The Maker's Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts Summary

As I was reading Melissa Duffy’s “Inspiration, and Craig Vetter’s “Bonehead Writing,” I found myself connecting with Vetter’s paper more than Duffy’s. I found that the presentation in “Bonehead Writing” to capture my attention, and that Vetter’s feelings about writing was similar to my opinion on writing. Through his wording and humor, I think Craig Vetter wrote the best essay. I find that the wording and presentation of an article or essay influences my opinion of the writer, and it affects how I receive the idea they are trying to present to me. Craig Vetter uses a blunt approach to convey his idea that writing is nearly impossible to teach, and describes writing as “A blood sport, a walk in the garden of agony every time out.”

Anne Lamott 's essay, “Shitty First Drafts” explains to its readers that all writers, even the best, can have “shitty first drafts.” The essay presents the proper writing process from the first draft to the final piece of work. Her essay is intended to encourage writers who are in need of direction when it comes to writing and to teach inexperienced writers ways to become more successful in writing. Anne Lamott uses her personal experiences to build credibility, figurative language to engage the reader and provides the reader with logical steps for the writing process. To build credibility on her processes success, Lamott uses her own personal experiences.

Most writers need to sit down and just slap their ideas on paper to get the creative juices flowing. The first draft is not about perfection; it is about diving into writing and activating one’s brain. Afterward, Lamott shares how even professional authors must do this process of horrible first drafts. Her article then leads seamlessly into

After reading the first chapter, writing with Style, from “Thinking Well”, by John R. Trimble, he made it seem as if he was writing about my writing when he explained a novice writer. Trimble explains how a novice writer would write by giving examples of how their style of writing looks like. For example, Trimble explains how new writers unconsciously write and how they are not aware of their egocentrism. He states what a novice would have to achieve objectivity, empathy, courtesy and social sensitivity in order for him to have a readable style. Trimble then discusses what makes a veteran writer and how their thinking process reflects their writing situation.

2–17. Summary: Irvin addresses the common myths of writing in his article and states the proper solution for each myth. This article also addresses what academic writing is and how thinking critically allows us to understand what academic writing is. Irvin also makes a point of how most if not all essays and writing done in college is done so in an argumentative manner.

Writing About Writing, A College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 481-495.

Throughout my education, writing strategies persisted to be a challenge for me. I dreaded writing because I could never find ways to transition my thoughts from my mind to the paper. Ironically, a class that petrified me due to the amount of required writing ended up helping me in numerous ways. English 1301 and my professor prepared me for college and real life by giving me a foundation of effective learning strategies.

The skills and knowledge that I have gained in this course will help me to write better works in the future. I have grown as a more competent and skilled writer over the past semester. I can take what I have learned and not only use it in future college level writing but also in my profession as a nurse. Today, I feel much more prepared to take on a writing assignment. In this class, I have learned several ways to organize my thoughts and ideas and turn them into a well thought out project.

I am now able to see the areas in which I lack in but I also recognize my strengths as well. To become a precise writer, you have to take the initiatives that will help you do so. These initiatives consist of working on different academic genres, planning and organizing material, identifying purpose and audience and for revising intentionally. It is also includes reading different types of texts and learning how to understand a writer’s argument and respond to the ideas of others.

Introduction: As a first year student I have very specific goals in mind that I hope to achieve through my work in college. My main hopes for the future are that I pass all of my exams in the coming years, graduate and receive my honours degree in general nursing, become a registered nurse and finally get a job as a nurse. Throughout this essay, I have detailed my strengths and the opportunities that will help me finalise these goals along with my weaknesses and the threats that will hinder my progress. Strengths:

Writing has always been an issue but yet interesting subject of mine. As hard as I try and write essays, and papers I just can’t get the hang of writing. But after taking this class, I did learn different writing technique and improved my writing proficiency, material body of formatting, and how to uncovering and properly use sources. Through class exams, essays, and a research paper, I was able to learn new writing skills. Although I have learned a variety of things, my writing still needs improvement.

A large part of my revision process – which Meg was immensely helpful in – was developing a strong ‘so what,’ part of my thesis. Meg’s comments on her letter and in person helped me realize that even though I could not see it, the argument I was trying to make was already present in my paper. In our meeting we talked about a couple of different paths my argument could take and Meg helped me narrow down all of the different lines of thought I had to make a singular argument. Meg and I also discussed how after developing my thesis thoroughly I would be able to go back through my paper and alter my examples – eliminating them, elaborating, or / and finding a couple more for new points I would be making in my revision. Sitting down to do my

Writing essays and other types of posts has always been difficult for me. But, throughout this composition class, I have learned many interesting and new things about the different types of writing styles. When starting this class, I considered myself to be an average writer with run-of-the-mill vocabulary, ordinary sentence structure and typical finished products. This class has helped me greatly improve my writing skills in a variety of ways. I have learned multiple things by taking this class, such as new ways to approach writing and that there is much that I still need to learn about composition.

Each essay I wrote took me several time to write, several drafts which show that I have improve every time I do the drafts to write a perfect masterpiece. I learned a lot of skills and techniques this quarter, which has helped me to improve and progress my writing skills for the future. I will remember the skills, techniques, and tips that professor gave us in this English class for my higher education. For example, all the time that I went to visit professor Sapozhnikov office hours to receive help on my out-of -class essays has helped me to improve, grow, and progress in my writing skills as a writer. Some of the significant changes I have made as I was progressing and growing were to develop a strong thesis to help support my claims as I write my essays, such as facts, observations, illustration, and examples.

Academic English is important to college and university in academic writing course (Jet Writers Essay Writing Contest 2015). It is required students to reading, speaking and listening, while employing evaluating and sharpen their research and writing skills for college and university environment. At the college and university level is the ever-increasing need for students to focus on language and more specifically, the specialized language found both in substance areas and the Academic Language used in teaching that content. Academic Language as the name implies is importance the kind of writing that we are required to do in college and university. It differs from other kinds of writing such as annotated bibliographies, literature reviews,