In The Intoduction to Composing as a Process, Seth Graves e plains how writing is as much a skill as any other talent that can be learned. Such a skill must be honed and maintained with frequent practice in order to get the most out of it. It also explains how writing from the very first word in the first draft to the very final word in the final draft is all part of the process of writing, which brings us the the next section, Shitty First Drafts, by Anne Lamott. Lamott pretty much explains the first part of the writing process, which is the first draft, and how it doesnt have to be coherent whatsoever. The first draft serves as way to get all of your ideas out onto paper, with no filter. The filtering process happens after, when you’re reading over the draft, looking for ideas and pitches that are capable of composing an acceptable piece. Lamott then explains how this process helped her with her writings some years back. One thing she emphasizes is that the first draft is usually going to be really bad and incoherent in some areas. One has to get used to writing everything with no filter in order to get the most out of the first draft, which brings us into the next section, Freewriting, by Peter Elbow. Elbow shows the audience just how to hone a skill such as writing with no filter whatsoever, and that is to just take some time out of the day to write nonstop. In fact, that’s the only rule- never stop writing, no matter what. Elbow then goes on to explain why such a process is useful, which ties back to the fact that the biggest difference between writing and speech is that we edit a bit without really noticing it as we write. As we multitask between editing and writing, we can’t properly focus alone on our thoughts, which can create a writer’s block.
I don’t think I’ve ever realized just how much can go into creating a piece of writing. For me, a first draft was like a “write it as if it were the final draft, as best as you can,” type of deal, and then I’d review it, and make a few changes where it was needed, but that’s it. My drafts and final works would be very similar to each other. Learning about other processes such as this one can really open one’s mind about just how some people do it. And with Freewriting, I’ve always knew about freewriting. My teacher in 8th grade even had the class practice freewriting, but I dont ever think i fully got it down until realizing that I can’t have any filter on whatsoever. It was pretty hard to do, until I realized that no one’s ever going to read this, and that it’s supposed to be incoherent.

Composing as a Process

The main idea of this text is that writing never stops. You continuously edit drafts to make better drafts. Its recursive, meaning writers repeat the cycles the use while writing. Writing is like a cycle from exploring to revising, and then starting again. Researchers have found that the best way to increase your writing ability is to just continue writing.

Freewriting

This text states that the best way to improve your writing skills is to constantly freewrite. This means sitting down for 10 minutes and just writing anything that comes into your head; you cant stop. The author says that editing isn’t a problem itself, but editing while writing is still occurring shouldn’t be done. The author says this makes the writers work less coherent and nervous.

Shitty First Drafts

The author of this text wants the reader to know that the first draft should be terrible. It is just a way to get some words on the page that vaguely represent what you’re trying to say. The author includes how he edits his first draft, by basically taking everything out he possibly could and finding a different place to start.

Response

I actually enjoyed reading these text a lot, because as someone who doesnt like writing, its nice to know that it doesnt have to be perfect on your first try. I specifically like the “Shitty First Drafts,” article because I’ve always tried to make my first draft the best it possibly could be, and then move from there. Theres a connection between the idea that drafts never stop and a shitty first draft, being that you just have to get your thoughts out on the page, then edit from there.

Introduction to Composing as a Process Summary

The misconception about writing that it is looked upon as the final written piece, not as a “process” which it really is. Writing is a long extensive process of “exploring, planning, drafting and revising.” It also a process that involves repeating the stage of drafting. Many scholars articulate that writing not only helps us write something on a page but also discover and find new ideas.

Freewriting Summary

Freewriting is amongst the best ways to improve your writing. The most common mistake that is made by many potential writers is that they focus on making their writing sound perfect from the first word they write. This is where the freewriting exercise helps one out. It forces a writer to write without any stops or breaks for editing or to make what is written sound better in any. In fact, in the reading, it is said that most of the times when we speak well, it is not because of the fact that we got the beginning “right”, but because we kept going. In other words, although editing is important, it should be the last phase of the writing process.

Shitty First Drafts Summary

This reading further emphasizes the concept and importance of editing. It is said that the first draft should always be dealt with as the “child’s draft.” In other words, the first draft should just serve for a person to jot down his ideas, disregarding how it sounds or what it’s structure looks like. The second draft is where one makes the changes and “fix it up.” The third, or final (depending on the writer), draft is where the finishing touches are given to the piece. In a sense, it is the dental draft where one looks over every tooth to see if everything fits and is “healthy.” Lastly, one important thing to keep in mind is that the “voices” that encourages one to make everything seem perfect should be ignored at all means, especially at the first draft, or else the work would only sound fancy but the overall content would be of very low quality.

