E - Portfolio

"Write Early, Revise Often" ..... Is it really that simple?

Throughout junior high and high school, I was placed in all honor level programs from math to history to even science. I was very lazy throughout my academic career and never took any classes too serious because I always got A's and B's even with my average work ethic. I did enjoy the classes a lot but all the homework that was piled on was so stressful. I had to force myself to do the homework and it usually took up most of my school nights because I always waited last minute. However, in writing courses I wasn't in honor level classes and it sort of made me mad because I had been in honor classes for practically every other subject (not trying to brag). This made me feel as if I was a bad writer because I couldn't get into the honors level writing course.

I accepted my role of being a sub-par writer because I didn't place in the honor program. All throughout high school I would write a 1 or 2 draft paper and turn it in as is, never really thinking to draft multiple times to perfect the paper. I would get B's and C's on almost all papers and I accepted that because I thought I wasn't smart enough to get into an honors writing course. I knew I was a bad writer and accepted it.

Fast Forward to College Writing 1. Dr. Kyburz told me, "Write Early, Revise Often". I thought at the time it wouldn't be that simple. After hearing that quote I decided to use that quote for my next paper. I wrote my rough draft the day the paper was assigned and brought it in for peer review. Not only this but Dr. Kyburz also edited for me with many constructive criticisms. I took all these revisions and drafted another copy of my paper being slightly more confident in my work. Then after being told in every class to utilize the writing center, I decided to try it out, which gave even more criticism. After about 2 more drafts I was feeling very confident when the due date came around and it was time to hand in the paper.

I now view writing papers as a process like climbing a mountain. There is a lot of difficult work to do before you finish. But, when you do finish it is extremely satisfying to see all the hard work pay off. Drafting multiple copies of my papers was difficult but it paid off in the long run.

I used to think of myself as a terrible writer and writing papers was my weakest attribute. However, after going through Dr. Kyburz class I have discovered that writing papers is about how much work you put into it, your paper will never be perfect the first go through and making many revisions and drafts is necessary. "Write Early, Revise Often". It is really that simple. The earlier you start on a paper the more drafts and edits you will get making your paper better and better each time. I now know that I wasn’t a terrible writer before I just never reached the full potential of what my papers could have been. I see writing papers as a process that could have landed me in an honor level course if I had used Dr. Kyburz advice earlier on.