(1) Review the comments you received:

(2) Produce a brief self-assessment (a page or two should suffice) of your first paper. Don't just reproduce my comments (though, obviously, I hope you will find them useful and take them into account). Rather, set forth briefly:

• the principal strengths of the paper, or what you learned from writing it
• principal weaknesses of the paper, or areas that need more attention: Make a list, and in each case, indicate the section of the Pocket Style Manual that addresses the relevant issue.
• proposed specific revisions
• proposed strategy for building on your accomplishments as you prepare for the next paper (this might include, e.g., developing skills in reading or time management; outlining ideas and constructing an argument; achieving a better command of spelling, grammar, or usage; learning how to document papers accurately and in keeping with scholarly conventions, &c.)

Make two copies of this assessment. Bring both—along with the Pocket Style Manual—to the conference with the instructor:

(3) Schedule an appointment with the instructor within one week of receipt of the paper.

(4) The revised paper will be due no later than a week after the instructor conference (in any case, by October 16 at the latest). Include at least some evidence drawn from the reading you have done since completion of the original paper.

Goals: The assignment not only helps you to gain a firmer command of the material treated in the first paper. It also corresponds to the Hampshire learning goal having to do with revision of writing:

As a classic handbook of writing puts it bluntly:

"except for those who compose slowly in their heads before setting down a word, NO ONE, HOWEVER GIFTED, CAN PRODUCE A PASSABLE FIRST DRAFT. WRITING MEANS REWRITING."

—Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff, The Modern Researcher, fourth edition (San Diego, New York, Chicago: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985), 36

This should not be a big job. The main goal is to make the argument and writing stronger—and to get the job done on time. It is the same sort of task that you will face in other classes—or later in life, in your careers.