Revising not Rewriting

One thing that I have never been taught how to do in English class is revise my papers. Yeah, you write a first draft which in my day meant just put some of you information into paragraphs. After you would go through and check spelling and that's how I would revise my paper. So revising has never been a part of my writing process for me. Whatever comes out in my writing the first time is usually my paper. Other than rearranging some sentence or explaining a little more I have not revised my statements or ideas. I would like to learn revising based on syntax and diction as well. I don't have a large vocabulary so I don't always have the right works to explain my ideas. And as we learned in class changing one word in a sentence can change your whole meaning and idea. I would like to be able to go through a sentence and pick out a word that can be changed to make my idea stronger and more powerful. Changing the words I use can also add more detail to what I'm trying to say. Syntax revision would also help because sometime I ramble on trying to get my idea across when I know there is a different way I could say it in less words that would be just as powerful. I think revision is a process that should be taught because there is always a way to make your writing better. My last paper I wrote was the first paper I actually thought about my revisions. I didn't just proof read but I actually went into each paragraph and rearranged sentence within it that would make the connection more clear to the reader. This way I was able to see how just switching the order of my quotes connected my research together in a more understandable way. This last paper will help me with practicing a noticing ways I can revise my writing. Now that I know things to look for I can go through my paper paragraph my paragraph making each one stronger and more fluent.