Preview

Nancy Sommers Revision Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
599 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Nancy Sommers Revision Analysis
What is revision? According to Nancy Sommers she believes students “understand the revision process as a rewording activity” while adult writers or more experienced writers “seek to discover (to create) meaning in the engagement with their writing ...”. I am in agreement with Sommers argument of the student writer's understanding of the revision process. I have struggled with writing my entire life and I now understand why.
When given a writing assignment I always thought that the rough draft had to be close to a finished product. Little did I know that drafts are meant for you to get all your ideas down so that you can later tailor your paper to a final product through the revision process. When I was given my first writing assignment in

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Anne Lamott Summary

    • 341 Words
    • 1 Page

    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.…

    • 341 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Because the draft is just a general idea about our assignment without any further explanation in detail. Our final submission has gathered all the ideas from our group and all our group members…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Joseph Harris’ essay “Revising” (2006 pg.452-69); serves as a guide in how to correctly revise any writing you have ever completed. Harris designates four points that must be taken under consideration while revising. Before getting to the core of his argument, Harris notes that revising is not the same as editing. The essay points out that students are trained too just polish and make their writing sleeker rather than making a difference or significant change to the original. From there Harris brings up his first point stating that the author must decide what exactly it is that they are trying to convey. Harris believes the problem stems from that fact that many writers focus too much on correcting mistakes without thinking of what it is they…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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…

    • 174 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Final Research Paper Rough Draft. For Week Three you are responsible for writing a rough draft for your Final Research Paper in which you analyze a specific historical theme we’ve studied as it is developed in two literary works read or discussed in the textbook during the semester.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    ‘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,…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the passage “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott from Bird by Bird, the author promotes that “shitty first drafts” are the key to most successful pieces of writing. Lamott indicates that most writers have “shitty first drafts” and that “all good writers write them”(21.) In order to have a good piece of writing one must vomit all of their ideas onto paper. Lamott’s friend calls it the down draft (25.) In this draft you should get all your thoughts down, even if you sound like a child (22.) The first draft isn’t going to make much sense but it doesn’t matter because no one is going to see it(23.) With this “down draft” you can edit it and organize your thoughts into the up draft (25.) “The up draft” is where you take all the good things from “the down draft” and write an organized draft that makes much more sense. “You try to say what you have to say more accurately”(25.) After that comes he dental draft, a draft where you nit-pick and refine every aspect of the writing, like how a dentist would “check every tooth, to see if it were loose or cramped or decayed”(25,26.) Hopefully the final product is a “healthy” piece of writing. Lamott successfully argued that a “shitty first draft” is the beginning to a great piece of writing so you just “need to start somewhere”(25,26.)…

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Revision Chapter 1,2,3,4,5

    • 5441 Words
    • 22 Pages

    12. Barter economy: the system of exchanging one set of goods or services for another.…

    • 5441 Words
    • 22 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ascascas

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Submit a printed copy or email rough draft on the required due date (NO late submissions accepted) to show that you have chosen one of the assigned articles and have begun to consider ideas and organization for your final essay. The rough draft will enable you to receive comments for improving your essay and is worth 12% of your final essay grade.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shitty First Draft

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages

    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…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “When students complete a first draft, they consider the job of writing done”. Generally this is what all students wish to happen. People wish they could just get things done the first time around. Unfortunately in the draft process readers have to proofread and modify their content for improvement and perfection. Leading to not just one but possibly many drafts written in order to meet perfection and/or satisfaction. In The Maker’s Eye by Donald Murray, he stresses the importance of revising your own essays. I agree with his reasoning because of criticism, audiences, and voice.…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    NO. Writing is different in every working area basically depends on the type of paper or letter you are planning to write.…

    • 141 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the revision of my essay I looked for better ways to tell my story, until I was finally finished. I almost felt like I could have spent more time revising my essay and I felt like it was almost like a piece of art. By the time I was done revising I asked myself, “is this any better, or is this all I can do.” In addition, after rereading my essay, changing the paragraphs around, shortening sentences, throwing out words, placing commas, semicolons correctly, using consistent point of view, and then worrying. I just called it done. Consequently, I like to think of revision as a form of self-forgiveness, “I can allow myself to make errors and flaws in my writing, because I know I’m coming back later…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays