As we move through the levels of our education, we start to learn more and more things. For example, when we start to learn math, we learn how to add or subtract numbers, before we learn how to complete an algebraic formula. In English we learn the basics such as verbs, nouns, and predicates, before we learn how to write an essay. For example, .we should not rush our thoughts on paper, but instead we should take time and find what we really want to write about. When we are asked to write a paper, we cannot just type out in a day and think its turntable the next day, we have to go back to that rough draft and improve it. Each paper, we start to write, is usually our “Shitty First Draft” or “Zero Draft”. As Murray argues, “Most writers share the feeling that the first draft, and all of those which follow, are opportunities to discover what they have to say and how best they can say it.” (57) It is kind of interesting what someone’s response is when they are asked, “What makes a good writer,” and most of the time they will reply with the basic response, “Well they have to know how to w...
The Power of an Author Authors have the ability justify the worst actions. Authors have a way of romanticizing certain situations in order to convey a specific message. A good author has power to influence the reader into believing whatever it is the author wants. When it comes to the story of Hannah Dustan, authors such as John Greenleaf Whittier have romanticized her captivity story along with the actions she took throughout her journey. Introducing a character that will be seen in the story is one of the most vital parts when creating a piece of literature.
In the article “Shitty First Drafts,” By Anne Lamott, she lets out the long held secret to good writing, there is never a good first run on a paper. It 's always starts off as a torrent of ideas unfiltered, ideas completely let loose. It is the draft that is never shown to anyone, the draft that holds all the dirty little thought that you have on a topic, and all the information that you may use later on. It does not matter if the draft is ten pages long filled with unreadable text in the end the good stuff you use could only fill up three pages.
Anna opens explaining how everyone has bad first drafts, even terrific writers. It is difficult to be able to sit down and create a perfect first draft. Even the published writers do not sit down and start flowing wonderful sentences easily. In order to get to a publishable essay is to begin with a bad rough draft. First draft is where you just get your ideas down to then revise later on. Anna wrote food reviews for a magazine. She states how even though she did it for years she would still stress when it came down to finally beginning to write the review. She would just write nonstop in her first draft. Even if it was bad she would just keep writing so that she had plenty to work with later. Her first draft would be excessively long and seem messy and boring.
Both of the articles “Dancing with Professors” by Patricia Limerick and “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott resolve the issues faced by college students when writing papers. The first article, “Dancing with Professors,” explains why college professors expect more elaborate papers even though they assign dull and un-motivational reading to their students. On the other end of the writing spectrum, “Shitty First Drafts” explains how valuable the first draft is to students, and why students should not feel weary about writing them.
In the essay “Getting Started” by Anne Lamott. The author reaches out to her students and other fellow writers who struggle to overcome the infamous writer’s block. Thought out her paper she gives us hints and tips to train and prep us for our future papers. Her tips range from training you mind to prepare for a long and often strenuous essay, learning to take information in slowly to not overwork your brain and the last one always tell the truth in your essay. She threads through her essay that writing may be hard and seems like there is no silver lining but it’s not impossible to do. When done reading this essay I widely agree with Lamott’s writing ideas and tips they can be helpful for many struggling students. As one myself I found
I am more knowledgeable about invention, arrangement, style, and delivery, all in which create a masterful piece of text. A few examples, I have learned to organize and construct my thoughts and ideas clearer. I have been taught to use stronger transitions and focus more on the delivery and content of the body element of essays. Further, the instructions and advice I have received throughout this term have influenced my understanding of the purpose of writing. My outlook on writing has been modified by shifting my perception of writing from, writing to prove I am a good writer by perceiving it as using “fluffy” or BIG words to impress my audience. I grew to understanding that good writing’s purpose is to engage the writer by mind-striking ideas and arguments, which therefore will prove and title me as a “good writer”.
The power of writing is not only limited to telling a story on a piece of paper, but can help many grow wiser as individuals and bring many closer as a community. Finding Forrester, Louder Than A Bomb and Freedom Writers depicted the growth of maturity in the characters personalities alongside with improving their writing and reading skills. In these films, writing was used as a life-changing tool for the characters to expand their personal point of view. The characters in these films needed mentorship to realize the power of their life experiences and used the writing process as a safe and productive outlet of their emotions and feelings.
