Personal Narrative: My Graduate School Thesis Essay

Furthermore, according to Duncan Carter’s article, Five Myths About Writing, “Years of well-intentioned English teachers have responded to students’ first drafts as if they were supposed to have been perfect. Combined with a pedagogy which suggests that revision is a form of punishment, it is not hard to see where students get the idea that good writers don’t have to revise” (Carter, 82). Growing up, high school teachers make it seem as if revising and editing your paper is the worst thing ever. Any student who worked long and hard on their assignment and turned it in to get revised, would hate to receive a paper back with nothing but red marks and errors written all over them. This initially gave people the mindset of forgetting about editing their work if all it did was tear them down and point out their mistakes.

This essay is written in response to Nancy Sommers’ article “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers” in order to summarize the stark differences in revision between inexperienced, student writers and experienced, adult writers, and to complement it with my own personal revelations and opinions of her theory. Sommers begins by comparing two modern paradigms of writing, describing both as moving from discrete stages, before concluding that they are too linear by design. This forms the basis of Sommers’ argument that the act of revision is entirely present throughout writing and not mere linguistic “corrections” edited in as afterthoughts. She expands upon this argument by detailing the contrast between speech and writing: “The spoken word cannot be revised. The possibility of revision distinguishes written text from speech.”

When students complete a first draft, they consider the job of writing done – and their teachers too often agree. When professional writers complete a first draft, they usually feel that they are at the start of the writing process. When a draft is completed, the job of writing can begin. That difference in attitude is the difference between amateur and professional, inexperience and experience, journeyman and craftsman. Peter F. Drucker, the prolific business writer, calls his first draft “the zero draft”–after that he can start counting. 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. To produce a progression of drafts, each of which says more and says it more clearly, the writer has to develop a special kind of reading skill. In school we are taught to decode what appears on the page as finished writing. Writers, however, face a different

A saying i've kept to myself is to get back up when knocked down. This saying doesn’t just stand for getting up when literally knocked down but can keep a deeper meaning than what it says as for example being knocked down by a difficult obstacle to overcome and getting up to find a way to get past it and achieving it. Some people may not see this as something important but they don’t think about how getting up after knocked down can be something that can or would have been like a positive outcome into their life and how they are given two choices when knocked down which is to stay down or get back up and continue going forward.

Unlike reading, when writing, it is important that grammar, spelling and vocabulary terms are used correctly, therefore restricting me from writing in the way that I would prefer. The most stressed phrase while in high school was, "It is not the content of the essay, but rather the mechanics of grammar and speech that are most prominent." Unfortunately, I have never been one to enjoy the art of writing. In fact, I was recently given a diagnostic test, determining at which level I write and whether or not I should be upgraded to a higher achieving English class. Unfortunately, I did not pass the test with flying colors. This was not due to the fact that I am incapable of writing a good paper, but rather that I am unable to write in a limited amount of time, using the emphasized principles of correct; grammar, vocabulary and spelling. In the reading, Shitty First Drafts, by author Anne Lamott, it is a fact that in order to write a brilliant paper, a first draft must be created. According to Lamott, "The Only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts, all writers write them." (94) This is a quote in which I can relate being that in order for me to begin a final draft, I must first have written a first draft, usually one that is in absolute

In the Anne Lamott “Shitty First Drafts” article that I read, there were a few things that stood out to me while I was reading. Whether it was how almost no writer can sit down and write a perfect draft the first time, or if it was how sometimes we just need to start typing/writing our first draft just to get going it helped me a lot. I enjoyed learning that many times it’s just getting going that is the hard part, and how the first draft should be crap so that you can continue to better your writing by the third draft. I feel she was trying to accomplish a sense of security for everyone to feel they can write because it isn’t easy, even for the experts.

Sommers explains to the reader the mindset of revision in the eyes of college freshman vs. experienced writers. Based on her research she was able to establish that the term “revision” has two drastic meanings when it comes to experienced vs. inexperienced writers. The college freshmen referred to revision as simply rewording the preexisting writing in their first draft. Sommers explains that the “scale of concern” for the college students was “deletion, substitution, addition, and rewording.” (380) In contrast, the experienced writers had a very different mindset when it came to their revision process. They explained when revising they focused on finding “shape” and “form” to their writing. To further explain, they do not have simply one rough daft that becomes a final draft, but rather they have numerous drafts that they continuously dig through to develop “structural patterns.” (384) In comparison to the college freshmen their revision process isn’t just rewording, it’s continuously reframing each draft. Through this research Sommers explains to the reader the way revisions should be, and the areas that people lack with misconceptions that the word “revising” simply means rewording but in Sommers’ opinion it’s a total revamping

