Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Cutting Through The Rough Draft

In class today, we participated in an activity that is different to anything I have ever done before.

I took my rough draft and using scissors, I cut up all the paragraphs. I then organized the paragraphs into two piles. One pile was for the paragraphs that were directly inline with my thesis, while the other pile was for the paragraphs that did not line up with my thesis.

I was then asked these two questions based on the paragraphs that were inline with my thesis.

1.     Experiment with the order/ structure of your paragraphs. Try at least 2 different set-ups. How are they different? What did you learn?

2.     How did this whole process help you re-see your essay?

I found the results extremely interesting; which are as follows:

1.     Experimenting with the structure of my paragraphs affected the way my essay looked and sounded, as well as allowing me to see different perspectives of my essay. Changing the order of the paragraph actually affects the voice, style and tone of my paper. Experimenting with the order is helping me analyze which tone and direction I want to take my paper in.

2.     I discovered that my paper needs to be clearer in my opinions, learning to separate my own voice more from my researchers voices.  In general, I thought this process helped my to re-see my essay from a different perceptive all together. It felt as if I was apart of the audience reading my paper. Overall, this exercise was extremely insightful and beneficial.


At first this exercise may come across as a waste of time, however I advice you to persevere through it. I found the results extremely beneficial and insightful. I hope this exercise helps you see your research paper from a different perspective.


Love, Serve, Repeat.

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