Syncing Up My Ideas With My Paper

Ugh. I hate constructive criticism. It makes me rework things and reevaluate and have to do more work. Sigh. But it must be done. My gradebook will surely be grateful, but for now, I will complain.

I knew before I went to the writing center that my first body paragraph was, for lack of a better word, wonky. It didn’t flow exactly right, and the more I had talked out my analysis, I didn’t think it encapsulated everything I was going for. This was confirmed during my visit. Ms. Swift asked me questions that I had the answers to, but my paper did not. I know what I want my analysis to show, but I tend to try to include everything and everything is not relevant. I have to work on refocusing. I gave more context than necessary in some places and I overloaded others with quotes that didn’t really prove anything. I think my main offender was this first paragraph.

I also need to work on bringing it back to Shakespeare. I talked a lot about my performance and my paper was heavy with it. This is a paper that needs both analysis and performance. I provided context for the scene and a few sentences of analysis at the end of the paragraph, but I think I should probably try to integrate more. I get caught up in trying to explain all of the decisions in that scene that things become a little murky. Clarity is key and that is what I am hoping to achieve in my revision.

I also rearranged my thesis during my visit. Ms. Swift read the beginning of my paper and my  thesis didn’t line up with my argument. I knew there were a couple of awkward words, but I didn’t think any type of rewriting was necessary, but when you have some objectively read your work, they will see things wrong that you didn’t. But she called attention to the fact that my thesis promised a slightly different paper in regards to what I argued was the Nurse’s and Juliet’s relationship at the beginning of the play. I only ended up changing a few words, but I think they make a big difference and caused my paper to take a large step closer to my desired clarity.

Another thing I found I needed to work on was word count. Some of my sentences are cluttered. I could cut some unnecessary words here and there and have a shorter essay. This would give me the room I need to provide a clearer analysis and carry my intent for it throughout the paper. I have a plan in my head and I need to work on making sure it and my paper sync up.

During my visit, Ms. Swift just asked questions. When I had answers, I found that sometimes my paper didn’t. I’m not going to destroy my paper, but I do have to reevaluate, rearrange, reorganize. I’ll definitely go to the writing center again because even though constructive criticism leads to more work, it’s leading me to a better paper. Getting an outside opinion is crucial and I hope everyone realizes the value of the program.