Essay #3- 3rd Draft

Wanted: Successful Student Writers
The English language is not an easy thing to master. If you take a look at different pieces of professional writing you would probably see a difference in the ways the authors present their information. If you talk to different teachers they will give you different information. So who’s right? How is a student supposed to learn how to write when there is so much conflicting information? Every English teacher I have ever had has different ideas of what is really important when it comes to writing. Some have said that organization is the key, some think it is a strong thesis, some say it is grammar and punctuation, while others say it is presenting an argument, and supporting it. In my current class my teacher thinks that writing for an audience and maintaining a voice is the most important thing. In other classes I have had, teachers don’t even care as much about how the information is presented, just that it is presented at all. I have had classes where the teacher has written their own text book, and technically it is horribly written to the point that it is almost unreadable. So how is a student writer supposed to write to please their teachers if there are no overall rules to follow? I am a student and a writer, and I get confused of how to please my teachers while completing my assignments. So what advice would I give to other students? I would tell them that all of these things, about writing, that all of my teachers have told me over the years are equally important. If you don’t present an argument then the grammar doesn’t really mean anything, while if you use terrible grammar your argument may not be understood. To complete any assignment, in school, it is important to first understand what the assignment is, and what that specific teacher expects. Then the rest will come by using good organization, and making a clear, strong argument. It is important to maintain your own voice by presenting your information clearly, and then supporting it through the use of information from others that agree with you. Revision is also a very important aspect of writing because it allows you to go back as many times as you need to, making your assignment better each time. Not one of these processes is more important than the other, for they all complete the pieces of the writing puzzle.
Writing starts with having a voice. It is a conversation with an audience, even though you do not always know who that audience will be. Whether you are saying it out loud or posting it on a blog you are still the one saying whatever is being said, and that is important. Your voice is your voice and no one else’s, although in an academic situation sometimes you have to tone it down a little. In school we usually know who our audience is; the teacher. The teacher/audience is going to give you a grade so it is important to include the required information, but the way that you do that depends on you. Early on in my educational career I had a teacher who asked us to write a paper on the subject of race. He was insistent that we did not touch on the subject of racism, but I felt that how could I talk about race without talking about racism. While researching for my assignment I found many people throughout history that said that the concept of race existed solely because of racism. Racism was the reason that people felt the need to classify people into races; it was to create a sense of superiority. I included ideas of racism anyways, and when I got my paper back from the teacher there was no grade and a note that said please come see me. I did and he told me I did not follow the assignment, and he would allow me to redo it. I said no because I felt that my argument was just, and the information that I used to maintain my argument was information that I got from him. I asked him why would he give us these articles, which include concepts of racism, if he did not expect us to use them? He was shocked by this and got angry. I then reminded him of how he had taught me to use my voice, and I did that. Whether he agreed with what I had to say or not didn’t matter because it was my essay, and I was not going to let him stifle my voice. That would go against everything he taught me. He was even more shocked, but he thought about it and said I was right. He reread my essay and said I made an interesting argument, and that he had not thought about it that way before. I got an A, and I maintained myself in the process. The moral of the story, be strong, don’t write something just because you have to. Make it interesting, and find something about the assignment that you want to talk about; the stronger the feelings, the stronger the voice, the stronger the assignment.
Now that you have a voice you need to give strength to it, and you can achieve this through the use of quotes from other sources that support what you trying to say. If you just ramble a bunch of thoughts onto a page, then people might ask who are you, or what makes you an authority? But if you give examples from other people then your reader will see that there are others, and you are not alone in the way you feel about things. In They Say, I Say Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstien, and Russel Durst say that giving support adds to the conversation. They say “that to give writing the most important thing of all—namely, a point— a writer needs to indicate clearly not only his or her thesis, but also what larger conversation that thesis is responding to.” They say the best way to do this is by providing support from other individuals. It is also important to use quotes that are directly related to your topic, and it is information that you understand. In my experience, when I was an English tutor, many students would put quotes into their essays without truly understanding the point of the author. This just causes your argument to become vague, and confusing. Don’t just use information because you think it sounds intelligent, or the author used big words. It is important to use information that is meaningful to you. That when you read it, it caused the wheels in your brain to turn, and gave you inspiration. Sometimes this is the hardest part of completing an essay because it might take a lot of research to find the supporting information you need. In Ways of Reading An Anthology for Writers David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky say “one of the difficult things about reading is that the pages before you will begin to speak only when the authors are silent and you begin to speak in their place, sometimes for them—doing their work, continuing their projects—and sometimes for yourself, following your own agenda.” For students, most of the reading we do is for our own agenda because we need to complete assignments, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t find some kind of inspiration from what you are reading. Try to look for something that does cause you to think while you are reading. That is why we are students in the first place; to learn and expand our minds.
