Revision

To me, the word revision evokes memories and visions of meticulously going over each line in a composition, looking at it, checking it for grammar and competency, and then moving on to the next one. For many writers, revision can beocme a dreaded porcess, especially when you've arrived to the point where you've come to believe that it can never be good enough. There is a point where writing is fine, but it only arrives after you've gotten the rievisions done first. I think of revisions as a sometimes-painful experience, but one that is necessary. As with actual writing, the hardest part of revising is just before the act itself, when you have to force yourself to jump in and get to work. When I think of revision, I see a chance to improve something, though this usually doesn't go without a serious investment of energy and attention.

My revision technique is simple: I meticulously go over EACH line in my composition, sometimes two or even three times per line, and I correct any grammatical mistakes or irregularities in tone that I see. While this method is extremely effective, it takes a lot of time to go through each sentence, but it works well, usually leaving me with a paper free of spelling errors and almost free of tonal or contextual errors. It can take me a few hours to revise a paper, but when it's done, my meticulous edits have left it as perfect as I as a human writer can get it to be. This method, again, is very effective, but I'm not sure how time-efficient it is. Regardless, it leaves me with much better work, so I can't complain. I'm also always lookng for new ways to edit and revise my stuff, though. This form of editing also requires commitments in the form of scheduling; one or two hours to edit is a long time.