Thlog 4: HighLite Up my Life

  Each week in Writing 2 thus far has brought forth a few key writing concepts that have helped me to not only improve my technique, but actually get excited to work on my skills and make solid progress in my development as a rhetor. This week was no different, and I feel as though the editing processes we covered in class are quite practical for any type of writing assignment. While I originally felt fairly confident about my WP1 paper going into Monday's class, using the techniques we discussed and taking another look at it improved my writing quality tenfold for this assignment. The first trick that really resonated with me involved the highlighting activity, which pinpointed the most important aspects of my paper and gave me a fantastic visual representation of where I could make adjustments and improvements to better express my ideas. Once I had highlighted the various aspects of my paper it became quite clear that I had a great deal of excess fluff which I was then able to eliminate and replace with ease, something which seemed daunting and impractical prior to completing this activity.
  The second fundamental skill that I learned in class this week involved the poetry activity that we reviewed on Wednesday. By spacing out my sentences and analyzing each part of my essay in isolation, I was able to observe weak points such as run-on sentences and pacing issues throughout my main body paragraphs. Again, I found this activity to be invaluable in my writing process and will utilize it for the duration of my writing journey. I had always wondered about the most efficient way to analyze and edit my papers, and both of these methods proved to be just that. Looking forward to progressing even more during the weeks to come!