While I was reading “shitty first draft” by, Anne Lamott I read a lot of good ideas on how to write well written papers. In my mind i’ve always thought that it was right to do a first draft because everything that you throw in there is just for your ideas not for everyone to see and that is exactly what anne lamott states in “shitty first drafts”. In my imagination I always figured that authors just sat down and already had in mind what they had to write but that is not true, most writers often just make a shitty draft so that they can organize their books etc. correctly. Lamott also stated that when she would write she would just write for example freewrite when you right without making and corrections, just writing the first thing that pops to your mind and it is possible that when you read it over you’ll get your perfect written work. When i read the title of Anne Lamott’s paper and read “shitty first draft” i was completely confused and now that i’ve read what she has to say and writing and who she is it makes me want to read one of her books, and while i read i 'm probably going to be
However, these techniques that I fostered as a child proved lacking when I entered middle school. It turns out that in comparison to my previous writing, I was no longer writing for my own self-improvement or joy; I was now writing to please someone who was grading the work. After many dissatisfying remarks about my writing, the self-conscious feelings I had as a child crept up on me once again. I felt the need to impress and be perfect. For every paper I wrote from then on, there was that little voice in the back of my head telling me that I had to try twice as hard because English was my second language. For a very long time, I was not able to write a paper without scrutinizing it harshly. “The oppressor,” as Anne Lammot states in “Bird by Bird,” kept me from what I truly wanted to write and made me focus on the unattainable goal of being perfect. Perfection is something that “… limit[s] us…[and] keep[s] us from experiencing life” (Lammott 30). The purpose was not to write for me, but for others, and that was my flaw; I was just writing to please. Technicality was my only worry and I did not worry if what I was writing actually had
Several people have trouble writing college level essays and believe that they are unable to improve their writing skills. In “the Inspired Writer vs. The Real Writer,” Sarah Allen argues how no one is born naturally good at writing. Sarah Allen also states how even professional writers have trouble with the task of writing. Others, such as Lennie Irvin, agree. In Irvin’s article “What is ‘Academic’ Writing?” states how there are misconceptions about writing. Furthermore, Mike Bunn’s article “How to Read Like a Writer” shows ways on how one can improve their writing skills. Allen, Bunn, and Irvin are correct to say how no one is born naturally good writers. Now that we know this, we should find ways to help improve our writing skills, and
One quote that stood out to me was “I was struggling to express increasingly complex ideas, and I couldn’t get the language straight: words, as in my second sentence on tragedy, piled up like cars in a serial wreck” (2). This reminds me of when my parents would always tell me to keep writing during my younger stages. Sometimes, through my essays I would give up because the words that are in my head wouldn’t spill out. So, I would become stuck and would consistently ask for help. I literally felt like I was stuck behind traffic, and couldn’t get out until an hour later. However, one good point brought up by Bailey was “I believe that school writing and personal writing are completely different, where school writing can be right or wrong but person writing can be anything without any consequence.” I feel like school writing can play a big role in how one may decided to use their words. If there’s a big essay due; there is a high chance that expressing high complexed ideas would be a lot more harder; than through personal writing because the ‘A’ is a lot more important than actually understanding the context. Another quote I agreed with was, “developing writes will grow… if they are able to write for people who are willing to sit with them and help them as they struggle to write about difficult things” (2). This goes along with my
We would do research on a subject or a person, and write about them. We, once again, were not allowed to be unique in our writing or think creatively or critically. This is the time when I was taught the five paragraph essay. As stated in Gray’s article, the five paragraph essay is detrimental to students’ writing. This format for writing is damaging because it doesn’t allow students to express their own ideas about a topic. It does not allow for any creativity or uniqueness in a paper. In tenth grade, I wrote many papers for my English class, but I never once got an A on them. I was led to believe that my writing was weak because I could not relate to what I was writing about. I did not have any emotional connection to the research papers I had to write, and it made it harder for me to write them. I had grown up not being allowed to think critically, and therefore, my papers in high school lacked creativity and deeper
There once was a man named Franswah, and he had a wife named Keisha. They both lived in Keithville, Atlanta. They had a little girl named Jasmine, she was twelve years of age and she attended Ghettoville Jr. High School in the seventh grade. Keisha never did like doing anything, so her husband Franswah decided to go out and have an affair with a lady named Shay. Franswah and Shay worked at a law firm together. Shay was his assistant, she always helped him with things and they always went to lunch together. So some nights he never came home or either he came in late. Keisha was never the type of person to just argue, she mainly just questioned him to see what the response would be and she left it alone until the next morning. So one night when he came in he had a funny odor and Keisha asked him what was up with the smell, he told her that he had been working out and got sweaty. Their daughter Jasmine had very high blood pressure, so most of the time she didn’t go to school because of her condition and she stayed ill. Keisha had a younger sister named Ashley, she is the rowdy type that doesn’t care and will tell anybody anything. Keisha was telling her sister about Franswah coming in late, having a odor on him and don’t want to be questioned. So one day when Ashley was over there and he walked in she confronted him and told him if she find out that’s its that he’s cheating on her she was gone handle it. So he got mad and started hollering at Keisha for telling her sister about what was going on in their relationship. Then that’s when Ashley came back and told him that she can tell her anything she want to tell her because that’s her sister. So few minutes later the phone rings and its was Shay. Keisha answers the phone and it was another lady’s voice, and she asked to speak to Franswah. So she asked her who is calling and she told her that it was Franswah’s baby mother. Everyone is in shock, so Ashley gets on the phone and started getting rowdy. Ashley was asking her different questions like how old is the baby, where she live, and where did Franswah and her meet.
Writing is an important part of everyone’s life, whether we use it in school, in the workplace, as a hobby or in personal communication. It is important to have this skill because it helps us as writers to express feelings and thoughts to other people in a reasonably permanent form. Formal writing forms like essays, research papers, and articles stimulates critically thinking. This helps the writer to learn how to interpret the world around him/her in a meaningful way. In college, professors motivate students to write in a formal, coherent manner, without losing their own voice in the process. Improving your writing skills is important, in every English class that’s the main teaching point; to help students improve their writing skills. Throughout my college experience I have acknowledge that
The ability to write well is not a naturally acquired skill; it is usually learned or culturally transmitted as a set of practices in formal instructional settings or other environments. Writing skills must be practiced and learned through experience. Writing also involves composing, which implies the ability either to tell or retell pieces of information in the form of narratives or description, or to transform information into new texts, as in expository or argumentative writing. Perhaps it is best viewed as a continuum of activities that range from the more mechanical or formal aspects of “writing down” on the one end, to the more complex act of composing on the other end (Omaggio Hadley, 1993). It is undoubtedly the act of