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Academic writing needs personality, not sentimentality. Only give your group members essays to edit in which you are not emotionally involved. The loss of a loved one does need writing about but unless you have emotionally detached from it, your readers will have a difficult time giving objective comments to subjective writing. |
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Throw out the first draft is the final draft mode of thinking. Writing is a process; revising is a given for everyone, even you. |
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The feedback you receive from your group members will help you see your strengths and weaknesses. Value what they have to say to you. You may not like it, but they are there to tell you what works and what does not work in a piece of writing. |
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All academic, technical, and business writers must consider their audiences. Your group members help you discover what real readers need. |
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Read closely what your editors have to say. Don’t second guess them. If you have questions, write for clarification or refer to your handbook. |
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Sometimes you will get two different opinions on the same aspect of your writing, i.e., one will like the introduction, the other will not. Here is where you need to trust yourself as a writer. However if both point out a problem, you should consider rewriting it. |
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Be open to suggestions, but as the writer you make the final decision. |
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Tracking recurring problems will help you with your next essay. |
A Reminder:
The act of revision allows us the freedom to change and grow, to become the best writers we can be, to truly communicate to other human beings. We cannot do this in our daily lives, as we do not have the time. Where else but in the writing class can we find someone to spend the time and energy to help us find the exact words, the precise way to communicate how we think and feel, for only in our writing do we have the luxury of showing how thoughtful, how creative, how caring we really are. We recreate ourselves each time we allow our fingers to change a word, add a sentence, or throw out a paragraph. We need to thank our editors for helping us do that.
