Getting rid of 'which' adverbials and finding new verbs.

Old:
The questions which arise on the mat—and consequently on the page—are questions which make me examine exactly how my ideas are constructed. The preconceptions and misconceptions which determine what I have to say and how I say it are at the forefront of both my writing and yoga practices. In other words, my identity is under fire when I practice (either writing or yoga). It’s become common practice in the academy to think of identity as constructed; the work of Foucault, Butler and Bhabha play an especially powerful role in establishing identity as something which is not innately given, not natural, but constructed.

New:
The questions which arise on the mat—and consequently on the page— make me examine the construction of my ideas. Preconceptions and misconceptions determine what I have to say and how I say it. Thus, when I practice either yoga or writing, my identity is targeted. It has become common practice in the academy to think of identity as constructed; Foucault, Bhabha and Butler powerfully establish identity as performance, rather than innately given individuality.

Commentary:
Kollns' advice for choosing powerful verbs and adverbials is much needed in my yoga paper--I tend to use 'which' phrases constantly as well as linking verbs. I followed Exercise 19 on page 134 of Kolln to revise the above passage. First, I highlighted all of my be verbs in pink, to think of replacements later (there are some exceptions, because there are a few cases where is was the best verb). Most of these were also in linking verb phrases and two-or-three word idioms, so I highlighted those in pink too. Next, I looked through my sentences for known/new info--the preceeding paragraph consists of my personal experience of the questioning which occurs in doing yoga, so the first sentence here refers to that known information. I'm still not happy with the second sentence; I think I was trying to say too much with extra adverbial clauses, so I took one out. Sentence three tries to make the connection between identity construction and yoga--I felt I needed to say this to keep the concepts of identity, yoga and writing at the forefront of my reader's minds. The last sentence reminds the reader of the theoretical conceptions of identity construction, which I go into more throughout the rest of the paragraph in Level 4/5 sentences. I wanted to work with the first few sentences of this paragraph here because I'm still not sure what I think about it. My words are much more concise--I replaced linking verb constructions with concrete verbs and changed some of the word choice around with the help of my Thesaurus. I couldn't think of a replacement for make in the first sentence--I don't like it, but nothing else seemed grammatically correct. Again, I'm not sure if this is better writing, but it seems more efficient.