Editing

I think I might be the only person who is relieved to be in the editing phase of her prospectus. It has been such a long process these past ten months simply trying to nail down what it is I'm writing about. Now, finally, no one is telling me they don't understand my argument or that I don't have a thesis statement or that this has already been done. I find the refining process far simpler than the creating process--further evidence of my lack of pure creativity!

Something I've really been working on in editing is how I use my secondary source material. While on the brink of tears in a meeting with Dr. Dobranski a week and half ago, I finally heard some advice that helped me: analyze the secondary sources as texts in and of themselves instead of merely as criticisms of another text. This information has contributed to my sudden ability to streamline criticism into my prose without incredibly awkward transitions. I'm not professing perfection here, but I feel a vast improvement.

I also tried to take some of my own advice this week. I often suggest to my students that they read their work aloud or else have another person read it to them. I have now taken to calling my mother or the long-suffering Meredith Zaring and reading them my work. My mom, like all too-involved parents, seems happy enough with this job, but Meredith might kill me soon. However, it has helped. Before, when I would proofread silently to myself, I would commonly miss marginal errors, perhaps as a result of my strained eyes skating over mistakes by willing them to be invisible. Now, when I'm reading to an audience, I see all the stray commas and "with the"s that look like "withe"s (That should be a legitimate contraction, by the way). This should prove a handy tool until people get tired of me calling them up late at night to read them really boring academic prose.

There are many more tricks I've added to my paper-writing tool kit this week, but these two have been the greatest of help. And just think, after a week of "family fun," I'll probably have even more (read: the implication here being that I will be so bored by my extended family and their shenanigans that all I will do is schoolwork).