In “Shitty First Drafts,” Anne Lamott’s main point from her essay was to educate writers that to make a well written essay, story, or any written paper it is best to write a rough draft or even maybe a few drafts, and revise and edit your drafts to get to the perfect written paper. When we see well know writers, the ones who are making a lot of money from getting many of books published, we see them as people who just wake up and sit at their desks, feeling good about themselves and knowing how talented they are, and just start typing these excellent passages. Not one of those authors just write perfect first drafts. Only few writers know what they are doing until they have already done it. They don’t just start typing a couple of sentences then all of a sudden start writing these masterpieces. Sometimes we feel that writing is a struggle to do, even those writers who have to best written essays. A first draft is called the “child’s draft,” you let all of your words spill onto the paper in no certain order, but no one will see it and you can put the words together later. For now you just let all of your thoughts, no matter how immature they may seem, be written down. Because in all those crazy sentences there may be something good or rational that is most mature. Without doing this first draft you would have never gotten to that point …show more content…
She would write a leading paragraph that would be a one whole page long, and then after she would just write smaller paragraphs. By this point Lamott had been writing for a while so she would use this process. She would write first drafts that would be longer than they should be. They would be have an uninteresting beginning, staggering descriptions, a lot of quotes, and she would have no ending. The whole paper would be so long and confusing that she would feel like she would want to be hit by a car before writing a better second
“Once people actually write to others, they do things to them, they act on them. Perhaps you have not thought of your own writing as doing something, as acting on readers” (Schmidt and Kopple). She states another time when she says, “I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, not one them sits down routinely feeling widely enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts” (Lamott). This is yet another example of Lamott going back to the subject that first drafts are supposed to be bad. There is one example of bad rhetoric and it is when she says, “Not one of them writes elegant drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her.” At first she says that everyone writes bad first drafts and then she brings up how one person doesn’t need to, she went against what she just said and that might cause confusion for the reader. Lamott would tell this purpose to this audience because she wants them to improve in their writing. Anne Lamott wants to achieve the success of helping everyone excel in his or her writing. She wants to inform writers that all first drafts should be bad. She does not want them to feel down on themselves, and to continue writing. This purpose is important because this
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.
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.
...e does not discuss what she is writing, while she is writing it. She is afraid that if she speaks of it, it will wear out her idea. She says, “If you want to be a writer, I have two pieces of advice. One is to be a reader. I think that's one of the most important parts of learning to write. The other piece of advice is: Just do it! Don't think about it, don't agonize, sit down and write”.
As expected, my rough drafts were not crafted with care to the extent that my final drafts were. Normally, I put the same effort towards my first draft that I would for my last revision. This was seen in my profile which was kept largely unchanged from my rough draft. However, the following essays could not receive the attention that they required, as the due dates for each of them lined with work for other classes. As I became busier, I could not look over the essay to avoid simple mistakes in grammar and refine my word choice. To improve these, I would later read it aloud in its entirety and make improvements. This would often include replacing frequently used words with synonyms and eliminating errors regarding language
Ethnocentrism is the belief of one’s culture as superior opposed to other cultures. Ethnocentrism is a single minded. Cultural relativism in contrast to ethnocentrism, is the ability to view certain practices of a culture in the mentality of the the culture itself. Cultural relativism is more understanding with an absence of judgement. The TED talk from Chimamanda Adichi regarding, “The Danger of a Single Story” illustrates how we all can allow a one-sided story can isolate our thinking. She talks about how throughout her life she experienced many single sided stories that could have influenced her life; however, she learned from them. Adichi uses the analogy of a single story to equate to ethnocentrism. An example she used was when she was
In “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscript,” Donald M. Murray makes it clear that any individual who writes their first draft is only just beginning the true process of writing. As Murray states, writing is a never ending process that constantly needs new revisions. His main goal of this passage is to allow writers to understand some of the strategies and approaches that come with revising a draft. Murray does provide many supporting evidence to convince a reader of his strategies to be very useful and I agree with this author on improving writers’ writings.
