After revising my essay, I was able to better appreciate Lamott’s advice. It became clear why letting your ideas sit for a while, then coming back was effective. By doing so, you forget some of the ideas you had and you look at your paper as a reader, not a writer. This lets you see where your paper is strong and where it is weak.

Coming back to this essay after three months has allowed me to see that the connections I drew between the sources were strong and had a unique perspective. However, I was also able to see that my conclusion left much to be desired. It originally ended with one sentence that didn’t close many of my ideas. My new conclusion ties all of my thoughts together into one coherent statement and closes the essay effectively.

Additionally, I made many of my sentences more concise and the essay reads much smoother because of it. This essay’s ideas were good overall, but how the ideas were delivered was a little weak. Making the sentences more concise forced me to use more efficient words, resulting in clearer ideas.