Everyone Poops: The Value of Shitty First Drafts

Taro Gomi's book Everyone Poops tries to take what might be a scary experience for some children and show them that pooping is totally normal.

It might seem a strange comparison, but in Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Anne Lamott shares an aim similar to that of Gomi. Writing can be a scary process, but as Lamott explains to her readers, all good writers produce "shitty first drafts." This process is not only normal, but a good way to begin any writing project.

In Writing Without Teachers, writing theorist Peter Elbow explains that some writers are nervous about the idea of freewriting because it runs counter to all the hard work they have done to become better, more careful writers. According to Elbow, writers worry that that this process will infect their writing and ruin future writing projects.

Elbow sees this concern tied to a larger feeling of helplessness in the face of new writing projects. For this reason, he sees freewriting, or freeing the expectations of a first draft, as a way to get beyond some of the anxiety that writing can produce and begin the process. In response to the skeptics he states:

Yes, it produces garbage, but that's all right ... It might [infect future writing] if you did nothing but freewriting - if you gave up all efforts at care, discrimination, and precision. But no one asks you to give up careful writing. It turns out, in fact, that these brief exercises in not caring help you care better afterward.

To prove this idea that "shitty first drafts" can develop into something writers can be excited about, it would be great to provide an example of a paper that has grown from a "shitty first draft" into something worth submitting, but for the sake of time let's try to isolate some smaller, yet still important, part of writing that can benefit from this process.

To do this I will use an example thesis to show how embracing the process of writing can help writers: first, to generate ideas and questions and, eventually, to refine those ideas into something that helps focus future writing.

Let's imagine that I have been given an assignment to write an argumentative paper about a famous speech. My mind goes blank as I struggle to think of a speech, any speech, I actually know anything about. The recent holiday has inspired me to choose Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech and write about that.

As is often the case for writers on a deadline, maybe I don't know that much about the speech. I might also feel like there is nothing new to say about my topic. It's important for all you writers out there to remember that feeling like this is okay. As you tackle your own writing assignments, just remember that how you approach the assignment will impact how it turns out. Stay optimistic and open-minded, and as you continue with the assignment, hopefully you will find some way to take ownership of the project and make it unique. For this example, I'll get a basic idea down and see if I can find something that makes the speech unique and interesting to me as a writer: something worth getting excited about.

Thesis Draft One (My "Shitty First Draft"):

The speech "I Have a Dream" was very important to the people of the time.

This is certainly true, but not exactly exciting. It is also hard to imagine anyone really disagreeing with me. The important thing is that I have my first thought down, and now I can continue to play around with it.

When you find yourself at this stage of the writing process, ask yourself questions and try to answer them. Maybe you know the answers, or maybe your questions point you to places where you need to do further research.

In the example above, I can look at "very important" and ask myself how it was very important. Push yourself to be more specific. For example, I also mention "people" and "time," and so I might ask myself who are the people involved, who is the speech given by, when and where was it given? I don't have to answer all of these questions immediately, but I should keep them in mind as I try my next version of the thesis.

Thesis Draft Two (Continuing the Freewriting Process):

With his "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King Jr. moved people to action.

What do you think? It seems like this thesis is moving in the right direction. By freewriting this draft, and by keeping those questions in mind, I now have indicated that Martin Luther King Jr. is the person who gave the speech. I have also started to address how it was very important: it moved people to action. What are some questions I still might ask myself about this thesis?

Well, first I still have some of the original questions floating around (e.g. who are the people?), but I also might ask myself what "action" was taken and what was the result? What did King move them to do exactly? Again, during the drafting process give yourself space and time to play with the drafts without stressing about answering all your questions. If you think it is helpful, especially with longer papers, jot your questions down and take a break. Then come back and freewrite again. Write anything that comes to mind and allow the questions to guide you without dictating where your writing goes.

Thesis Draft Three (The Final Freewrite):

With his "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King Jr. united Americans to confront racism.

By this draft, I have addressed a couple of my questions: the people were Americans, the action taken was to confront racism. One thing I will want to keep an eye on as I write my next draft is the part where I say "united Americans" because this could give the sense that all Americans were united against racism following the speech. That would be nice, but is obviously not true.

After you have done some freewriting, asked and answered as many questions as you can, and have begun to gather scholarly sources, it is then time to really draw on your research. For the sake of space, I'm only going to provide one more thesis example. The example will have a little bit of research behind it, but I hope at this point you recognize that, even though it is the last one provided, it is just another draft in the process. As you gather research, you will find that it is more difficult to contain your thoughts in a single sentence, as demonstrated below.

