One thing that I love about the field of Communications is the fact that most of the classes that you take are structured around the same sorts of ideas and the same sort of theory. This makes it very easy to revive and reconstruct old Communications papers that I have written under a brand new thesis. A lot of times I rely on personal experience in many of the papers that I write; thus, being able to write about the same ideas and attacking them from different angles, citing different sources, I end up compounding my ideas and learning so much more about myself and the effects of how I communicate with others.
I believe that “reviving dead papers,” as Murray calls it, is the key to actually learning from your writing. It’s important that in the process of doing this that we cite our previous thoughts; however, by reconstructing our thoughts under a new thesis we are able to actually consider alternatives for our previous thoughts, which cause us to think about which of these we hold to be true.
If we never shed light on information that we have produced in the past, our thoughts and beliefs on certain topics will, eventually, begin to fade with the accumulation of newer and fresher knowledge. This is why I believe Murray raises a great point by claiming that revision and revival is one of the keys to becoming a more effective and more diverse writer.
Tristan
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