Myers 1 Rochelle Myers English 111 Chemberlin December 1, 2013

Learning Drafts When writing a paper and thinking about what we were taught growing up we rethink the statement that revising drafts is not difficult. If we look back at culture, drafts and what high school has taught us, we learn that all of those components come into the picture. But most of all revision does not come easily. The things that made me realize that revision is not easy, was when I had read six different articles and they told their stories. Reading their stories I could then compare them, to my story growing up learning how to revise drafts. People all over the world believe that authors just write one draft and it has to be perfect. When I read this I was like what. This is so contradicting from what high school teachers have taught us. Why do we put so much pressure on authors? Authors have done what we do, and that is work their way up to having a great draft by doing revision. But if you think about drafts they can never be perfect and there will always be room for tweaking within. This is why we revise our drafts more than once before we submit a final one. Which is also why Lamott the author that wrote Shitty First Drafts explains that this is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts (Lamott 325). Just like students authors write and revise drafts to make their papers better. But people dont think that they have to write more than one draft. This is wrong

Myers 2 in my eyes to say that about authors. Yes it compliments them but then again its saying that they are not human because humans make mistakes. Nobody is perfect and no matter how hard an author tries to make their paper perfect it will be excellent just not perfect and always have room for revision. Min-Zhan Lu from Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle was born in china then her mother moved her to the United States and expected Min-Zhan Lus education to be very important. But it was somewhat of a struggle because she was learning a new culture and also making her education the most important thing. So her writing made her struggle a lot and her drafts were not perfect. Lamott mentions that We all often feel like we are pulling teeth, even those writers whose prose ends up being the most natural and fluid(326). We all struggle to start things for the first time but working through it and revising our first times is what makes us good at what we do. Some think that Authors just sit down and can write their first draft perfect. But no it does not work that way. Min-Zhan Lu struggled a lot at first but she started catching on but not like everyone else who had already grown up around the culture. When growing up min-zhan lu believed Moderate the currents, but teach them from the beginning to struggle (Min-zhan lu 338). Instead of skipping around to different parts, start from the beginning and teach the students everything even if they struggle that is what revision comes in the picture for. I totally agree with this because if you skip a huge part and dont want to teach the students then they will never learn that part of writing. If they dont learn a part of writing they cant revise that part of their draft then. With not knowing parts of English we will be missing a part of writing and in Between the Drafts by Nancy Sommers she says that the department believes that they

Myers 3 need to teach the students every part. They want their students to be excellent writers in their drafts and they say that Some colleagues fear that if we dont control what students learn, dont teach them to write as scholars write, we arent doing our job and some great red-legged scissor-man will cut off out thumbs (Sommers 450).The department believes that if they dont teach students the basics then this world will be uncontrollable and our writers will not be on the same path way. I believe that if children are not taught all the basics of writing in school then they will not go down the same path so I agree with them on this but I dont agree that they think that the world will be uncontrollable if we arent all taught like scholars write and revise drafts like scholars do. Sommers is corresponding to the other two articles because she believes that if we dont teach students the right subjects or basics in writing then they wont be able to be successful. Which corresponds with min-zhan lu because she is learning the English culture and trying to grow up and learn how to write a good draft in America. She has to know the basics before she can put them all together and write a successful paper. Thats the same as an author they go through grade school to learn the basics so that they can pursue into that degree and make their writing better. When I really think about how high school really went and the learning style I was taught made me actually think about how it connects to What high school is written by Theodore Sizer. They tell us that high school is the same as it was in the past. I do not agree with that because now schools are not as strict as they used to be. Also children do not have to learn as depth as they used to. But English is one of the subjects that has stayed the same. In English we have all learned how to read and write. Even when authors went to school they learned this stuff. Taking subjects in a

Myers 4 systemized, conveyer-belt way is what one does in high school (Sizer 267). Children have been taking classes or subjects as a requirement of the government for years and the childrens parents had to take those subjects when they were in school. When it comes to What high school is this article connects to the first three articles because people say that authors make one draft and its perfect it makes me disagree because when they were in school they had to learn all the requirements to write a paper and still need to revise drafts before the final one. Then it also connects because min-zhan lu is in school and she is taking these subjects and trying to write good papers for English as she is still learning that culture. Lastly this article goes along because in the third article they fear that if they dont teach their students how to write properly then the world might start becoming uncontrollable. When youre in high school they say all this stuff about college and try to scare high school students. Some teachers say some wont succeed if they do what they do every day in high school, while others will succeed. W.J. Reeves wrote this article called College isnt for everyone and this kind of repeats what high school teachers have told us. They give examples of kids who dont go to college like if they depend on their parents and use their credit card to buy books and it doesnt work that day. They feel confused and go home to get a new card but by the time they get back all the books are sold out. Is that really a reason to not go to college? No it is not, first of all dont depend on your parents to buy your stuff. There are scholarships if you are not eligible for financial aid. If anything you are a college kid get a job and help pay for your college. To me this is a lame excuse to be lazy and I disagree with this because there are ways around this problem and then you can go back another day to get the book or talk with the

