Learning Outcome 1: Recursive Process
For learning outcome 1, I chose my Big Data essay because I feel that it was the one I spent the most time editing and one I was proud of. Learning Outcome 1 states that writers should approach writing as a recursive process that requires much revision of the initial draft. In high school, looking back, I didn’t edit my papers very much at all. Most of my edits would have been sentence structure, grammar, etc. Now, I edit completely differently. In my Big Data paper, I focused on initially strengthening my claims and finding more evidence to support those claims. I then needed to write the naysayer argument, and because there were so many counter arguments I had to have two naysayer paragraphs. I knew what I needed to change not only from my peers’ comments, but also by finding more evidence it made me realize that I needed to add a significant amount of writing to my paper. Compared to my first draft, my final draft is nothing like the original. I feel that I made significant global edits that strengthened my essay a lot. My new “philosophy” for writing is that it is not about changing some words and calling it good. It is about making edits that in some cases completely change the original idea of your paper. I have realized that I may have a draft with my main argument, but in my final paper, the main argument has completely changed. I now view writing as a recursive process. When I revise now I tell myself that there could be many more thoughts and ideas to come later, so don’t let yourself think that your first draft will be exactly like your final paper.
