Between the Drafts

          Before reading Nancy Summer's article "Between the Drafts," I saw writing and revising as two minor techniques blended into one process.  In my mind, if you did a decent job writing your first draft of a paper, revising simply consisted on minor corrections in grammar and punctuation, maybe a reorganization in paragraph format at the very most.  However, after reading Summer's article, my perspective has definitely been flipped. I now appreciate how important revision is for every kind of paper, no matter the time spent writing it or how strongly you feel about it.  There's always an improvement to make, and that goes for everything in life.

           Trying my best to avoid cliche examples but evidently failing, I would like to compare it to practicing at a sport or talent.  Sure, a player could have raw talent from the get go without any assistance, but simply going to practice and taking criticism from other players/coaches can make the individual improve drastically.  We as students already perform this kind of "revision" in daily life without thinking about it.  For example, when one is attempting to take a "selfie" how often does he/she opt with the first picture? In my opinion, this is a rare occasion. Normally, I find myself taking 15-20 pictures of the same pose, just altering one little thing.  Then, I go through every single one and critique it until I narrow it down to 2-3.  The winner usually becomes my profile picture on some social network.... sad but true.

          I believe Summer's article has a metaphorical life lesson embedded in the text.  She is teaching students like us that your best work doesn't always come from your first try.  It comes from your work being stripped, criticized and altered constantly.  Now that being said, I cannot fully promise to myself that I will always take the full time required to revise a paper.  I really ought to, but we all know that breaking a habit is soooooo much harder than adopting it.  I can say that I will try my best to take Summer's advice into account and see how I can apply it.