Another day, another shitty draft. Anne Lamott was right when she said that the first draft of a paper is bad, but it leads to a better second draft and even better third draft or final paper. Lammot, an experienced writer, and novelist tells us that most feel as if we are pulling teeth to finish our first draft and it isn’t always pretty. It can be painful and sometimes ugly, but it is essential in creating a paper that is worthwhile. Lamott says, “ Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it. Nor do they go about their business feeling dewy and thrilled” (Lamott par. 2). As a high school English student, it is comforting to know that just because you are getting older and more experienced it does not mean writing

Thinking back to the beginning of the semester, I improved in fixing my mistakes in my writing. Whenever I review and edit my drafts, I would usually overlook most mistakes because I would just read my draft but not look at the mistakes I commit. In my paper one draft, “Opening, social mind bugs are a trait human have developed to become social: human is social animals.” In my paper, one final, “Opening, social mind bugs are traits humans have developed to become social: humans are social animals.” In this first paper, I only recognized little mistakes that stood out in my final paper. I already noticed that I can remove the word “opening,” and I could have used a semicolon instead of a colon. I improved on looking for grammar mistakes. I started using a trick my tutor recommended for me to use when I am editing my paper. I should read my draft slower, so I

Has the thought of revising your own paper makes you mad? Does the thought of it make your heart have a mini heart attack? What if I tell you that you’re not alone, would you believe me? In “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott from Bird by Bird it goes greatly into detail about how we all struggle with looking at our very own rough drafts. And I know numerous people, who feel the same way. One person, I know quite well is myself, almost all of my career as a writer I’ve cringed, during and while revising my first draft for any paper. I spent countless hours revising and rewriting my own papers and just ended up hating them even more than ever before. But after reading “Shitty First Drafts” I’ve learned to love and appreciate the beauty in my very own shitty drafts. I’ve come down to the conclusion that we need to come accept the intimacy that we have with our so-called “Shitty First Drafts.”

Nancy Sommers’ Between Drafts describes the intricacies of writing, such as finding one’s own authority, “real revisions”, and balancing different authorities. As a student, it is difficult to understand my authority as a writer, since I have followed the academic traditions similar to Sommers. Distinguishing myself as the authority on a topic, I am able to cohesively and concisely write about a topic since I feel as if I am an owner of that information. While I feel free to express this information in any discourse, this article helped me apply this feeling to all of my writing, whether I am the authority or not. Additionally, I am beginning to understand my authority by conversing with the authoritative voices about a topic to place myself

“Shitty First Drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts.” (Lamot 5) If I would have read this early on in high school I probably would have excelled more at writing essays and my daily warm-ups. I completely agree with every word in this passage. It is alot easer to write what what you ar thinking and then goinng over and making changes so that your shitty first draft is not so shitty any more.So therefore I now know what i was doing that effected my grades in high school, It was the fact that i tryed to turn one draft and that would be it. All together I thought the story was enjoyable and over all I learned what I was doing wrong the whole

Writing the research draft was extremely difficult and complicated. Attempting to complete the assignment felt like I was trying to crack the Enigma codes. The process of writing requires perfect precision and patience in maneuvering sentences and transitioning everything in a proper manner, which I could not religiously follow. The assignment only required three to four pages of the research draft, which was not too strenuous but still I could not write anything. Everytime I tried to write something, it did not feel right. It felt as if I was lacking something crucial, so I would feel compelled to click the backspace key and delete my poor attempts to write something essential to my research paper. So, writing the research draft was no easy task for me. In fact, the entire assignment was so difficult that it left me in a deep quandary and from there, I was sucked into an abyss of confusion and frustration.

I never really thought about where my life was going. I always believed life took me where I wanted to go, I never thought that I was the one who took myself were I wanted to go. Once I entered high school I changed the way I thought. This is why I chose to go to college. I believe that college will give me the keys to unlock the doors of life. This way I can choose for myself where I go instead of someone choosing for me.

My first day of kindergarten was a nightmare. First thing in the morning, as soon as we had all settled down, the teacher announced that our very first assignment in school would be to color in a cartoon frog and then, to my dismay, she walked around and placed a box of crayons on the center of each table. My heart dropped. I hated crayons. I hated the way they colored so unevenly and those little grainy white spaces that are formed on the paper when you use them were the bane of my four-year-old existence. Even back then, I was a perfectionist. I believed in coloring inside the lines. I believed in coloring in one direction and I believed in uniformity, so imagine my horror when I looked to my left and saw the little girl beside me coloring her frog with eight different colors. Or the boy across from me who was scribbling furiously all over his, while I slowly and carefully colored my frog making sure to stay inside the thick black lines. Even before I really knew what being a perfectionist was, being content with a mediocre performance was alien to me. The concept of someone turning in a piece of work that was anything short of perfect was completely unacceptable and it was difficult to understand how someone could call even a slightly flawed piece of work their own and not be at least a little bit embarrassed or ashamed.