House revision: Calling the council again

Revision used to feel like cleaning up after the battle — boring but necessary. Now I see it more like calling the Small Council back to the chamber. You look again at the map. You ask, “Is this the best route? Did we trust the right sources? Do we need to retreat and try another way?” With my Literacy Narrative and Visual Rhetorical Analysis, I did more than correct grammar. I reshaped my theses, re-ordered paragraphs, cut whole sections, and added new connections to readings. Sometimes revision felt like burning a weak draft with dragonfire and building something stronger from the ashes. That process is painful, but it is also where real growth happened.

Re-seeing my work

At first, “revision” meant to me: fix grammar the night before it’s due. In ENC 1101, I learned that revision is re-seeing my work. It means stepping back to ask: Is my thesis clear? Do my paragraphs actually support my claim? Are my examples specific enough? It also means listening to feedback from peers and my professor and using it intentionally, not emotionally.

Literacy narrative revisions

For my Literacy Narrative, I originally tried to include too many life events. After feedback, I cut some parts and focused more on a few vivid moments that show how reading and writing changed during the war and after moving to the U.S.

Visual rhetorical analysis revisions

For my Visual Rhetorical Analysis, I revised my thesis to be more focused and changed some topic sentences so they clearly connected back to ethos, pathos, and logos. I also added alt text to my figures after learning about accessibility.

My sentences

“By connecting the trailer to Janae Cohn’s ‘Understanding Visual Rhetoric,’ to ‘Killing Us Softly 4’, and to our other readings on rhetorical moves, literacy, and power, we can see how Miss Sloane both resists and participates in dominant stories about gender, politics, and individual heroism.” This sentence shows a revised, more complex way of thinking, where I put my own writing in conversation with course readings.