Reflection #4

I chose Writing Project 2.1, or Paper #2 to revise. This paper pertained to the political
cartoon genre. It discussed an Obama cartoon, as well as a Mother Russia cartoon. My goal was
to state that political cartoons are typically geared toward a particular audience, and they make
fun of more serious matters. I tried to show that this was the case by using their content,
rhetorical appeals, structure, syntax, and diction as examples.
The content of the Obama political cartoon was that it implied that Obama has a difficult
time making and executing his decisions. This is made apparent because of the dates that are
written on the actual cartoon. The Mother Russia political cartoon showed how the Ukraine is
inferior to Russia. This was made known because the illustration showed the Ukraine and being
much smaller compared to Russia.
As far as revision went, I used a variety of techniques. I combined paragraphs, reworded
some sentences, switched sentences around, moved whole paragraphs to where they would better
fit, and even took out whole paragraphs because the content was not pertinent to my purpose.
I decided what to revise after I reread my paper after a couple weeks. I noticed that some
parts did not sound too good and did not flow nicely. I wanted my transitions to be almost
seamless. In addition, some information was not necessary. It appeared that I was just writing
more than was required to add more content, but it was not needed. Some parts also needed to
be reworded because I realized that I obliviously know what I intend on conveying, but my
reader may not.
When I was finished revising my paper, I evaluated my work by proofreading it. I
checked for spelling and grammar mistakes. I also had a second set of eyes read my original and
revised paper to see if the latter was more understandable. I knew that I was done revising when
I had one of my peers evaluate it. She said that my revised version was much more concise and
to the point than the original, which was definitely one of my goals. It helped having a second
set of non-biased eyes read my papers. I also knew that the revision process was complete when
I was personally satisfied. I felt that my second paper was easier to understand.