This is the note from my professor
Hello Ellia,a few things here,
– make sure you single space; this spacing looks off
you can match the format as such http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/653/2/
– therefore, remove my name, as it’s going to another student, not me
– the tone is a bit off, remember the intent is to give your advice to a new peer; this sounds very technical
– you want to open with a friendly tone, something that doesn’t go right into “revising a paper”
– remember, one paragraph/ one topic
May 8, 2013
Amanda Harrison
English Professor
8111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330-8272
Dear Student:
Revising an English paper does not have to be a difficult task. Depending on the professor, you may get detailed feedback or general suggestions. While some people may be intimidated by the prospect of writing an essay, it does not have to be a difficult undertaking. The lessons that can be learned in English 113AB will be very useful throughout any academic career. That is why it is important to focus on the lessons throughout this course and realize that the professor is helping you to become a better writer so that you are able to succeed in other courses as well. Becoming a better writer is the first step to becoming a great student in college. Writing assignments will account for a great deal of your work in English 113AB because the focus is on making sure that you have the knowledge of writing to continue in other courses.
The steps to revising an essay for this course include taking feedback from the professor and incorporating it into the next draft. However, it is important to pay close attention to the types of issues that the professor points out in your writing because in future courses you will have to be able to write and edit your own work without feedback before handing in the final draft. The steps to revising an essay were one of the most important lessons that I learned over the course of this class. The first step is to check for any grammar and spelling problems and correct those first. Then it is important to check for content, this is where you make sure your paragraphs flow well and your body supports your thesis. You also have to make sure that the conclusion ties the ideas of the whole paper back together.
I always check my papers to make sure that my word usage is correct and that a sentence reads the way I mean for it to. A misplaced comma can change the tone of an entire paper so it is important to make sure that your sentences mean what you want them to mean. A great way to check these parts of content is to read your paper out loud to yourself. I have also tried reading it one sentence at a time, backward so that I do not get caught in the flow of the paper and insert words automatically that I may have skipped in writing. This is one of the reasons why this course is so important, because you will have a chance to practice the skills that will be important for the rest of your college career. Learning to depend on yourself to check your work, instead of the spelling and grammar check in Microsoft Word is very important, because the automatic check can be wrong. I hope that you are able to learn as much in English 113AB as I have been. It will be to your benefit in all of your other classes and will make you a much more confident writer.
Sincerely,
Ali Esmaeel.
