Getting Restless
Revision = "Death Work"

Revision is “death work”, at least most of the time. Lots of times when I must revise something, whether it is a research proposal, research paper, or a presentation it takes me longer than it took to write the original. (Maybe that is why it needed so much revising in the first place.) The work “revision” just has a very negative connotation attached to it, for me anyway. I understand the importance and significance of revising, but that doesn’t make it any easier to do. However, sometimes revising my work is very gratifying. When I turn a good piece of writing into an even better piece by revising it is worth it, that is the whole point, but too often revising takes on another role for me. To me sometimes it seems like busy work, something that all teachers feel that has to be done. It seems like some teachers assign revision not to help the writer get better but just because it is drilled into them that it is what should be done. I feel that in order for revision to take on a more productive role in the writing process the student must see the worth in it. I know that when I am assigned to revise a paper and the professor is only interested in me correcting grammatical errors then that is all I will do. I am not going to rethink any part of the paper if I know that the professor isn’t interested in that. The times that revision has been productive for me are the times that my professor has actually spent more time on the revision process; looking at the revised copy, making comments on further revision, and then expecting to see even more improvement. Sometimes the point of revision gets misunderstood, it is not only to correct mistakes but also build upon what is already done.

Revision of Proposal

In the spirit of revision, for this week’s blog I am going to build upon my final project proposal. I thought for a long time about what I could do in order to get my message across with out writing a boring research paper. Of course I will have to do the leg work and research the issue of Global Warming thoroughly but I wanted to come up with a unique way of presenting it. Of course I thought of a Power Point presentation but that too can be very boring. However, I am taking a “Writing for Multimedia” course this semester which addresses the different ways multimedia can be used in writing. I never knew how much one could do with Power Point. I, like many others, have only used Power Point for presentations, but Power Point can be used to create much more than just a presentation. You can actually make your own short movie, starting and ending on its own, with video, audio, animation, etc. Of course, there are other software programs that are more advanced, like Adobe Premier, but for a beginner like myself I think I will stick to Power Point. I am excited to see what I can make that will present my case thoroughly and accurately.