kristen kuchay response to curious researcher

Ballenger’s explanation on revision is very clear and uses great examples to prove his points on what he is saying. I especially like how he compared your first draft to a long term relationship. As Ballenger says, you cannot completely re-due or change your entire paper because then your main point or purpose of the paper is abandoned (Ballenger).
When you revise your paper, you need to look at it through the reader’s eyes instead of just yours as the writer. As the writer, you need to understand your purpose, which is where Ballenger says is your starting off point, but also look at the purpose as the reader. Would you as a reader understand the purpose of the paper? You need to ask yourself questions when you are revising your paper to make sure your information is correctly in order, but also put together in a way that makes sense and the transition between information is smooth. Ballenger says you need to look at all the information you have after completing your first draft along with the new information you have picked up since then and compare it to when you began your draft and the questions you posed in that paper. Have any of the questions or main points changed? If so, how (Ballenger)?
Ballenger says one of the, if not the, most important thing you can get from the reader (whether it be your teacher or fellow classmates) is feedback and comments. This helps you as the writer go back in your draft and see where things might have been confusing and if you even understand it after reading it. Also, one of the best things to do is re-print your draft and make changes to it yourself after reading the comments left by the readers. This way, you can correct any errors or mistakes you made that maybe the reader didn’t catch but helped you take a closer look at a specific paragraph. Basically, you need to look deeper into your paper and compare the notes you have now on your topic to the notes you had when you first wrote your draft, along with what you had written in your first draft. Re-examine the main purpose or stance you had taken in the beginning of your paper and whether or not things have changed. If not, simply correct the information given and even emphasize more on it to make it more clear to the reader (Ballenger).