Revision Strategies

This English 110 class has been very helpful with helping me discover my favorite revision strategies. Before this class I never put much emphasis on revision, but since then I have not only learned the importance of the revision process, but also ways to effectively revise. I really enjoy the strategy of treating the text as a conversation, responding to every idea as I read it. This allows me more thoroughly engage, understand, and follow the text as I read. This strategy will help me understand more complicated texts in the future which will be very useful in the rest of my education and beyond. Another strategy I find very useful is to revisit the prompt, no matter what stage of the writing process you are in. This has helped me prevent my ideas from straying from the main idea, even if I got lost in thought. Countless times I have found my writing straying from the main topic, but by revisiting the prompt I can always real it back in before its too late. This strategy will help me beyond writing in the future. No matter what problem I’m working on, by asking myself what the actual problem is, I will prevent myself from getting distracted at what tasks I must actually accomplish. The last strategy I found very useful is peer-review. This is something I’ve always underestimated but when your peers are actually engaged it helps a lot and allows the writer to understand how the reader is perceiving their words. This has helped me make ideas in my paper more coherent. This is another skill that extends beyond writing. In the future I know I have friends I can trust to be another pair of eyes on my work. Whether that work is a paper, project, or job related task doesn’t matter. Overall this English class has prepared me for the future is ways I would have never predicted.

After reviewing my peer’s comments I am a lot more confident about my free draft. It seemed challenging to put my ideas into a coherent essay at first, but it appears like I did an alright job. That being said, I still have my work cut out for me. First, I have to add my other modes into my essay. While I have outlined where I am going to use them, I have to pick the right pictures and songs I want to use. Second, I want to focus my argument and claim sentences to support what I actually want to talk about. While I do have decent claim sentences, they aren’t exactly what I’m trying to say. Lastly, there are minor tasks to attend to such as grammar, quotes, and citations. After I accomplish all of this I feel like I’ll be in good shape. However my biggest challenge will most likely be focusing my claim sentences. While I know what I want to say, it feels difficult to actually articulate these thoughts. But with some focused thought I should be able to over come this challenge. If I can’t overcome these challenges on my own, I’m sure i can return to my peers, or teacher, to help me brainstorm some ideas. Overall, I like where I am right now and feel confident approaching this final stretch of my paper.

For my essay I am planning on using a variety of modes of communication including visual, auditory, and spatial. This includes using videos, pictures, hyperlinks, and audio clips to support my ideas. I plan on using sounds and pictures to help compare an contrast what society and I view as beautiful. My current plan for hyperlinks and videos is to use them as evidence to support my argument. Some hyperlinks will be to peers projects such as the one about Art is hospitals. This will allow me to draw in other’s ideas to help support my own. Overall, while I’m not quite yet sure how it will all fit yet (we will start to find that out in the free draft) I am exciting to be able to use other modes of composition to support my argument.

The following is a lite outline to help guide my writing. I’m not sure exactly how I want to format and organize it. I feel like my essay will really begin to take shape as I start to write. Bellow are just some of the points I want to touch on in order to hit the criteria on the rubric:

Beauty: Life’s Natural Motivation

Thesis: Beauty is all around us gives and gives the hope and will to keep moving on.

-Make sure to at least introduce Schiller in the introduction

-Include a hook

Main idea one: My personal experience with beauty

Detail: -I strive to find beauty in everything, this gives me appreciation of life

-Pictures of Beauty and explain

Detail:- Looking for the beauty in everything gives hope

-Example from world(Maybe a sound clip)

Detail: – Certain beauty can be motivation

-(another opportunity for a sound clip)

Main idea two: Armstrong and Schiller: The two drives

Detail:- Summarize and explain Schiller’s views

-use quotes from the text to help

-Use pictures to aid

Detail: -I like what he’s saying however it’s too simple

-Beauty is a complexity, can’t be as simple

Detail:-We don’t need the level of understanding Armstrong is describing

-while it may be nice beauty can be appreciated at any level

-Self examples and world examples

Main idea Three: The Role of beauty in current society

Detail: -Society’s views on beauty are hard to pin down

-so many different beliefs

-explain some beliefs (maybe video or pictures)

Detail:-Compare society’s beliefs to own

-Make sure to include examples

-Explain how these difference affect views on life

Detail:- Hit home on how beauty can motivate people

-great opportunity to use the School of Life video

-use a quote or clip

– Should society change views of beauty?

Conclusion:Beauty is beyond what we currently understand. But as long as we appreciate it ourselves, it is serving its current purpose.

-Wrap up points, especially where I disagree with Schiller

“To regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience.” -Armstrong

I don’t quite agree with Armstrong on this point. While I do agree Armstrong’s statement is what usually occurs, I also feel like it is possible to view beauty as a luxury and still gain its full potential. For an example a $1 million painting is most definitely a luxury, but someone could also gain a lot from the paintings beauty. It may move them in an incredible way. I think its unfair to say that viewing beauty as a luxury always decreases the potential of the experience.

To put it simply I find beauty in just about everything. I find it beautiful how small atoms makes up everyday objects. I find the anatomy and physiology of the human body extremely beautiful, how everything work in unison. But I also see beauty on the large scale such as sunsets or a nature scenes. I think that my ability to find beauty has aided me in having a positive outlook on life

I feel like society also has a broad view on beauty. I think that beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. People have drastically different ideas on what beauty is. Armstrong would explain this by saying that people have differing “sense” and “form” drives. Armstrong explains the belief that these drives determine what we find beautiful “For Schiller, true beauty is whatever speaks powerfully to both sides of our nature at the same time”. Armstrong isn’t disagreeing with beauty being in the eye of the beholder, but rather attempting to explain what beauty truly is on a deeper level. Now whether I agree with Armstrong and Schiller’s belief of two psychological drives will take a lot more thought. On one hand it seems completely plausible and reasonable, but on the other hand it seems too simple for todays neuroscience. Overall, deciding on how I feel about this belief is going to take a few more read throughs and more thought on the subject.