Thesis Draft Four (The "Final for Now"):

Many people remember Martin Luther King Jr. for his "I Have a Dream" speech, and what they remember from the speech is probably his famous line about his children being judged not "by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." As a result, it is likely best remembered as a speech about uniting Americans, across color lines, to confront the issue of racism. What is often forgotten is that "The Great March on Washington" was actually called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Recognizing this, it becomes easier to understand economic metaphors in the speech, but it also highlights King's increasing interest in economic injustice toward the end of his life. His final speech, "I've Been to The Mountaintop," was given as he attempted to support Memphis sanitation workers who were on strike. By looking at his final speech, and the events that led to the speech, it becomes easier to see how King recognized economic and racial injustice as interconnected.

So what do you think? I know there is a pretty big jump between the last two drafts, but remember that this is the first draft that I did not freewrite. I spent time reworking lines and looking at my research.

One thing I did was to look at other speeches by King to see what I could find. Ultimately, a credible timeline helped me to put his life and work in perspective. The timeline states that before his final speech, King announced a march on Washington for an "Economic Bill of Rights" that would, among other things, guarantee employment to anyone capable of working. Given the current economic crisis, this seemed like an important part of his life to discuss. Also, because I couldn't remember hearing about it in any history class when I was growing up, it seemed like it might be new for other people. The timeline, the relevance to current situations, and the potential newness encouraged me to do further research. All this made the idea of writing this paper exciting.

My research helped me to understand King's interest in economic freedom, and that helped me to notice and to understand certain lines in both of the speeches I mentioned in my still-developing thesis paragraph.

I first thought of his "I Have a Dream" speech, and I thought about it in terms of civil, not economic, rights. To be safe I could double-check my claim with an instructor, but you can also see that I have phrased the lines carefully so that I don't overstate my claim.

Ultimately, the research made me want to write about his final speech. It is worth noting that, depending on how much time I allowed myself to write before the due date and how much research I did on the other speech, this kind of change might not be possible.

The final thing to keep in mind is that, while my argument isn't the most controversial thing in the world, my thesis is starting to take shape in a way where it is actually possible to imagine someone disagreeing with me. My confidence that this is "new" information for many in my imagined audience, and the fact that it might be a contentious claim, allows me to move forward more confidently with my paper.

As writers, it can sometimes be frustrating to look at "good" work, but this is because "good" writing eventually hides the process. A blog post about process is no exception. Our hope is both that the content and writing of our blogs can always be of a certain, high-quality level. Hopefully, you find it encouraging that even for this work, after I used freewriting for the first draft, there were:

10 drafts before it was posted, 2 people who gave me feedback during the process, and there was 1 person who proofread my work.

Additionally, there were 9 outside sources consulted about the speech and process-based writing.

If you are interested in checking out either of the speeches, you can go to American Rhetoric's database of the top one hundred speeches to read, watch, or listen to them.

Happy Holidays!

The Writing Center is closed for the Fall semester (which also means our blog posts will be on hold), but we'll be back in January! See you all soon!

Influence and Style

How many of you have ever watched a tearjerker movie and been sad afterwards? You get drawn in by the characters and their emotions, living their lives with them, laughing with their happiness, and then weeping as if you yourself were the one who lost your family and your pet in quick succession. It feels real, and so it becomes real to you. The visuals in the movie, the speech, and the actions all create a world that invites you to leave your own - in fact, it doesn't give you much of a choice. How many people saw Star Wars and spoke like Yoda for the rest of the day? Be affected by other styles, you will.

The same is true of books. What movies create with body language, props, and dialogue; a book creates with words. Think of your favorite book, and try to recall how you feel when reading it - do you look at the world through the same lens? Jane Austen, a classic, has a very individual way of writing. When I am in the middle of reading one of her books, anyone who speaks to me over that week or so will receive a Pride and Prejudice-esque response, in wording and manner if not content. If you want to tell me about your escapades in the latest bar spot at 4 AM, check what's laying by my bedside - its best to have that conversation with me when I'm reading something by David Sedaris rather than Mansfield Park.

What authors affect you? If you have a few minutes, try this exercise:
Pick a topic, say, going to the kitchen for a glass of milk when you can't sleep. Take this scenario, and try and write it in the style of several different authors - the quieter warmth with a bit of sarcasm like Austen, the clipped staccato of Hemingway.
Once you have tried a few different authors, try the most difficult one - write like yourself.

This will be a difficult exercise! Don't mimic the writer by using their words, but try and write as if you were indeed that writer. How do they differ from your own style?
If you aren't sure of your own style yet, then this exercise of impersonation will help you figure it out - what of those other writers do you see in your writer's voice? How do the writers differ from yourself?

