The Advantages of Revision in Class

Over the past weeks, we were doing several times of revision in class before turning in the formal essays. I thought it won`t useful, because not everyone is writing the same topic and they probably don`t know what exactly I am writing about. To my surprise, I found my final draft had been improved a lot compared to my rough drafts. The feeling of reading others` essays is it is an efficient way to learn how to write a better essay, for instance, sentences` structure, powerful language and grammar. Frequently, I can find some useful things from others` essays, which I don`t know previously, or misused in my essays. I believe there is no lack of good English-writing students in this class. Meanwhile, it is necessary for me to let my classmates edit my rough drafts. I have a hard time balancing the essay when it goes a little long every single time. Here, they play roles as different readers when critiquing my drafts. They won`t have the same idea when they are reading the same essay, just like different person has different value of appreciation of beauty. In the end, I just need to integrate all the comments on my rough draft in producing the final paper. I believe nothing is better than in class revision in helping me improving my writing skills step by step.

I have progressed in writing and providing feedback changed at the same time this semester. I attribute my improvement to the critique on my draft from my classmates. I was providing ineffective feedback on others` draft at the beginning of this semester.I didn`t realize how ineffective they are until I got the feedback back on my draft from others`. They pointed out my specific errors, or provided suggestion that I should make this or that change in the following writing. It mentioned me that stop focusing on how good their writing is, but their failure in drafts. Nevertheless, I am still a little worry about editing too much on others` work will be impolite so far. Because I have no idea how they consider my feedback or comments on their essays. It is a conflict between readers and writers. Writers have their own ideas after all. So I have to hold back a little bit when I am revising others` drafts. Actually, I am not worry too much about it now. I found my classmates wrote what they saw and thought on my essays. It is nothing wrong with pointing out someone`s shortcomings, because they are sincerely doing this job. Hopefully everyone has the same feeling as mine.

I won`t make progress without other people`s help. To be specific, I like “what,” “how” and “why” this kind of interrogatives on the feedback the most. A question mark is not bad as well. In a word, I like people doubting my work, which means my writing is not persuasive enough, or acceptably. In this way, it is easy for me to modify mistakes and extend content. For example, some people suggested me to talk about my viewpoints in details, or “don`t talk too much on one side, you can write things like this to balance your argument…” Then they even showed me how to make my essay better in specific ways. Sometimes, I won`t find what is wrong with it until other people told me. Even it is just a careless mistake.

Overall, what we had done in class is good enough. At least we could exchange our compositions in class and acquire ideas from different people as many as possible. I consider the feedback as one of the most important components in my essay. But I have to sift out the information carefully to find out which ones are useful and which ones are not. There is no standard for making comment on others` draft after all.