your sources and need more of your own thoughts, or if your opinion is too strong throughout the piece and you need more sources to back it up.
I found this reading to be entirely helpful, and I plan on using all the exercises and tips listed within it. I have found throughout my academic career, that even if an exercise seems long and tedious, if it something Bruce Ballenger recommends then it is something that will most definitely help me in my writing process. Sometimes when I am in the revision process I don’t put nearly much thought and time into the effort because, like I stated before, it’s hard for me to find errors in my draft or I am just not revising with a definite purpose. But because of this reading I know how to revise properly, and yes the little details are important, but being able to revise the draft and content as a whole carries much importance as well. And I am so excited to apply what I have learned from this reading in my revision process these next couple weeks as I prepare my portfolio.
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