Rhetorical Analysis Of Shitty First Drafts By Anne Lamott

An article that uses a lot of rhetorical devices is Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott. The speaker of this article is obviously Anne Lamott; the reader gets to understand her more after she shares some personal experiences. Lamott wants people to know that their first drafts are supposed to be shitty. This article is meant for college students who just finished their first draft and is looking for improvement. The purpose of this whole article is to inform you that your first draft is supposed to be horrible because no one can just pull an amazing paper from no where, not even the people who write for a living. The whole subject is telling you that your first drafts are going to be bad, so make sure to write multiple drafts before you

“Occasionally they might write pieces without a clear audience in mind and send these pieces into the world hoping that they will find or create their own audience” (Schmidt and Kopple). In Shitty First Drafts, Lamott makes it very clear of who she is, what their message is, who the message is meant for, and for what situation you’re supposed to read this message. Lamott made it clear to the readers of who she is to make the readers understand more of what they are reading. Without use of rhetoric, this article would not make any sense. Lamott makes the article crystal clear for which this writing is meant for so there is no confusion, which is usually the difference between horrible and great writings. Lamott in this article makes it very clear of who she is. She labels her name on the top as well as putting in some of her own personal experiences. For example, when she says, “ For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way that I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts” (Lamott). This experience she shares with the reader makes them feel like they are more connected with the speaker. If the reader feels like they are more alike with the speaker with similar experiences they are more likely to listen to what they have to say. They feel like they can trust the writer more and therefore there is a better

“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