Response

All three articles were primarily based on the techniques that are highly recommended to improve your writing. The article about freewriting was the most intriguing one for me as since childhood I have been told to do free writes and I never knew how to write it and more importantly, how is this going to benefit my writing as a whole. But after reading this article, I understand that I need to do more of these free writes because it will help me focus on what to write about rather than how to write it. One connection that seems prevalent throughout all these readings is that it encourages the writers to divide up their work: planning, drafting and then editing. In addition to this, one should give enough time to each of these stages. In other words, writing is not a process that can be done in one sitting.

Introduction to Composing as a Process Summary

When writing, it’s easy to obsess over the final product.  Ideas run through our heads before our pens ever touch a paper, or our fingertips a keyboard; as we realize these ideas, crystallizing them in words, we sometimes get hung up on little things.  It’s important, then, that we zoom out and see the bigger picture — to see writing as a process.  In the end, an excellent product is not without its history of revisions and do-overs.

Freewriting Summary

Throughout the writing process many find themselves barely able to communicate their thoughts.  Unlike a conversation, a piece of writing has had much more time to collect itself and appear more sophisticated; it has the ability to change before final publication or print.  Freewriting imitates the spontaneity and irreversibility of dialogue between people or even with oneself.

Shitty First Drafts Summary

To write a shitty first draft is to take the first and most laborious step in writing.  You need the proper mental preparation to truly isolate yourself in the writing mind field.  From this point on it would be advisable to simply scrawl out your thoughts in a stream of consciousness.  The focus is never to “nail it” on the first try, but to get the ideas all drawn out; as soon you’ve finished that “first draft,” had a breather, it’s time to [figuratively] paint the town red.  The first draft can be thought of as an ore deposit, and the second draft the extracted material.

Response

We often can get quite hung up on how to start an essay.  Even still there is nothing quite as frustrating as not being able to break that initial mental block, discovering that there is but half the class period left to finish.  With the freewriting approach, we are encouraged to just do it, to quit bottling up thoughts inside our heads and get something out onto that paper.  But even when we finally put out, we end up correcting thoughts and sentences as they come, sucking up time and energy.  I suppose the ultimate lesson here is that the first try usually won’t cut it, so just make it as crappy as possible so long as there’s something in there.

Introduction to Composing as a Process

When writing, you won’t immediately end up with a finished product. Like many other skills, it’s something that takes a lot of time and practice. Great writers have to plan, draft, and edit their work before completing it. Sometimes, new and better ideas can appear as one goes through this process. If you want to have a good written piece of work, then this writing process must be done.

Freewriting

Freewriting is an exercise of writing anything and everything that comes to mind. This allows you be less fearful of writing because you start writing without worrying about filtering your thoughts, correcting grammar mistakes, and fixing spelling errors. It helps you to bring out your own unique voice, which is something that gets warped if you simultaneously write and edit. Freewriting may sound crazy, but it’s a very useful exercise that makes your writing better.

Shitty First Drafts

As mentioned in the introduction, writing is a process. It starts with writing a “child’s draft,” which consists of a gigantic mess of thoughts that no one will ever see. Writing a second draft is next, where you begin to edit the first draft, fixing anything that looks off. The third draft comes last, and this is where you look closely to see if you’ve missed any uncorrected mistakes. Writing drafts is essential to having a good piece of writing, and it’s completely fine to make a thousand mistakes before having your final product.

Response

In order to write well, everyone has to start with writing drafts. The “child’s draft” is like a freewriting exercise on a specific topic. The editing comes later, in the second and third drafts. After knowing that the first draft can be a complete disarray of multiple ideas, I feel less afraid of writing. As someone who attempts to write and edit in one go while panicking over how terrible the sentences are, writing drafts will definitely be beneficial to me.

Introduction to composing as a process:

No writing is truly a final piece. Anything written can always be improved or added on to. It is a constant cycle that we all follow. The term writing is defined as “all of the work that went into getting there.” And the “there” is called the product or end result.

 

Freewriting:

Freewriting is a method used to improve your writing. It requires you to write for at least 10 minutes without a break at least three times a week. Peter Elbow believes that the advantage of permitting more editing in writing when compared to speaking is also its downfall too. This method’s goal is to help get rid of the awkwardness and “general messiness” of our “natural verbal product.”

 

Shitty first drafts:

This writing is introduced with Anne Lamott’s personal story of writing a restaurant review. She mentions her process of getting to a final, well-written paper. She describes the how the first draft is always going to be horrible and to just push through it and that it can take days just to get your writing flow and “trust” yourself.

