• Part 1: After reading Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” (est. time: 15 minutes), take a minute to compare and contrast your own first draft (and the experience of writing it) with Lamott’s descriptions. What did you notice? Did anything surprise you about this short essay? Did anything offend you? (100-150 words) (est. time: 20 minutes)
• Part 2: At the bottom of your post, please type/include your REVISION PLAN STRATEGY (est. time 40 minutes)

Part 1:

After reading Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts,” I feel a lot better about mine. She says that her first drafts are all over the place, too long, and random. My first drafts are also all over the place, too short, and jumbled. I realize that my first draft is just getting my thoughts on the page, and that is part of the writing process. It does not have to be good or bad. This is why I see myself as “bad at English.” I never work on my first draft as much as I should. But, now that I know that a first draft should not be anything special, I am not worried about my writing skills. My second and third drafts will form my words into something great. Lamott says that she struggles with the writing process because it is hard to start, but once she finishes her second or third draft, it is done well.

Part 2: Revision plan strategy

1. Your goal (or goals), articulated in your own words: As I work on revising my essay, one of my goals is to listen to suggestions from my peers who annotated my paper. Since they are another set of eyes reading my words, It is good to know what they think about my writing. I am going to work on integrating things they suggest. Specifically, I am going to add more description about the authors of the articles we read, and information that will help the reader better understand what I am saying. I was writing as if the reader knew what I was talking about, but instead I need to explain more about who the people are that I’m talking about and go into depth about the quotes I am using. My goal is to make my essay understandable to anyone who may read it.
2. The steps you plan to take to achieve this goal (in order of priority): My first step is to highlight parts of the text that I need to change or develop more. After this, I will begin to write more on the topics and make sure that everything flows. I will find more quotes if that Is something that I need. After this is done I would also like to lengthen my conclusion and possibly add another paragraph right before it so nothing looks rushed.
3. What you see as your biggest challenge: The biggest challenge for me is definitely finding every place that may need to be fixed up. I can go off of what my peers say, but I am sure there are more places than they spotted. One part that will be especially hard is lengthening my conclusion. I will need to find more information to add from the texts we read in class and for me, that can be difficult. Once I find more quotes and information I will have to figure out how to work them into the right places and make sure my essay continues to flow.
4. And what will you do if a challenge comes up that proves too difficult for you to solve on your own? In other words, what resources do you plan to use?: I plan to either email my professor, go to one of my peers or use SASC’s resources. It is always helpful to go see someone who can help reform and shape your work alongside of you. I am a person who struggles on their own occasionally and it is really helpful to get another person to guide me.