Week 3- Kemara Gopeesingh

In Rethinking the First Draft by George Dila, he basically says that the purpose of first drafts is just to gather your thoughts or ideas, whether it is realistic or not. Being that nobody is seeing the first draft, you have the ability to organize your thoughts, and see what information is relevant to your piece of writing in order to properly structure your second draft, third draft and so on. Also according to Mr. Dila, if you don’t do this then you’re not an actual writer, because then your points in your piece will be scattered, and all over the place, therefore the reader will get confused. In Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott, her points are similar to that of George, where all good writers have first drafts that need a lot of editing and organizing, and that first draft is called the “child’s draft.” Anne makes a good point in her article when she says, “I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident.” Many of the writers write for the entertainment of the public and because they have the incentive of money to look forward to. However, they may not do it because they are passionate or confident about the things they write about. According to Anne Lamott, her approach to writing is editing as you go, in case you find new ideas you want to include. From reading both authors’ approaches to writing, which is gathering your information first, then structuring it, and to edit as you are writing, I would have to say my way of writing is a mixture of both. When I write, I kind of gather my thoughts and ideas in the form of an essay, which would be my first draft, then edit that, and sometimes my second draft would be my final draft.