Take a few moments and learn a bit about your own place as a writer, and remember: keep reading!

Prezi Newsletter

This semester's Writing Center Prezi (Newsletter) is officially available for public consumption. Have you ever wanted to know more about our tutors and their special interests? Do you want to know why people return to the writing center after that initial session? Are you curious to see the super awesome baked goods our tutors made for the WVU Writing Center Baking Contest in September? Or, are you more curious about the IWCA-NCPTW Conference that some of our tutors attended earlier this month?

Check out the Prezi HERE for the answers to these questions and more!

Special thanks to James Holsinger for heading the project and to Mollie Ballard, Amy Purpura, Caitlyn Johnstone, Stephani Smith, and Peggy Tomko for contributing stories!

Procrastination and You: Scheduling Yourself For Success

As a professional procrastinator extraordinaire, I feel qualified to attest to the late night frenzy that includes a blank computer screen and frazzled nerves. As we have all experienced this once or twice, there are some of us who make a habit of this midnight-scramble. These 2AM papers to lead us to less-than-desirable work and a feeling of doubt (not to mention extreme mental and physical fatigue). The question is not how do I avoid them, but how do I go about making sure that severely procrastinated papers don't happen at all?

The answer my friends is scheduling. But what exactly does that entail?

By scheduling I mean break up your work into smaller and more manageable pieces. For example, you can't eat an entire steak in one bite! You have to cut it into smaller pieces and work your way towards finishing the entire piece. Start out tiny! Don't have a topic or unsure about what to write? Designate one night to thinking about what you're going to do or e-mail your teacher for clarification. After that stop. Take a break. Put down your pencil and begin something else. The next night (once you've had time to sleep on it/ time for your teacher to reply to your e-mail) start with your thesis; a single sentence! The next night, compile an outline integrating what you already know about your topic and your sources. Continue breaking your paper up into sections until you have the entire assignment written. And voila, in a week to two weeks you have your paper. Remember though, to win the battle against procrastination you have to fight with heavy armor: allotted time and breaks in between sections.

However, The reason that I, and probably most of us for that matter, put off a paper is because we are uninterested in the topic, hate to write, or have no idea where to start. Allotting yourself a designated time to work on your paper is half the battle. Make sure you are in a distraction free zone and sit down. Literally forcing yourself into a situation where there is nothing else to focus on forces you to do the one thing you are meant to get done. Just remember that the only thing you really need (besides a pencil, paper, sources, etc...) is scheduled time. As long as time is on your side, you can do anything.

Go confidently in your writing and best of luck!

Topics Hunt

This is the time in the semester when teachers start assigning the ever creative, ever stressful "term paper," or something similar in nature.

Sometimes teachers are helpful and provide us students with a topic relating to something we've read or discussed in class. However, sometimes they want our creative juices to flow widely and just choose a topic out of thin air!

I have found choosing something to write about is the most difficult part of the writing process, partially because until that start point is identified, you cannot move forward.

Here are some tips for choosing a topic for your next big paper:

• Don't pick something to write about that you hate. It will make the entire process hard and miserable, and the paper won't reflect you in the best light.
  
• Think about everything you come in contact with on a daily basis. Pick up a copy of the Daily Athenaeum or read it online at http://www.thedaonline.com/. You might find something relevant to your life that would make an interesting paper.
  
• Go to cnn.com or another nationwide news outlet. A current event or social issue is creative and timely.
  
• If your paper requires research, make sure the topic you choose is 1. old enough to have research done about it and 2. that research is available and reliable. Check out the databases at the WVU Library's website at http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/ to make sure your topic has academic research.

Here are some tools to help you get started. Another great resource is coming to the Writing Center and having a tutor help you brainstorm. You can come to the Center at any point in the writing process, and we will help you get to the next step!

Constructing a CV (or résumé)

With the end of the semester and December graduation right around the corner, many students are looking toward the future and are applying to graduate programs of jobs in their respective fields of study. One way to help improve your chances of getting into graduate school or landing a job right after college is to have a polished Curriculum Vitae (CV) or résumé. If you are not graduating, DO NOT STOP READING! It is never too soon to write a CV and keep it on file because you never know when an opportunity for a job or internship may arise.

So what is a CV? A CV is a type of résumé that is specifically geared toward academic achievements but also contains relevant work history and awards.

Here is how to start:

First, start with a heading at the top of the page that includes your full name, making sure it stands out to the reader. After all, the CV is about YOU!! Follow your name with a permanent address, local school address (if you want to give it), telephone number, and e-mail address (make sure the e-mail address is professional and avoid using the one you made in high school, like "pinkgurl34" or "BBallstar45").

