Perspectives on Writing by Different Authors

990 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Strengths and weakneses in writing skills

Writing is a broad topic. A topic as broad as writing leaves loopholes and room for those who choose to of express themselves. This expression can be completely voluntary, such as a job or hobby, or involuntary, such as writings assignments for students. Yet no matter the profession of the writer, there is a common ground for all. Writing can be an art for some or a gained skill for others. No matter the interpretation, there will be hardships while writing, like writer’s blocks and numerous drafts. The moral of this is that writing is a task for all.
(Recognizing that writing is a messy/painful/imperfect: shitty first draft- child.. Diaz)
People use writing as a form of conversation between people. The writers start that conversation. They pick the topic; they research that topic and they state their own opinions or side of that issue. But behind the scenes is a larger process. Some that venture to take part of it see it as a mess. Anne Lamott in “Shitty First Draft” expresses this side of writing. She stresses that the work behind writing is one that will take time to bring any piece of writing to perfection. Lamott’s interpretation is one that anyone can relate to. She stated, “The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later” (Lamott 302). I interpreted this process of pulling a story or article together is similar to a skilled test. It is like taking a 1000 piece puzzle and trying to put it together without knowing what the picture is. The process can be painful and never–ending. When I start my writing, I write down a list of topics and subtopics I want to discuss. I know no on is going to s...

... middle of paper ...

...t it is not impossible. I learned that writing is about staying true to your style but it is also about staying true to yourself. I learned to not be afraid of writing multiple drafts. Actually, it is more beneficial to write more and more. I couldn’t of learned this without reading all of these authors.

Works Cited

Diaz, Junot “ Becoming a Writer” Writing about Writing; A College Reader. Eds. Elizabeth Wardie and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martins; 2011. PGS # needed
Lamott, Anne “Shitty First Draft” Writing about Writing; A College Reader. Eds. Elizabeth Wardie and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martins; 2011. 301- 304 print.
Sontag, Susan Directions: Write, Read, Rewrite. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 as Needed” Writing about Writing; A College Reader. Eds. Elizabeth Wardie and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martins; 2011. PGS # needed

Show More
Related

  • Writing for Myself, by Russell Baker

    328 Words  | 1 Pages

    The purpose of Baker’s essay and its placement in The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers is to encourage young writers to realize that writing truly is a privilege. It is also placed in the book to show college English students that writing does not have to be a grim task and that thinking of it in that manner will only make the student average.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Shitty First Drafts By Anne Lamott

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • S.E. Hinton

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...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”.

    Read More

  • Shitty First Drafts, By Anne Lamott And Rob Jenkins's Shitty First Drafts

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    With “Shitty First Drafts” the focus is more on overcoming fear and forgetting judgement to allow the creative thoughts flow freely. Once the writing is done, the writer can return to their work and revise however they see fit. The disadvantage of this method, however, is that the writer could end up with something chaotic, and time-consuming to reorganize and edit. This is even suggested in “Accordions, Frogs, and the 5 Paragraph Theme”. With practice and knowledge of basic organization skills, authors are able to save precious editing time and keep a readable train of thought into something effective. Conversely, adhering purely to a reliable formula, however adaptable, may cause a dependency to occur. If a writer is unable to stray outside of their formula or expand beyond their comfort zone, they may end up with content that is stale and

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of The Joy Of Reading And Writing: Superman And Me?

    1446 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although the greater picture is that reading is fundamental, the two authors have a few different messages that they seek to communicate to their audiences. “The Joy of Reading and Writing” depicts how reading serves as a mechanism to escape the preconceived notions that constrain several groups of people from establishing themselves and achieving success in their lifetimes. “Reading to Write,” on the other hand, offers a valuable advice to aspiring writers. The author suggests that one has to read, read, and read before he or she can become a writer. Moreover, he holds an interesting opinion concerning mediocre writing. He says, “Every book you pick has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (p.221). Although these two essays differ in their contents and messages, the authors use the same rhetorical mode to write their essays. Both are process analyses, meaning that they develop their main argument and provide justification for it step by step. By employing this technique, the two authors create essays that are thoughtful, well supported, and easy to understand. In addition, Alexie and King both add a little personal touch to their writings as they include personal anecdotes. This has the effect of providing support for their arguments. Although the two essays have fairly different messages, the authors make use of anecdotes and structure their writing in a somewhat similar

    Read More

  • The Maker's Eye Revising Your Own Manuscript Summary

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Anne Lamott's Short Essay 'Shitty First Drafts'

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the brief essay “Shitty First Drafts,” writer Anne Lamott describes the general writing process by use of humor and relatability. Lamott spills her own troubles and woes in a way that assures the reader they are not alone should they feel like their first attempt at a piece of writing is not topnotch material. To back herself up, Lamott gives mass examples of nameless authors she knows and how each made a success out of their shared strife. The writer herself spills what it means to feel hopeless when writing a first draft. It appears her method to success is to surround herself with positive, like-minded individuals, as well as to not take oneself too seriously when painfully jotting down the first words of an essay. In my personal life,

    Read More

  • A Reflection Of My Writing Process

    897 Words  | 2 Pages

    One aspect of my writing process is my “one and done” mentality. Meaning I only do one simple draft of my essay based on the outline I made and turn it in. Most of this has to do with the pride I have in my work and the fact that I don 't like to think that I have made any mistakes. Another factor in this is my being too lazy to conceive another draft out of my first. Anne Lamott’s entertaining Shitty First Drafts stated that even the most accomplished and established of writers’ first drafts are not perfect and ready to be published, so consequently my first drafts definitely should not be. I loved the way she mentioned that you have to do a shitty first draft to get a good second draft and a good second draft to get a terrific third draft.

