Response to Melissa Bonneville--Ch. 14, 15

Melissa makes to points that most of us have gone through peer review in our English courses. It is very helpful to receive insight from people who know and understand the assignment. It is useful to also read your work from the perspective of your readers if you are unable to have someone read over it. I liked Melissa’s thought about reading papers out loud and slowly. This can give great perspective and make it easier to find errors or places where the wording doesn’t work. When revising, it helps to read the paper several times correcting for different aspects of revision each time.

Melissa discusses the performance test in which someone reads the document and tries to complete the task as outlined. For manuals, this can be a great way to test for usability. Although, I will not be writing directions in my career, I believe this approach can be used for many topics. After having someone read over your paper, you can ask them what they believe the assignment was, what your main points were, and what was the thesis. This information can help you to decide if the paper makes sense and if your writing is clear.

Chapters 14 and 15

Chapter 14 had some good ideas for revising papers. I liked the idea of reading your draft more than once. It often helps to step away for a moment and then come back to whatever you are doing in order to have a clearer mind. I find that just giving my mind some time to relax I am able to see what mistakes I have made in papers and make them better. The point about making the most significant revisions first is also a good idea. This way you aren’t trying to go through the entire paper and fix everything at once. It is possible to become too overwhelmed and miss small mistakes.

Chapter 15 gave good insight on making documents useable to others. I like to let others read my work to make sure it makes sense and is doing what the assignment asked for. What one person might find important information others might not so it is important to get several points of view before finalizing papers. If your document it supposed to persuade people to action it is also good to see what exactly you are communicating to them. It is important that the readers see what they need to do and feel the need to do it without putting bias in your writing.