The next important piece of the puzzle is the way you organize it. Puzzle pieces only fit together one way, and it is the same for writing. An essay needs to have flow, and the only way to have that is by organizing your ideas into groupings. When you organize your file cabinet you wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, put your tax returns with your bank statements, instead you would make a separate folder for each, and an essay is the same way. A paragraph should only contain information that is relevant to that topic, and the topic sentence should reflect what that paragraph is going to be about. Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst say “The best compositions establish a sense of momentum and direction by making explicit connections among their different parts, so that what is said in one sentence (or paragraph) not only sets up what is to come but is clearly informed by what has already been said.” You achieve this through organization, and I find the best way for me to do this is by making an outline. When I create an outline I first think about what is my thesis, and what I call, my mini thesis’s, which are the sub-topics of my body paragraph. Once I have done this I know how many body paragraphs I will need to complete my essay. Next I try to come up with a hook, which will be my first sentence and will, hopefully, draw my reader into my conversation. I do this for each paragraph, but for my body paragraphs I try to tie that first sentence to the last sentence of the previous paragraph to create direction, and flow. Now that I have a basic frame for my puzzle, I just let the information pour out onto the page, emptying all the relevant information for my mind, and allowing it to be transformed into the written word. I try to keep my information as organized as possible, but sometimes it is just rambling. This is OK. You can fix this quite easily, through the process of revision.
This last point I can’t stress enough; REVISE, REVISE, REVISE! There has never been a writer in the history of writers that has not revised their writing. In Shitty First Drafts Anne Lamont says “The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later. You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page.” It is impossible to write something the first time and not have mistakes. We are human, and we make errors, but the great thing is errors can be fixed. You just have to find them, and that requires you to re-read your work. You can do this as many times as you want, making your paper better and better every time you do it. I, personally, like to sit in a room by myself and read my paper out load. I feel like hearing it out load helps me catch run-on sentences, grammar and punctuation errors, and if I have created an over-all clarity to my paper. Every writer does it, so in this situation; conform because sometimes conformity is a good thing. It definitely is when it comes to the process of revision. I promise you if you really focus on your revision process your grade will improve, maybe even change from a B to an A. In the past, I did not focus on revision as much as I should have, and my grade definitely reflected that fact. There were times when I was sitting in class the day my assignment was due, looking it over, and I would see some stupid mistake that could have been fixed in less than a minute. I would be so angry because I knew that this was going to affect my grade, or cause me to have to complete some extra assignment that I could have avoided completely, if I had just read my paper one more time before I printed it out. Revision is not just a process of checking for run-on sentences, or grammar mistakes, it is also about checking for content. While you’re re-reading you want to make sure you are thinking about the argument you are trying to make, and that it is forming clearly as your paper progresses. Also, think about flow and repetition. Are you enjoying reading your paper? If you’re not, then nobody else is going to either; don’t bore or confuse your reader. You want them to remember and understand what you have written when they reach the last word. If they don’t then this page is going to be filed in the trash which would be very bad if you were hoping to receive nice comments and a good grade. In Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers Nancy Sommers says “students are aware of lexical repetition but not conceptual repetition. Because students do not see revision as an activity in which they modify and develop perspectives and ideas, they feel that if they know what they want to say, then there is little reason for making revisions. Sommers says that this is what sets student writers apart from the experience because they don’t understand the importance of revision, all that is involved in the process. When I was a tutor, I found the biggest reason that students didn’t revise was laziness, and maybe a little anxiety. It’s ok, I am guilty of this myself. After you have worked on an essay you just want it to be done, and sometimes you are just sick of thinking about that topic. My suggestion is; find somebody else to read it over for you, or with you, but make sure that it is somebody who has some knowledge about writing, such as a teacher (yes, there are a few that will do this), a tutor (there free on campus), or a friend in the class who maybe did well on the last assignment. Going over your assignment with someone else can strike new interest in the subject through verbal conversation, or relieve anxiety through reassurance or help.
Now just breathe, and know that it is going to be ok, or can be. Just remember to have fun, or try. Writing can be very rewarding when you produce something you like. If you like it then other people probably will to. When you’re a student this is a good thing because it means that you have pleased your audience which is your instructor, but you also can take pleasure in your assignment because you pleased yourself. You accomplished the most important thing; you learned something that will be useful in the future. A few other points that I can make, which are minor but still important, are watch out for you comma usage (if you’re not sure then don’t do it), look for ways to connect your sentences through the use of words like although, which, therefore, however, etc. and don’t be afraid to use personal examples that relate to your topic (it’s your paper, so it’s ok to use yourself as a source.) Ask for help, most teachers that you will encounter in your educational career are happy to help. This is why they teach and the schools pay their salaries, so take advantage of it when you can. Your money is at stake as well, so spend it wisely. I have been lucky in the past to have had teachers who provide this assistance to me, but I had to speak up and ask for help. I, in time, became a proficient writer, but it took practice, and motivation to learn. I am still not perfect though, and no writer is, no matter how long they have been doing it. So relax, take pride in your writing, put a little thought behind it, and the puzzle will come together.