Blog Post #5

Mark Mason’s “Adaptations, Limitations, and Imitations” made some valuable points on editing and revising papers, but it seemed to drag on forever and did not really catch my attention like the other readings have done in the past. Each of Mason’s drafts does improve as he edits each draft and rewrites his paper, and I could see the quality of the paper enhance and grow with each new draft. Honestly, as a writer in high school, I did not edit my paper nearly enough times as I should have. Occasionally we would have peer editing workshops, which helped somewhat in developing my paper, but they were not nearly as in depth as the workshops we have done in ENC1101 so far. Even after writing my first paper in college, I feel like I have improved at least somewhat with my writing skills. The peer editing workshops and teacher conferences helped me tremendously when writing my first paper. I think I have finally realized the importance of editing my writing and the significant difference editing has on the final product of my paper. Sometimes when editing my own paper, I have difficulties changing and editing my thoughts and ideas, because in my own head I know exactly what point I’m trying to convey to the reader. So I don’t always find my personal editing nearly as helpful as my peer’s or teacher’s response to my writing. I also find this same issue when deleting parts of my paper, because I know what I’m trying to say in my head but to the reader it may not be clear. So when the reader can point out these specific parts that lack clarity, I feel like it strengthens my paper and my writing. Personally, I have really benefited from the peer editing workshops that we have done thus far in the semester. The practice of editing my peers’ papers has also helped me in editing my own papers, as well. Hopefully, my writing will continue to improve through the editing and drafting process.