After reading Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts,” I felt much better about the writing process and my paper so far. Growing up I was always interested in writing, whether it was for school or creativity, but it never went passed pinning writing prompts on Pinterest, as I was always too scared to actually start writing. I noticed the same feelings resurface when starting this essay. However, my dad taught me similar ideas to what Lamott expressed. When I was learning to drive, my mom would make me do circles around a parking lot to get used to the car and practice staying on the right side of the road. When my dad took me driving, he had me zoom through the middle of the lot and make figure 8s. This method has also helped me with writing. While staying relevant to the essay prompt is important for second drafts and beyond, for the first draft it’s okay to zoom through and get every idea you can onto paper no matter how crazy. It’s okay to write a shitty first draft.

One goal I have for my essay is to make my arguments stronger. I would also like to add more “they say” to my paper. Finally I would like to make more connections between the texts we were given.

To achieve my goal of making my arguments stronger, I will go back and re read my essay to find parts where my claims could use improvement. From there I can look at the quotes or examples I used and go back into the texts to find the context surrounding them and see if there’s any other information I can add to strengthen it. Then I can double check to make sure my paper still flows and move on.

To add more “they say,” I can dig deeper into the texts the counter my argument, as I wasn’t too focused on that while writing my first draft. I can re read the counter arguments and pull some quotes and then analyze them to counter their counter and improve my paper.

Throughout my essay I never really made direct connections of how all of the texts compare to support my argument. To do this, I will go back into each of the texts and pinpoint all of the quotes I used and read the surrounding context to connect the texts and strengthen my paper.

My biggest challenge would be presenting more “they say”. It’s difficult for me to find counter arguments and explain them in a way that seems unbiased. I feel it will be hardest to find counter arguments and then counter their counter to strengthen my argument.

Should this problem prove to be too tricky, I can always re read “They Say/I Say” to see if there is a prompt I could use or pointers I could follow. I could also ask a friend who may have a differing opinion than the one I’m arguing to see how they would argue my point and go from there.