While reading “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, I’ve realized that everyone, including writers, make a bad first draft. It’s a great way to let all your ideas out on paper. That’s exactly what I did, I tried to set it up the best I could, but I basically put all my quotes and thoughts in paragraphs and hoped for the best. I agreed with many things that Lamott said in this short essay. Not everyone can make a perfect first draft, but a “shitty” first draft is needed in order to make a well-written final draft. I had many sentences that made no sense and needed editing. My first draft had a lot of edits when we were peer reviewing, so I know my first draft wasn’t the best, but also wasn’t the worst.
Revision Plan Strategy
My overall goal is to make my essay more opinion based and clarify my opinions better throughout my essay.
Steps:
- Make the set up of my essay more conversation-like and not formal.
- State my opinions first, then use a quote after to support it.
- Get rid of any sentences, words, or phrases that don’t make sense, or reconstruct them.
- Check for grammatical errors.
- Have a person peer-review and read my essay.
My biggest challenge will be to make my essay more opinionated and making connections with different authors all at once in a paragraph because it’s something I’m not used to. My problem was that I made my essay very formal because that’s how I was taught to write all of high school. It will also be a somewhat challenge to correct my grammatical errors because I’ve always been bad at grammar.
If I cross a challenge, I can always use the “Little Seagull” book or They Say/I Say book because it helps with how to write any essay you need to construct. I also have the internet, asking my peers, or my English professor that could help me and give me points/advice.
