Draft and revision example number 1
Draft and revision example number 2 and number 3
In the comments, reflect on this exercise. What did you change, and why? What challenges did you encounter? What did you discover about the editing process? How can you apply this to your own writing and editing?
19 replies on “In-class work 3/15”
I found this to be the most fun exercise because we were given free reign on how to edit the text. We could make it how we would want to the story to be and not stay stuck to the original edit. It’s like how they remix books to be filmed as movies. It gives a glimpse on how scenes can be drastically different depending on who is doing the editing. We decided to make the text funny and a little bit of a comedic moment with very surprising undertones. It really brings out a new perspective about the characters and what they think about themselves and about each other. It’s fun to see a piece of text be so unlike how it originally started. Though purists would probably be appalled and call foul.
In the this exercise, our group changed the language to upbeat and happy language. I wanted to see what it would be like to change tragedy into something more palpable. The monster is no longer ugly and gruesome. He is a beautiful creature that has such love and connection to his creature. Even the weather affected the overall narrative. By taking away the sublime, it takes away the solitude and brings forth their strong relationship.
I learned today how the editing process can really change the meaning and message you are trying to promote. So be careful when giving your work to someone else because the person can charge the whole point. One word can change the whole meaning.
In the passage, I added two words. Although this seems like a simple task, I believe it changed the entire meaning and interpretation of the writing. I added “Dark” to describe the laboratory that Frankenstein was being created in. I did this in order to create a comparison of the light starting to form outside and the darkness still being created inside the lab. I also added “Why” to a sentence that was explaining how he was the first man of genius to discover what he did. This “why” creates the possibility of a question of him not simply being the only one smart enough to make such a discovery but looking at why he may be the only one to do so. I found it challenging at first to want to change anything about the passage because I did not want to take out anything meaningful or add something that made anything less meaningful. To overcome this challenge, I focused on creating ambiguity in the passage and instead of taking away meanings, I offered multiple ones.
This a fun exercise which reflected the editing process and created a scenario in which group members actively worked together to modify the text in both small and in big ways, it was mentioned that adding just one word can change the meaning of an entire paragraph, and similarly for our group changing the setting required an effort in reading through the entire text and ensuring that all places where the setting was mentioned was properly changed, otherwise if not thoroughly changed could result in conflicts with the setting of the text. To me the editing process is a lot more enjoyable then the writing process, it gives the opportunity for the writer to go back and think critically about what they wrote or when editing another piece of work opens the opportunity to dive deep into what the text is trying to convey.
During the opportunity to edit Shelley’s work I was able to create my own version of her work in my own context. Comparatively, other works by Wolstonecraft and Godwin seem to be more complicated in use of references and vocabulary. Editors of my piece will be as easily able to distinguish the theme of my writing as their own version which will help put meaning into my work.
in our group we decided to change the whole meaning behind the gloomy and dark experience of when the monster came to life in front of Frankenstein. We changed the creature into a beautiful one, and along with that we changed things like night into day, rain into sun, nightmare into a dream and from all this change in text we came across a whole new meaning of Frankenstein, one where the theme of isolation is no longer used, instead we portrayed the relationship between the creator and his creation to be a comfortable and close-knitted relationship. A relationship where an accident became a blessing. In the process of editing I discovered that just by changing certain words and sentences around you can change the entire meaning of the story. it also helps to point out different views that a reader could take in while discovering a new story.
I tried to modernize the story and make it more relatable to the class. I changed the setting to NYC and simplified the language to make it easier to read. A big change to the setting is not an easy one to make because the novel was written with the original setting in mind. Characters and events would need to be changed to make everything fit the new time period. I’ve seen this done in the PBS show “Sherlock”, where Sherlock Holmes stories were changed from Victorian England to modern day England.
I discovered that the editing process is about more than just correcting grammar and punctuation. Editing a single word can change the meaning of a text and you need to be aware of that when making changes. I can apply this to my writing by thinking about how individual words have different meanings and choosing the word that fits best.
