My Second Chance

My Second Chance

Second chances are not very common. We get one chance, and hope it is our best. Thankfully, I was given a second chance on a paper that I was not fully satisfied with. “Culture Influences Identity” was the first paper from the course, and had specific guidelines; come to a conclusion about the relationship between culture and identity (based on two readings), support the thesis with reasons, examples, and evidence. Aside from spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors, my paper was not strong. It lacked analysis, had a broad thesis, and lost direction, among other things. I had good starting points, and ideas, I just did not develop them enough. When it came time to revise my paper I was overwhelmed. I wanted to rewrite every word. Instead, I omitted useless sentences, expanded my ideas to include more analysis, and refocused my paper. I started with sentences like, “The Encarta Dictionary defines culture as the “beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of a particular nation or people,” and edited them to be more specific to my own thoughts and opinions. The revisions helped to strengthen my paper.