    Read More

  • Anne Lamott Bad First Draft Summary

    558 Words  | 2 Pages

    What Anne Lamott is trying to convey in this excerpt is that every writer writes a bad first draft. No one can sit down and write the best novel, essay, etc. The objective of this passage is trying to convince people that it’s okay to not know exactly what you’re going to write, or everyone really does write first “shitty drafts”. People who write for a living don’t feel one hundred percent about their writing. They don’t sit down every day and know exactly what they are going to do. There is a process to their madness and having a bad first draft is going to be one of them. Lamott discusses that her own writing has terrible first drafts and sometimes looks nothing like the finish product. She talks about how she wrote a food review for a newspaper. She started off writing the meat of the review. She then went back and wrote down even more and more until she was finished. This is her way to persuade the readers. Basically, Lamott is trying to go against popular belief about writers and that they don’t have first drafts and know exactly what they are going to write. I do believe what she is saying. It is impossible to just sit down and write

    Read More

  • John Mcphee's 'Draft No. 4'

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    4”, McPhee explains tips such as writing with confidence, accumulating experience, drawing boxes around different words, and using dictionaries when writing a well-written paper. I agree with these simple points because they will help not only novice writers but also the most experienced as well. I agree with McPhee that “first drafts are slow and develop clumsily, because every sentence affects not only those before it but also those that follow” (2). He also states how beneficial experience is with additional practice. As a baseball player, especially at the collegiate level now, I know how nothing is ever handed to me and I have to practice for every situation that I will face in the future. When I first started dreaming about becoming a collegiate athlete, I knew I had to put the work in. Every throw, swing, lift, or anything revolving my craft improvement came with intense focus and the more I practiced the closer I came to achieving my dream. According to McPhee, writing is the same process and the more practice put in, the better the results (2). “The way to do a piece of writing is three or four times over, never once” (McPhee 2). He informs his audience about planting any kind of words that come to their mind and getting all thoughts onto the paper. “Just stay at it; perseverance will change things” (McPhee 2). That quote to me is powerful and goes beyond writing because life is not always going to be easy, and fighting through problems will pay off.

    Read More

  • My Reflection: Myself As A Writer

    414 Words  | 1 Pages

    To begin this reflection, conduct an inventory of all the writing you have done for this course, looking both forward and backward at your progress in the course. Once you have done so, write a reflective piece about where you stand at midterm and where you’d like to go during the second half of this course. Reflect on what you’re learning about your writing process, your strengths as a writer, and your preferences and writing habits. Be specific, provide details and descriptions, and explain your reasoning throughout this brief reflective section.

    Read More

  • My Experience In Writing: My Process Of Writing

    1440 Words  | 3 Pages

    I am sitting in my bed, thinking about my process of writing as I am trying to go through it. It seems the more I think about it, the less I understand it. When I am writing, I don’t think. Which I know, sounds bad. But, I spend every single moment of every single day over thinking, over analyzing, and over assuming every aspect of my life. When I’m writing, I’m free from that for just a little bit. Until of course, my hands stop typing or the pencil (no pens- never pens) stops moving, then I’m right back on the carousel that is my brain. Heidi Estrem says, “...writers use writing to generate knowledge that they didn’t have before.” (Writing is a Knowledge-Making Activity 18). I believe my ability to write without an exact destination

    Read More

  • The Writing Process

    787 Words  | 2 Pages

    Writing can be a very difficult process for those who do not know how to go about constructing

    Read More

  • Social Contextual Perspective Of Language

    1551 Words  | 4 Pages

    The social contextual perspective of writing looked at writing as situated in reflective processes of social and historical contexts, as well as reflections of classroom curriculum and pedagogy. Writing practices vary across cultures and contexts, and are shaped by writers’ social communications and interactions. Writing is also perceived as a nonlinear process and is closely related to social identities. Through the social contextual lens, the understanding of writing has been shifted from viewing writing as a personal activity or technique, to a mental, cognitive process shaped by the broader social, cultural and historical contexts. Given this, writing development should be considered as an activity that is tied closely to the literacy learning in the classrooms. Writing reflects the writers’ mental process and tells what they are at the specific moment that writing occurs, and is framed by the social, political, and cultural contexts at that moment. In particular, the social contextual perception of writing suggests that writing is a non-linear process so that there is no such a thing called template while learning to write. Students always bring in their own resources, prior knowledge and repertoire of language use to construct their own pieces and are inclined to apply diverse modes received from multi-media to their writing tasks in today’s writing practices. Framed by social contextual perspective, the development of written language is largely influenced by writers’ interactions and engagement in social communications, interactions, and

    Read More

  • Reflection About Creative Writing

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    Taking a creative writing class was a good way for me to express my thoughts and feelings onto paper, as well as read my other classmates stories. Reading stories created by other people lead me into their mind brain to experience what type of writer they were, it was an overall exquisite class. I believe that every person has a way of expressing who they are through writing stories of their own, fiction is the best way to express your creative imagination. This class that I took for two years helped me become a better writer and helped me understand the types of writers we have.

    Read More

More about Perspectives on Writing by Different Authors

Open Document