Fifteen Minutes A Day Analysis
Beginning an essay is one of the hardest parts of writing. It’s difficult to find an interesting place to begin, one where your readers will be intrigued and want to continue reading. Joan Bolker, in Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day, offers some solutions to the problems many face while writing their first draft. The ideas that were most surprising to me was her mantra of “make a mess, then clean it up”, or in other words, just write all your ideas out in your first draft then fix the errors later. She even goes as far as to write that when she composes her initial draft she doesn’t even spend time to find the right word. When she can’t figure out which word to use she just uses four or five that all mean the same thing and
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She explains that her first drafts are always so bad that she is terrified of the thought of any one else seeing them before she has a chance to revise them. Her and Bolker both think that it’s most important to get your ideas out and onto paper rather than trying to get the piece perfect on the first try. Both also agree that writing is a very important skill that needs to be practiced, and contrary to popular belief it doesn’t come easy for even the best writers. I agree with them mostly. I usually take a similar approach to writing, I start early enough where I can revise the paper or piece at least two times before the deadline. I also usually write an awful introduction because I find that that is the hardest place for me to write. Once I get past the introduction I find that it isn’t too hard to continue the writing, unless I’m writing about something I really don’t find interesting at all. Once you blow through the rough parts the other parts should come somewhat naturally, and if they don’t you could just write a terrible piece and keep revising. My recommendation would be along the lines of Bolkers and Lamott's. Just start and get through the piece, it doesn’t matter if it isn’t the best because you can always come back to it and make it better. This means take your time, but also don’t over analyze your initial writing since it isn’t the final
She explains that her first drafts are always so bad that she is terrified of the thought of any one else seeing them before she has a chance to revise them. Her and Bolker both think that it’s most important to get your ideas out and onto paper rather than trying to get the piece perfect on the first try. Both also agree that writing is a very important skill that needs to be practiced, and contrary to popular belief it doesn’t come easy for even the best writers. I agree with them mostly. I usually take a similar approach to writing, I start early enough where I can revise the paper or piece at least two times before the deadline. I also usually write an awful introduction because I find that that is the hardest place for me to write. Once I get past the introduction I find that it isn’t too hard to continue the writing, unless I’m writing about something I really don’t find interesting at all. Once you blow through the rough parts the other parts should come somewhat naturally, and if they don’t you could just write a terrible piece and keep revising. My recommendation would be along the lines of Bolkers and Lamott's. Just start and get through the piece, it doesn’t matter if it isn’t the best because you can always come back to it and make it better. This means take your time, but also don’t over analyze your initial writing since it isn’t the final