I made some changes on this exercise which I added space, corrected and deleted some words and gramma which i think might work better. I don’t know if that might change the meaning of the text, but it might be easier to understand. This exercise might have me to improve my editing skills by creating some images of the text and follow up with the story line.
We tried to modernize the text of the writing by changing certain words and the sentence structure. Our goal was to make the reading experience more direct and easy to understand. Even though the reading was not as sophisticated as the Shakespeare writing style, there was still a lot that can be changed to modernize the writing. some challenges I faced was: finding specific sentence structure and how to change it. Editing process takes time because you have to understand what each sentence is conveying, in order to suggest a change. I can use this technique on my writing to make my essay better.
I thought it was challenging editing the text. It was challenging because changing one world could alter the meaning of the entire sentence. I changed some words/phrases to make them more up to date with today’s language. I also changed sentences that were run ons. Also, I changed some of the wording For example, “yet a second step is taken towards my enterprise.” I changed the word enterprise to journey because it fits the sentence better. In addition, I feel that it is really difficult to edit someone’s else’s paper because you don’t know what the author really meant.
In the beginning of the book when Victor Frankenstein was discovered stranded on the ice and the captain asked him what he was doing there, he replied that he was looking for the one who fled from him. I changed the creature to a woman and it made it seem like Victor Frankenstein was now a monster who was looking to do someone harm who had fled from him.
His countenance instantly assumed an aspect of the deepest gloom; and he replied, “To seek one who fled from me.”
“And did the woman whom you pursued travel in the same fashion?”
I might use this to make me consider taking things to a new direction.
changing a single word from a sentence could change the meaning of the text completely. the text i changed was “it would indeed be very impertinent and inhuman in me to trouble you with any inquisitiveness of mine.” the word that i changed was impertinent to polite and inhumane to nice and the meaning was totally opposite what is actually was. the thing i learned from this was that every single word in the text is important.
The editing process is very important because the change of even one word can create a whole new picture for the reader and put them in a new perspective. Our group changed the horror of the story to a positive outlook on the creation of this “being” and the way Frankenstein regards it. There was a lot of horror and disgust in the text, so editing these negative words into positive ones were sometimes a struggle, especially since the natural idea of “Frankenstein” is a scary one.
I didn’t intend to change the meaning of the story in the beginning, but after I changed several words in the context, I think the meaning changed a little bit. for example, I changed the unhappy victim to sorrowful victim. whiling I was reading the book, I sympathized Justine because she was innocent. but I think she didn’t defend herself enough in the story. so I think I subconsciously made her appears more helpless.
Overall, I found the text to be relatively well written with few crucial edits. While I obviously could have changed many sentences, I felt it would significantly change the meaning the author intended and would possibly remove a greater idea which I did not understand. In terms of my own writing, it has made me more aware of the effects of edits and how easily my meaning can be changed through a misunderstanding. While I cannot guarantee a perfect, unedited text, such an assignment has made me prefer to be more selective with whom I edit my paper and to make sure that they understand what I mean by my writing.
Interesting! I think part of what you’re calling our attention to here is the often fine distinction between editing and adapting — a distinction we’ll be exploring throughout the semester.
While editing the paragraphs of our text I didn’t see any big change in the text. We made our paragraphs more modern to make it less confusing. I learned that one change in word choice can change the whole meaning of a paragraph.
By editing on Frankenstein’s writing, I learned that when we proofread any articles or stories, it gave us a chance to recall the narrator’s view. The corrector construct the narrator’s thought to help the reader to understand the writing with more details.
The editing i made was when then stranger starts to recover, i tried to make the story a little funnier, because the other person starts to think of him as a brother. The reason i am changing this is because i want to make the story more understandable, reader will be able to read it very thoughtfully, at the end i was going to make them brother and sister and they live together forever. This editing can help alot because anything you don’t understand, you can use different words to explain it more better, or change the entire course of the reading.