 

Response:

One thing I noticed that all these sections reference is the ability to trusting yourself or the process of getting things done by just sitting down and writing what’s in your head. Lamott’s strategy is very similar to the freewriting method in the sense that your first draft is never supposed to be considered amazing and to keep working on it until you feel it is your best work.

Introduction to Composing as a Process

The introduction to this chapter starts off with what writing really is. The idea is that the point of writing isn’t about the final product, rather it is about the process and journey that a writer takes in creating the piece. The process of writing is much more important, as it helps the writer develop their writing skills and thoughts when trying to make something out of the process. The whole purpose of writing is to improve upon what one has previously written by incorporating the new ideas that one might have when writing the piece and incorporate those ideas into their writing.

Freewriting

The idea presented in this passage is that writing what is on your mind has its positives and negatives when developing one’s writing skills as a whole. The issue that is presented is that people often look back on their works and takes their time editing what is already written instead of implementing new ideas. The purpose of the exercise that is shown in the article is to help one edit their work the same time that they are writing it. It allows your idea to be expressed more clearly as if you were to edit an older idea, it might eventually lose its original meaning because the writer decided to change it after.

Shitty First Drafts

This passage presents the idea that it is okay for someone’s first draft to be horribly written, as it is only the first one and it’s main purpose is for the writer to jot down all of their ideas together. The fist draft is intended to be the start of the writing where the ideas are presented, although it may be ineffective, it allows the writer to get the idea of where to start when writing an essay. The passage also tells the reader to not stress out about how horrible the first draft is going to be, and encourages them to just start writing their ideas down. Through this process, the writer is able to develop their essay by using the various ideas that are introduced in the first draft, and soon it can be developed into a more coherent essay.

Summary

The ideas presented through the three passages shows tips on how writing a piece starts, and how the main point of writing is to improve what you have previously written. The beginning of writing an essay is to write down what ideas come to the writers mind, and they shouldn’t worry about if it’s good or not since it’s only the first stage of the piece. The whole point of writing is the process of developing the piece after writing down the ideas presented in the first draft.

 

Introduction to Composing as a Process

Writing is a long and often strenuous process rather than a product. Good writing requires a set of different skills since it involves planning, drafting, and revising our work. Writing is a lot of work and needs to be practiced often as it not only helps us to express our ideas but also form new ones.

Freewriting

Freewriting is an exercise that places emphasis on simply getting words down on a paper. It is sometimes called “babbling” exercises since it is about just writing, completely ignoring coherence and any real sort of meaning. It’s meant to be just raw thought. Freewriting is supposed to be helpful since it encourages creativity and relieve writer’s block as words come to mind more easily.

Shitty First Drafts

A first draft isn’t meant to be good. It’s just an initial way of getting words and ideas onto paper. When writing the first draft of a paper, it doesn’t matter if it’s completely coherent, has errors, or doesn’t thoroughly convey what you’re trying to say since it’s meant to be revised and perfected until, eventually, it’s a good piece of writing.

Response

All these texts emphasize the creativity and concept of improvement involved in the writing process. I strongly agree with the text “Freewriting” when it mentioned that school often makes us too focused on mistakes and errors we make. There should be focus on the creativity need and how to actually get ideas on paper rather than making sure it’s correct, especially since errors can be fixed later on in the writing process.

Introduction to Composing as a Process

Writing is a long and arduous journey consisting of exploring, planning, drafting, and revising. It’s a lot of hard work that culminates in a final, polished piece. As we write, we tend to come up with and discover new ideas, our work snowballing into a finished product.

 

Shitty First Drafts

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first drafts.” Pouring out all of your thoughts and ideas onto paper without a single care in the world about the quality of your writing is a simple and effective way to jump-start your composition. This first draft isn’t meant to impress anyone. In fact, you might end up discarding almost everything that you put down. In this jumbled mess, however, you’re bound to find something great that’ll make the rest of your writing a cakewalk.

 

Freewriting

Premature editing is a disruptive habit that serves as the downfall of many writers. It’s a clash between editor and producer; you’re trying to write and make progress in your piece while, simultaneously, interrupting yourself to fix every little blunder that catches your eye. Freewriting is an exercise that aims to eliminate this habit. By writing whatever comes to mind, nonstop, for 10 minutes, you teach yourself to make the most of your natural voice and save the editing for later.

 

Response

Writing is a process and awful drafts are a crucial part of it. I tend to struggle with the notion of getting my ideas out on paper without editing them. These readings have helped me realize the importance of going wherever my thoughts take me and I plan on using the freewriting exercise to get better at it.