Revision

To me the word revision sounds like work. I don't like the revision process because usually once I start revising something I tend to spend too much time revising it because I keep finding things I would like to change. I know revision is one of the most important parts of writing but it is a daunting task. When I do revise things I do it in stages. I go through for the big picture first - to make sure that I have the right ideas and that my paper is basically in the order I want it. Although my main goal isn't to proofread for punctuation and grammatical errors, that ends up happening because I can't skip over a mistake once I've seen it. I usually do these revisions first and highlight or note places that need a complete overhaul, then I go back to those places that really need work and try to fix those. 

After I have revised it once I read through my work again and do the same things but on a more detailed level. I basically keep getting more detailed in my revision until I drive myself crazy or start making my writing worse. I'd say at the beginning of the revision process my techniques are effective, but the end is sort of a toss-up. Sometimes I know when to stop and sometimes I revise so much that my paper begins to deteriorate right in front of me.