Week Four Blogpost

When I first entered college, I never so much as considered prewriting. Whenever I would write a paper, I would just sit down, and begin writing. Just start typing what I was thinking. I would write out the whole paper that way. Rarely it would end up as a good paper. Without prewriting my thoughts usually get jumbled up, and don’t follow the same theme from paragraph to paragraph.  While writing I would just pound on keys, in one fluid motion. I wouldn’t stop to think about how the ideas would match up with each other to convey one universal theme. As I would reach the end of my paper, I would just write out the conclusion, put my name at the top, and press print. There would be no first, second and especially not third drafts. On top of that there was never any revision. I would write out the whole paper in one sitting. Usually I would rush through it, trying to get it finished as soon as possible was the main goal, not writing a well thought out paper. Since I have begun English 1101, I have learned how almost everything with my paper writing needed “improvement”. I now prewrite before all of my papers because it can help me to draw a line of similarity between all of my separate thoughts. Not only do I prewrite, but I am also writing my papers in drafts, which allows me to improve my paper each time I go back and write more. I can use specific details where I was maybe unclear before. Along with having drafts, I, and sometimes even a peer or two, revise my paper. I go through it and look for mistakes, such as talking in different tenses, or having “fluff” (excess wording where not necessary). My peers will go through and tell me where they don’t fully understand my meaning and what parts are well written. Overall I feel that I am writing better papers than ever before because of these new writing techniques that I am using.