Second Paper Revision

This paper seemed easier to write than the first since this assignment felt more structured. Still, the intro received criticism.  I knew that the thesis did not capture the entire essence of the paper very well but I felt that could have been worked on later. Some of the problems that appeared in the previous paper appeared in this one as well. The solutions are simple yet complicated. I feel so close to writing a high-grade paper yet so far. I’ll probably have to seek outside assistance to improve on the papers (e.g. SACC). Or, read over  a number of successful thematic essays.

The biggest problem seems to be fitting every idea in. Multiple ideas are connected to each other which in turn connect to other ones, each needing to be explained. It seems nigh impossible to fit everything into one or two sentences, the thesis statement. The only real answer is to isolate and communicate only one or two ideas but that does not give a full enough picture and does an injustice to the reader. All the meanwhile evidence has to support the ideas. I’m not sure how this can all be done in an essay from a narrow handful of literary texts. The simplest answer is to change the thesis to fit the texts, not try to fit the texts into the thesis. This is less fun but it’s probably a better approach.

Revisions, revisions, revision… I’m wondering if this is what a writer spends most of his time on. If that’s the case I don’t envy one. Why dwell on the same thing for so much time? Moving forward is the right way to go. If you’re spending so much time on the same thing with relatively few results it’s better to move on and come back again. That’s my philosophy anyway. Time is too precious to waste.