The Importance Of College Writing

Anne Lamott, a graduate of Goucher College in Baltimore and a previous food and book reviewer, promotes the importance and usefulness of first drafts in the selection “Shitty First Drafts” from the book Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers. She begins her case by clarifying that most writers, even the well-known and successful ones, do not write amazingly or efficiently the way people expect them to when they start a work. Lamott expands on this by adding that hardly any writers ever begin a writing task enthusiastically or productively either. She states how most writers dislike the beginning of papers and that even writers who are usually able to write effortlessly flowing sentences feel the same way. She attributes the inability

In the article “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts” by Donald M. Murray, it talks about how writers and authors see and revise their own work. After reading this I saw how time and discipline play a big role in this task. Murray quotes famous writers, one being Ray Bradbury, the author of the novel Fahrenheit 451. Murray explains his technique on how he revised his work, along with many other ways that authors edit their writing.

According to Harris, many writers mistake editing for revising and fix small mistakes which is actually the process of editing. He also emphasizes the fact that revising takes time and a writer will never have their work ready in one draft; it will take many drafts which will be revised for clarity and cohesion. The draft itself could evolve into something different than was originally planned and writers should know, that is

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1924, Donald M. Murray taught writing for many years at the University of New Hampshire, his alma mater. He has served as an editor at Time magazine, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954 for editorials that appeared in the Boston Globe. Murray’s published works include novels, short stories, poetry, and sourcebooks for teachers of writing, like A Writer Teaches Writing (1968), The Craft of Revision (1991), and Learning by Teaching (1982), in which he explores aspects of the writing process. Write to Learn, (6th ed,. 1998), a textbook for college composition courses, is based on Murray’s belief that writers learn to write by writing, by taking

In Anne Lamott’s essay, “Shitty First Drafts,” she explains her writing philosophy of just getting ideas down on paper and then editing them later. While some disagree with this method, such as George Dila in his critical response, “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft,” many writers employ this technique to not only better their writing, but to overcome obstacles in the writing process. Even the most successful of writers will say that they actually hate writing, Lamott even compares it to pulling teeth. The intimidation of just starting to write becomes too much and leads writers to procrastinate. For many, an overwhelming, overbearing sense of perfectionism creeps in and creates anxiety and often lead to writer’s block. Everyone writes first drafts, but if a writer allows themselves to let go of all personal judgment and permits their writing to be “bad,” then they will most likely end up with great ideas that they did not even know were inside their heads. Once these ideas are allowed to flow out, then it becomes easier to visualize a realistic way of developing them into a full composition. By writing inferior first drafts, writers can focus on and express their ideas while overcoming the difficulties typically associated with the writing process.

Uninteresting, stale, and dull are three words to describe “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott. This article by Lamott is about not creating the perfect paper on the first go round, and how uneasy it is to finalize the paper. Writing papers makes anyone have migraines, even for myself and also people that enjoy writing papers. Lamott says: “we all feel like we are pulling teeth”(1). This quote means that all authors that have published writings have struggled as well which shows in the article that other publishers struggled and had to type more than one rough draft. Creating the first draft is just a bunch of ideas thrown on the paper, then later on the writers’ can reshape it and remove the unimportant

In “Expectations for College Writing,” the author indicates the importance of thinking and communicating to succeed after college. A writer’s style acknowledges a social or academic expression. A writer’s skill to rationalize ideas and think critically demonstrates an essential technique for enhancing communication in the work environment.

Writing isn’t simply a skill that you can check off your list. The point of taking writing courses in college is to help you grow as an author and researcher. Take advantage of the great writing resources — including required composition courses — that your institution has to offer, to help you become the best writer possible!

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

Words are an essential part of everyone's life, from the time a baby is born words are encouraged to stimulate their growth because simply being able to say "milk" or "mama" provides the baby with a huge amount of power. In fact, they were even used to

The importance of college-level writing is a topic that is very much backed up and accompanied by facts and studies. Writing in the college-level is needed in order to master college work in any class. Basically all classes require you to more than likely submit some kind of research paper or essay. Writing for Learning to Improve Students’ Comprehension at the College Level by Fahad Alharbi as well as Luiza Costa Ribeiro, Writing Essays at College: Why it’s Important both go into detail on how important writing at this level is and all the skills learned for during and after college. As well on how you can benefit from them.

In the article Shitty First Drafts author Anne Lamott explains what true processes and methods will help you to make your first draft and become professional writers in the future. She believes that no matter how good of a writer you are the first draft will come out as a “child's draft” meaning disproportional, disorganized and incomplete. The first draft is where you let all your ideas and thoughts pour out onto the paper where one does not have to worry about accuracy and completeness. The importance of writing first draft should not be based on sentence structure or grammar but on great amount of thoughts and ideas that might lead you in direction for the next draft. According to the author the second draft

In her essay "Shitty First Drafts", Anne Lamott attempts to explain that everyone writes really 'shitty first drafts'. She argues that even the best writers' first drafts are horrible, because no one can write perfectly. Her friend even told her that, “The first draft is the "down draft" since you are just trying to get everything down on paper, the second is the "up draft" since that is the one you fix up, and the third draft is the "dental draft" where you check every "tooth" to make sure it's healthy” (222). I enjoyed this essay because it was very easy to read, understand, and relate to. I especially liked how she described the struggle to write or not to write in her head. This reiterated the fact to me that everyone struggles with writing, and it's okay to do so.

Over the course of this past semester, my ability to write has improved tremendously. Prior to undertaking this course, my expertise in writing was not as fine-tuned as it should have been. I had never previously been enrolled in a class specifically tailored to writing-- which was quite clear. Upon reading my past works, it becomes apparent that my writing style consisted of fluff, small words, and inconsistently structured sentences. These problems have, for the most part, been remedied with the coursework I have tackled in College Writing. Rather than long, drawn out papers that take an eternity to reach the primary point, my recent work is much nicer in terms of composition and grammar. I credit these improvements to the three primary

One of the most problematic difficulties I faced and am still facing is self-revision. When writing a paper, it is extremely important to revise your essay multiple times before submitting the final version. Every revision helps to build a more polished essay. I feel that my paper fails to progress enough from the rough draft to the final. To fix this, I need to give myself longer breaks between revising. Becoming skilled at revising my own papers will allow me to develop into a more competent, successful