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In elementary and middle school, we were all taught to write first drafts before writing our final copies. Teachers would tell us it is important to take the time to write and organize our thoughts and ideas before writing a final copy. I would never complete this step. I was usually one of the students that would spend my time writing to just get the writing done. Then, I would look over it quickly and correct only few parts. My “first draft” would usually end up being my final draft. I have never enjoyed writing and have never really liked my own writing. My writing was never the one talked about by teachers or ever given a good grade. I would never bother fixing my first draft because I never thought I could make it into a good quality paper. Lamott describes a brilliant writer sitting down and writing a polished piece of work in one sitting and then goes on to explain how that never happens. I found that really comforting because that is how I imagined many people writing. Now I know that is usually not how it happens. This made me realize that good writing just takes time. Some people might be better writers than others, but the way Lamott describes writing makes it seem that anyone can become good writer. I just need to take the time to write out my ideas to form an awful first draft that can later be revised into a “terrific” final…
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Everyone tries to write them instead in order to make better drafts. This essay actually reflected in my writing experience when I tried to make a rough draft for my paper or a review on the internet. I never thought that creating a rough draft was extremely important when it comes to creating an essay. I have realized that it is really hard to make a perfect essay without a rough sketch at first. In this article, I really enjoyed and felt interested in what Anne Lamott had to say about writing a ‘shitty first draft’ because it made me feel better and comfortable about my writing experience. I assume everyone have never been happy with the first drafts, including me. The first time I take a look at my first draft, I feel that this draft could have improved way beyond than I would have written. But by looking carefully at the first draft, I consider that rough first draft really helps me a lot to think a better draft. For instance, whenever I see restaurant critics around the Internet, some people really write a lot and take their effort to their top to review about that specific restaurant and it’s overall feature. I thought that was a complete long unnecessary review. In my opinion, this is how some people start to write a good paper. Whenever it comes to a review, all I have done was just gave them a quick score depend on the satisfactory level that I receive…
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In the book Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, she writes an excerpt, Shitty First Drafts, which is about the impact and importance of the first drafts of writing. Anne explains in the beginning of this excerpt that all writers write shitty first drafts and the drafts get better as you write more and work on the writing more. Lamott claims that “writing is not rapturous,” she explains that the only way that she can write anything well is to write a very bad first draft and just work on fixing that. She explains that sometimes you just have to type and get your ideas written out to be able to write a good piece of work. Once someone has been writing for so long, they have to have the ability to be able to just trust their writing process and understand that the first draft isn’t going to be perfect. Nothing is perfect on the first try, you have to keep working at it. Sometimes the first draft will be the worst thing someone thinks they have ever written, but they just have to go back to it and try to make it better and revise what is wrong. A writer has to start somewhere and they work from there. Just because the first draft is a bad draft doesn’t mean that the final work will be terrible. The first draft is the terrible draft, the second draft is the slightly better draft that has been picked through lightly to better, and the final draft is the “dental draft.” The dental draft is the draft that you really pick through and make sure that everything is perfect. In other words, the final product is checked “dentally” to make sure that it is “healthy” so that the final product is perfect. Lamott’s entire excerpt is just explaining that whether or not your first draft is perfect or not, the final product will definitely be better and more acceptable.…
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In “Shitty First Drafts,” a selection from Bird by Bird (1994), Anne Lamott claims that in order to write effectively it is necessary to just get a first draft written down, no matter how crappy it may be. She does this by disproving the assumption that great authors just sit down and magically spit out an amazing piece of work and by sharing her own experience writing awful first drafts. Ms. Lamott, an accomplished author, shared her experiences in order to demonstrate how all readers need to write that abhorrent first draft. She is writing to other, less-experienced writers to reassure them, and to help them become better writers.…
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Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” is an argument and an admission from an industry veteran. A Herculean effort may be necessary for writing because life requires the same strain. Lamott’s personal conflicts and self-doubt have built an amazing opportunity to use her story to convince her audience that for some people, perfectionism and self-criticism can be the cause of failure. Through the prolific use of metaphor in the form of personification and interesting similes relating to her personal experiences, Lamott lays a foundation in her life story and aggressively finishes with a sound logical argument. For Lamott, it is okay to have shitty first drafts because those are just a step in the difficult process of writing.…