Many people think that reading more can help them to think and develop before writing something. Others might think that they don’t need to read and or write that it can really help them to brainstorm things a lot quicker and to develop their own ideas immediately (right away). The author’s purpose of Stephen King’s essay, Reading to Write, is to understand the concepts, strategies and understandings of how to always read first and then start something. The importance of this essay is to understand and comprehend our reading and writing skills by brainstorming our ideas and thoughts a lot quicker. In other words, we must always try to read first before we can brainstorm some ideas and to think before we write something. There are many reasons why I chose Stephen King’s essay, Reading to Write, by many ways that reading can help you to comprehend, writing, can help you to evaluate and summarize things after reading a passage, if you read, it can help you to write things better and as you read, it can help you to think and evaluate of what to write about.
Chris Crutcher, author of the short story “Fourth and Too Long”, demonstrates how important it is for players and coaches to have a mutual respect for each other on and off of the field. Over the course of the story, the main character, Benny struggles to find respect for himself as well as the coaches of his high school football team. Identically, the coaches lack respect for him as well. Benny woods is being penalized from playing football due to the length of his hair and his decision not to cut it. In the 1960’s long hair was said to have represented being a member of the hippie community. “It sends a message that the rest of the team can do any damn thing they want. First it’s the hair, then...who knows what”(160) is what Coach Greene
This article “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott help me understand that every good writer struggle to write their first draft and it might not be perfect at first but with a lot of dedication and effort everything could be done as expected. know that even the best published book started out with “Shitty First Drafts” help me to not be too critical to my first draft and having a little bit more confidences about my writing. I would apply this lesson whenever I have a writing assignment and I am get frustrated on how to start my essay, I would remember that all writers went through this stage of anxiety and not comfortable about their first draft. I would definitely recommend this article to a student that is starting their first composition
Once the writing is done, this is where the fear comes alive. It’s the fear of failure, disappointment, disapproval, and maybe even success. Collin Brooke and Allison Carr say, “The ability to write well comes neither naturally nor easily.” (Failure Can Be an Important Part of Writing Development 63) This statement is something I wish I could let myself believe. I have a preconceived notion that writers are born, not made. That my brother, a fellow writer, will see more success than myself. Why would anyone ever care what I have to say about anything? These are the fears and insecurities that limit me from growing with my process. Brooke and Carr also say about writers, “...they are the ones who are able to make mistakes, learn from them, and keep writing until they get it right.” (63) If I could challenge my process, I would challenge myself to do exactly what this quote says. My first draft always has to be the perfect draft, but this is unrealistic. I limit myself before I even start with this ideology. My hope for my process is to challenge myself to take more risks, write more drafts, and fail so I can at least say I tried. I may even challenge myself to get a head start on some of those due dates...
In the beginning of English 101 I was what you call a novice writer a person who only wrote what they felt was required. However, certain techniques that I learned in English 101 made me realize that writing was not about filling requirements; it’s about speaking out, exploring and proving a point. “Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” (Trimble, 17) In John Trimble’s quote he tries to point out that writing is something that you grow with and learn as you go along. I believe this growth was achieved with a technique that was introduced to me by my professor called repetitive revision. What I found out was that revision of your essays helps in recognizing your mistakes and enhances the flow of your essays. By providing me...
A good writer can convey his thoughts using simple words. He avoids using pretentious language but he can make the reader feel what he feels and he can fire up the reader's imagination. However, this is seldom the case for novice writers. In trying to make their writing seem like a work of art, some novice writers fall into the trap of vague writing because they are concealing their true opinion on the subject from their readers or they simply know nothing about the subject. This can be remedied by researching more about the topic and by stating clearly what one's true opinion on the subject is. As a result, readers would be able to understand where the novice writer got his opinions and therefore make their own judgments as to whether they agree or disagree with his sentiments.
According to Harris, the process of writing begins with drafting, or invention. He tries to refute long-held assumptions regarding drafting by claiming that drafting is not a simple, quick process in which a perfect essay is crafted and never touched again, but rather a long, arduous task that involves careful thinking, idea creation, and time (443-444).
I learned the importance of making several drafts for one paper. Every writer can always make improvements because a paper is never perfect on the first draft. At least three drafts should be made before submitting. Secondly, it is important for ideas to be organized. One idea should smoothly transition into the next for the reader to easily understand the author’s arguments. Thirdly, it is helpful to have others give corrections on the student’s paper. Asking the professor or peers for critiques allows to see possible errors and ways to make the paper