Recursive Writing Process:
The first draft of my essay was not that great, there was lots of revision to do. The growth between my first and second drafts was very thoughtful. On a global level, I changed my argument so it was clearer and easier for other audiences to read and understand. I made my thesis more specific to align with my main argument and made sure my key points all followed the right order. After my first draft, I expanded my ideas by adding more evidence to make my claims stronger. What I did not do in my first draft was expand off of my evidence and add real world values and events. So, in the second draft I did that and more. I also had to completely reshape my introduction to make it more focused and engaging to my audience. My examples were also weak so I had to replace those as well with ones that were more relevant and supported my points. In the end, my revisions helped me to make my argument more clear and is a reflection of my growth between the two drafts.
Integrating Ideas:
In my essay I created strong connections between the texts I chose. I did so by finding similar themes like how complex human relationships are and how much tension there is between being your own individual versus how society expects you to be. I compared important moments where people struggled with self-identity and parts with extreme conflict. I added my own ideas from the readings using symbolism and had my own opinion on the struggles of others. My thesis goes deep into the problems of societal pressure and the iron grip the government has on the people. I used the texts to display my thoughts, to portray my own thinking on the subject at hand. This essay improved my ability to make deeper connections by connecting all the points of the essay together. I am now able to make stronger arguments and show more explainable evidence.
Citations and Local Revisions:
Using the process of writing and revising, I learned how to properly cite texts. I did so by first using the texts to support my arguments and give credit to the creators through quotes. I made sure that those quotes were paraphrased and put into my essay without any errors. I followed the proper sentence structure and paid very close attention to detail. This strengthened my essay in general while also allowing me to connect key ideas from the texts to my essay.
I also focused on the grammar and other errors in my final draft. I read over my essay multiple times to make sure there were not any issues. I looked for things like run-on sentences and proper punctuation. I corrected spelling mistakes and changed the structure of sentences to make the final draft presentable. I was able to make my essay have a better readability and look more professional. Making sure even the small things like grammar were perfect made the quality of my essay stronger.