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Lamott shows the purpose of the essay “Shitty first drafts”, to persuade the reader “for the need to let go and write those “shitty first drafts” that lead to clarity and sometimes brilliance in our second and third drafts,” through what readers learn, by unveiling the reality of writing a first draft and by emphasizing the process over the product of a first draft. Lamott teaches the reader that making a rough draft is to get as many words down on paper, no matter how bad it turns out, to set up the other drafts for success. Additionally, she says that the first draft process is “not rapturous”. In fact, the only way [she] can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.” Lamott advocates that writing a first…
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In the article, “Shitty First Drafts”, Anne Lamott discusses the topic of writing what inspires the brain for a first draft is a valuable approach to compose a paper. Anne confesses specialized writers even await a response for a hint at writing their next scoop. However, when the writer has first attempt to begin writing perfection they experience dread and edginess. This is what the writers need to write the best they can. In order to wind up with great second drafts and phenomenal third drafts, fruitful authors should upchuck out their thoughts on paper. Stated by Anne, the first draft is called the “Childs draft” a mess of words only for one’s eyes. Subsequent to backpedaling and modifying the first draft, start to structure and adjust…
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In Anne Lamott’s article “Shitty First Drafts,” the author writes about first draft that are “incoherent, hideous” and just downright “shitty.” The author explains how even professional writers sit at their desks with fear in their eyes, and desperation in their heart dreading the writing process hoping to get some type of enlightenment that will help them write their next story. Lamott then goes on to elaborate how that fear and anguish is exactly what great authors need to create their masterpiece. According to Lamott a “child’s draft,” is exactly what writers need to get their ideas on paper. A “child’s draft” is usually the first draft where thoughts flow freely, later the writer goes back polishes the shitty first draft to create a decent…
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‘Shitty first drafts’ is an excerpt from the book Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. It informs us about the importance of the shitty first drafts in the development of quality content for books, articles, essays and whatever else a writer intends to produce. Lamott claims that all writers write these drafts and that is how they eventually end up with the great subsequent drafts that they release to the public. She adds that the idea people have where a writer wakes up and has it all together in terms of what they will write is a fallacy that rarely happens. The author informs us that the only effective way through which she does her writing is by first putting down ‘really, really shitty first drafts.’ She begins by letting out all the ideas she has on paper bearing in mind that no one is going to see what she has written. This gives her the confidence to go on. Even though these ideas may be all over the place, there is something in the midst of it all that stands out and leads her in the direction that she would take. She explains to us by saying,…
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Be careful about submitting your initial draft. Allow yourself sufficient revision time. Rather than just proofreading, create a second draft. Then, proofread this draft and make any needed changes. This will ensure that no errors have been overlooked and that the quality of the writing is…
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“Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott discusses her opinions on first drafts, how she believes others dislike first drafts as much as her, how she gets past getting through her first draft, and her own experiences with first drafts when she worked as a food critic for the magazine California.…
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* Talks about how it is okay to fail the first draft because nobody will read it or the 2nd one but they will read the final…
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The five steps of the writing process are equally vital to the succession of any writing assignment, whether it is for work or school. The five stages include PREWRITING, PLANNING, DRAFTING, REVISING, and PROOFREADING. As our text (Arlov, 2014), explains, “Writing is not a single act, but a process composed of several steps,” (p. 3). Moreover, constructing a strong paper that is well-written (no matter how tedious it seems), requires efficaciously executing all five phases. It is crucial not to take shortcuts by eluding any step of the writing process.…
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During the writing process, one first has to get his or her thoughts on paper. This paper is known as the first draft. When writing a first draft, the writer tends to wonder whether it is more important to get all of his thoughts down than it is to write it well. There is more than enough time to revise your paper so that it is concise and well-structured. Since thoughts come and go, it is important to get them down on paper as quickly as possible. According to Anne Lamott, the author of Shitty First Drafts, the process of writing a first draft is not rapturous. She states that the “only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.” She later states that what a character says is not overly important…
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The daily scream therapy of my neighbour in the shower does not fail to act as an alarm clock every morning. This daily “alarm clock” was a good enough reason to not succumb into the pressure of calling the police. The rhythmic sound of everyone’s steps outside gave birth to the gravel, small as peas which moved beneath their feet and from it a faint dust rose, the perfume of the town. This perfume I had to get used to now, this perfume I will smell for the years to come. This foreign town was now my new home, away from all the sadness, unfulfilled relationships and the past, a town full of versatile people, some doctors, some painters, some chocolatiers and some farmers, all with big houses towering over them. A town still rich with bicycles and kids playing in the streets early in the morning, the streets filled with the aroma of bread this all felt very new to me, I was a city dweller, this made me feel great unease.…
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