Jan 15th Response to Question 1

When I write a paper, I usually need near silence to concentrate. The particular paper I am going to be talking about was written last semester, and I wrote most of it sitting at my desk in my dorm room. If my roommate happened to come in, I would have moved to the study lounge where it is usually very quiet. Because I need silence, there is not music playing in the background and the television is never on. I very rarely wait until the night before to type a paper, mostly because I can't stand the feeling of a due-date hovering over my head an so I just feel the need to get it done as soon as possible. I rarely do any written pre-work, but I spend a great deal of time imagining in my head what the paper will turn out like before I start to write it. It has been a while since I've done a first draft on paper; I have gotten in the habit of just typing it for the first time and then revising it from the original file. The paper I am talking about was a film critique for the movie "Idiocracy" which we viewed in my English 103 class before writing it. That was the first time that I had written that kind of paper and the most difficult thing for me was sticking to actual criticism and not letting my personal opinion slip in at the wrong time. The difference between editing and revising is difficult for me to define. I think that revising is the process of reviewing something for errors that has already been written but not necessarily changing those errors. The editing is where you go back to the revisions you've made and make changes.