My Journals – Page 2 – Ethan's ePortfolio

Journal 2 — Personal Drafting Process and Experience

My experience in drafting writing projects is lengthy and has progressively gotten better, especially after my year in AP English Language and Composition in high school. At the beginning of my writing experience, I was all for the whole “one-and-done” I would write something, possibly read through it, and submit. As time went on, teachers had stressed the fact that proofreading and drafting your writing was crucial. I’d start to “rough-draft” my writing and severely proofread it—finding errors that I would then correct in other drafts. What I’d learned in AP English was life-changing. Literally. My teacher told us to stay concrete with drafting our writing out and reading through to make sure that we had written everything we needed. What she taught us that really struck a chord with me was leaving your writing and coming back to it another day. You never really realize how much a break from the subject you’re writing really helps. You come back, fresh-minded, energized, and optimistic. You can scan through the writing and see mistakes you would have thought were perfect when you wrote them. Word choices can be changed, subjects can be elaborated on or cut down for brevity. One time, for example, I trashed an entire 1,500-word essay because I did not agree with what I was writing the night before. What I ended up writing was much better.