I just wanted at least Dr. Usher to know that I am an iterative writer. Perhaps this is another way of saying I am a lazy writer. I have been blogging since 1999 before blogging applications were commonplace and so before I ever considered graduate school I have a writing process such that I publish a document and then go back and read it. I do this at least 10-15 times before there is a lull in the editing. I will try not to do this, but it is a habit that dies pretty harshly. At the very least I will try to have the last edit done by the due date.
Does anyone else do this?
I mainly post mine - to see it in its "published state" I don't know why - the preview just doesn't do it for me. But yes, I write very intensely and then go back to review and review some more and then again, until I inevitably get drilled with punctuation errors. I was ruined in undergrad when an English Professor said "you have great ideas, and your conceptual writing is great, don't worry about punctuation, that's why we have editors". Worst advice ever.
ReplyDeleteI also do this. As soon as I hit "publish" I think of three more things I'd like to add, and have to go back in. I always try to get my writing done a few days early so that I can proofread it and change things seven thousand times. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen complimented by one of his correspondents regarding his lucid writing style, William James wrote back, "If there is aught of good in the style, it is the result of ceaseless toil in rewriting. Everything comes out wrong with me at first; but when once objectified I can torture and poke and scrape and pat it till it offends me no more."
ReplyDeleteGood editing is a great habit. No worries.