In this course, I have discovered the importance of viewing writing as a process, how drafting is essential to organizing and developing ideas, and how revision is oriented toward providing a reader with clarity. Before Writing 1000, I mistook revision for proofreading, which in effect left my arguments underdeveloped and lacking perspective. The writing process has had significant impact on my Short Paper 1.2 in that my argument changed drastically in response to gaining a deeper understanding of “Up, Simba” and Wallace’s rhetorical situation. In my first draft I mentioned how Wallace’s informal tone and poor use of language was detrimental to the article, but after gaining a stronger grasp of his goals in writing the essay, I realized that he was not appealing to an academic audience, but rather a general public of cynical youth voters.
Also, I was introduced to the “Old-New Contract” which presents information in a logical way, turning writer-based prose that is written during the drafting process, into easily maneuverable reader-based prose that is derived through revision based on critical inquiry. For instance in my original draft of Major Paper 1, I fail to define “anticandidate”, leaving readers unfamiliar with Wallace’s essay and unclear as to what an anticandidate is, which is why in my revision I referenced the old-new contract with the addition of “a sort of outlier, a politician wired differently from his predecessors, and a politician given the label of an ‘anticandidate’”, which ultimately added clarity and streamlined the focus of my essay. Seeing writing as a process has been valuable to my writing this quarter, for it has led me to elaborate and expand upon my claims, thus becoming a more valid component of the larger conversation.
Here you can see part of the process that led to the development of my final draft of Major Paper 1. In order are: first draft of Short Paper 1.2 (with instructor comments), second draft of Major Paper 1 (with instructor comments), Final Draft of Short Paper 1.2 (“Inspiring the Cynics of America’s Tomorrow”), and Final Draft of Major Paper 1 (“The Conventionality of Anticandidates”).
Continue to Conventions