last in-class writing!

What have you learned? What have you enjoyed? Not enjoyed? What will you take with you to other classes?

My primary goals with this class was to get more efficient with my writing. I used to start writing assignments, get distracted, lose motivation, got bored, and feel repetitive, then give it a last-ditch effort to make a page requirement. This class has allowed me to remember what it was like for writing to feel natural because we can write about things that are relevant and things we are passionate about. I will definitely take the new strategies for "Shitty First Drafts" and pre-writing with me  since I had been just outlining and winging it before this. I enjoyed work-shopping and getting an idea about what everyone else is doing. Sometimes I write papers and feel like I completely miss the point and it's drowning in my point of view, but this was productive. This is one of the only settings where I have felt my writing was "at home" since my major requires almost exclusively scientific research and APA ramblings. I'll save the essays I wrote in here as personal creations, and part of the spatial analysis for paper 1 was sent out to my family after I had sent it to my boyfriend for him to proofread - that paper ended up being about the place where he became the fiancé!

pansy first drafts

Oh, how I wish I could adopt the reckless, carefree prose style of Anne Lamott. I am someone who labors over the first page and needs a remarkable amount of motivation to start because I know how long it takes me. I am guilty of treating a first draft like a second or third. I can do the hasty, unfiltered writing in brainstorming and prewriting exercises, but I would be mortified to put such thoughts in a document I would turn in for any kind of grade or recognition. I'm afraid in editing I'll run over it and leave that poor lonely thought alone in its unrefined glory and never come back to it again. Most of what I consider to be revision includes rephrasing repetitive sentences and messing with the flow of the story. I get frustrated when revisions I receive in work shopping processes are minimal, I want to have a lot to look over and think about - seeing things from only my own perspective is boring to read and write about. I like having things to argue and defend on paper.