The Maker's Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts

Writing an essay can be intimidating. There are so many steps that you must follow that it can be overwhelming before you can say that you finished. But don’t worry. “Writing for an Audience” by Linda Flower, “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts” by Donald Murray, and my personal experience will demonstrate the process of writing an essay: outline, drafting, review, revising, editing, and proofreading in detail. Before any writing, it is recommended that you start off brainstorming. The goal of brainstorming —prewriting, cluster, outline, whatever you want to call it—is to generate a main idea, produce supporting detail, and to organize your ideas logically. Without these steps of brainstorming, your reader will not have a splendid

However, “When professional writers complete a first draft, they usually feel that they are at the start of the writing process.” (Donald Murray 1). Drafting is putting all your ideas from pre-writing, shaping them into paragraphs, and laying out the fundamental layout of your final paper. Specifically, it is to fully develop the main idea, add supporting examples, and organize your ideas confidently. Obviously, in any given essay, there is an introduction, couple body paragraphs, and a conclusion. In the introduction, you will include and present your thesis, which is the whole idea of the essay. Following the introduction, are paragraphs that will consist of supporting examples that encompass your thesis. In each paragraph, there should be a main idea that ties back to the thesis. Finally, a conclusion that wraps up your essay but doesn’t repeat the thesis rather than reflects on what you have written as a whole, giving your essay a sense of unity. Furthermore, don’t be afraid to write more. Writing more than one draft gives you the opportunity to fix any problems and to analyze where the essay isn’t working. In addition, it would be preferable to type your essay instead of writing it out because it save you a tremendous amount of time, avoid hand cramps, and many writing programs like Word or Grammarly can point out your grammar mistakes with a push of a button. Also, don’t

You can meticulously check for proper grammar, formatting, topographical errors, and the specified requirements for the essay. If your work is peppered with grammatical mistakes and typos, your readers are going to have a hard time understanding your intention resulting in an unexciting reading experience. Especially when you type your essay on the computer, you might type too fast and cause many unnecessary grammatical errors. Additionally, having the proper format or layout, which includes indented paragraphs, headings, and bibliographical references, makes your essay look professional rather than looking like a letter or note. Lastly, your essay should follow the guidelines that your instructor in order to receive the “A” that you work arduously