Myers 5 librarian to see when they will restock them. Some students will accept all of this as Reeves says Thus, moms and dads, who foot the bill, delude themselves that going to and four-year- college will make their sons and daughters literate, analytical, culturally aware, technologically advanced, and therefore employable(341). Parents really believe that if their children go to a four year college over a community college they will get a better education. Will a professor sit down and look at your writing one on one with 400 students in the class? No they will not. This is the way to go more if you are struggling and want more out of your education. This goes back to the first four articles because if you want to pursue your education and writing skills one on one then there are ways but if you find excuses then college is not for you because you are not willing to try to get around those problems. If youre not willing to get around problems then how does revision come into the picture and make your problems better. Some are saying that college isnt for everyone but some disagree. Paul Attewell and David E.Lavin wrote the article What the critics of College For All Say and the authors discuss that college has been dumbed down because in the past they would challenge you more. Now they dont challenge you as much like they will still criticize your work but are a lot nicer about it now. Especially if you start in a low English class they will dumb it down like high school classes. As college enrollments climbed, a quite different type of criticism from the left focused on equity issues, noting that students from disadvantaged backgrounds were disproportionately found in two year associates degree programs at community colleges (Attewell, Lavin 349). Once you get into college the criticism comes different. They expect you to know the basics of writing already when you enter college but if you lack them then they will help. I think that this

Myers 6 is a good thing that professors help if you lack the skills because some college students are not coming straight out of high school where they are taught the basics. After looking at the first five articles I would say that this article as well connects to them because when a student is first learning how to write the basics they need to dumb it down where you can catch on but they also need to criticize so that you know what youre doing wrong in the drafts when you revise them. After learning about what all these authors say about writing and high school it made me think about what I was taught in high school. In high school I learned that when writing a paper it usually has 3-5 sentences in a paragraph. Contains an introduction, three body paragraphs, and an conclusion. Also we were assigned a couple of days for revision and days drafts were due. Thats how it always has been the way that I learned growing up. For the MEAP or ACT testing we are told a topic to write about but they dont tell you those requirements that we have grown up with. The reason they do that is because they are trying to test your knowledge on what the teachers have taught us through the years. When students had their drafts reviewed and would get negative feedback some of them would feel like they were failures. When you feel like youre a horrible writer its hard for a writer to get back into revision and writing a new draft. This is all the contributions that I was taught while growing up writing a paper. In conclusion, when comparing six different articles about the same topic it makes me think more about the topic as one. They all discuss what we learned in school about writing drafts and those components are all what authors were taught in school as well as the most important factor; revision. The only differences we have from authors are they decided to further into the writing degree and do that for a living. Also we

Myers 7 explore that college now has dumb things down and does not criticize as bad especially in lower classes. They reteach what we should have learned in high school. But authors write as many drafts as each student if not more to get everything on their mind onto paper and make it really good because they revise all their drafts. This does not make any of us bad writers though.

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Work Cited Attewell Paul, Lavin David E, What the Critics of College for all say. Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st century. Ed. Tyrick and Elden. Boston, Pearson. 2013. 348-354. Print Lamott Anne, Shitty First Drafts, Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st century. Ed. Tyrick and Elden. Boston, Pearson. 2013. 325328. Print Lu Min-Zhan, From silence to words: writing as struggle. Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st century. Ed. Tyrick and Elden. Boston, Pearson. 2013. 328-338. Print. Reeves W.J, College Isnt for Everyone, Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st century. Ed. Tyrick and Elden. Boston, Pearson. 2013. 341345. Print. Sizer Theodore, What High School Is. Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st century. Ed. Tyrick and Elden. Boston, Pearson. 2013. 259267.Print. Sommers Nancy. Between The Drafts. Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st century. Ed. Tyrick and Elden. Boston, Pearson. 2013. 443451. Print.