Below your contact information comes your educational background. You may start with your high school, if you wish, and then include each higher education institution you attended in chronological order. Be sure to list any degrees or professional certificates awarded by each school. If you have not graduated yet, list the date of your anticipated graduation. Finally, list your major(s), minor(s), or any areas of concentration.

Now the following content areas can be tailored to fit your specific needs. If you are applying for a job in teaching or for grad school in education, think about starting with teaching history. Or, if you are applying for grad school in an area of science, you may want to start with your research background. Be sure to include Relevant Work Experience (paid or unpaid), Research Positions, Clinical Experience, Publications, and Poster Presentations (Your senior capstone could go here!). Be sure to give the date of each position, as well as a description of each and the name of your supervisor.

Next, list any awards or honors you have achieved, including Dean's list, honoraries, or academic enrichment awards. Avoid anything from high school unless you were valedictorian or received a major recognition like being named a National Merit Scholar.

Finally, list any memberships in professional organizations, but use caution listing social fraternities since they typically do not have a direct link to your educational background, and prospective grad schools or employers may have a bad connotation with them.

WHEW!! That was a lot, but there is still more work to ensure a CV stands out. You MUST proofread it and have your friends, coworkers, mentors, or professors also proofread it for careless mistakes you may have missed. Also, use a professional font. Do not use Cosmic Sans, Impact, or Curled, and stick to a font size of 12. You may, of course, use boldfaced for your name, italics for dates, or underlines for section headings. Last, but not least, use white or off-white paper; this is not the time for fancy stationary.

So, not too bad...right? Don't fret if your CV is not very long. Most undergraduate students only have one page of relevant information. Remember, just keep adding to it as you go, and it will be a vital document that will follow you around for the rest of your career.

For more information on writing a CV or résumé, visit everyone's favorite writing resource, the Purdue OWL at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/641/01/

Keith-Spiegel, P., and M.W. Widermen. The Complete Guide to Graduate School Admission. New York: Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 2000, Print.

Take a Break...Creatively!

We all know it. We met it in middle school or high school. It was drilled into our psyche and we dreamed of it in our sleep. Here at the Writing Center, we live and breathe it. We know it by heart and we can rattle it off at any moment’s notice. It’s The Five-Paragraph Essay. Introduction. First, second, and third body paragraphs. Conclusion. We’ve scratched our heads as they explain it: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them.” We find ourselves speaking in mini-five paragraph essays. “Well, I have three things to say about that, but before I start, let me tell you my main point…” STOP!

Sure, the five-paragraph essay format can be a helpful way to organize information, and many professors require that assignments follow such a format. And that’s okay. Do you ever feel stifled, though? Ever need a break from the same old structure? Or maybe you just want to breathe some life into your dusty old essay – the one you’ve been working on since three weeks ago, that you used to be jazzed about but that now is about as exciting as a wool sweater in July.

Don’t worry; there is hope in the world of creative writing. You don’t have to think of yourself as a creative writer to follow this advice. Here are some quick, easy exercises to stimulate your creative side, from Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer.

Spend five minutes listing:
• Fifty phrases that would make good titles for a short story.
• Fifty interesting settings for stories.
• A strange experience in a car.
• An unmerited award.
• A good deed that backfires.
• Verbs that have to do with the ocean.
• Nouns and verbs that have to do with your home landscape.

If you have a little more time on your hands, try some of Johnston’s longer exercises:

Spend ten minutes describing:
• Your boss’s shoes.
• Your boss’s hairstyle.
• The interior of your boss’s car.
• Why you should move someplace else.
• Why you’re living exactly where you should be living.

Spend twenty minutes writing a scene that involves:
• An airport baggage claim.
• A character who steals a pair of fingernail clippers.
• An e-mail sent to the wrong person.
• An adult child trying to convince his or her fifty-something mother not to adopt a baby.

In conclusion (relax, folks – that’s a joke), creative writing is good for you. The next time you are burned out on writing and need a break, do exactly what you don’t want to do: write some more. But write creatively! You’ll be much more prepared to tackle the last paragraph of your five-paragraph essay, and hopefully some of those creative juices will carry over into your everyday writing.

Happy writing!

Johnston, Bret Anthony. Naming the World: and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer. New York: Random House, 2007. Print.

Using Deadlines to Your Full Advantage

So….it’s Friday morning and you’ve just been given the prompt for your first major writing assignment. It’s due one week from today. You may as well just toss it aside until next Thursday night. I mean…the weekend is approaching, who wants to begin writing a paper anyway?

Everyone has been guilty of the age-old practice of procrastination. This is especially true when stacking 4 or 5 other classes worth of workload onto your already hectic schedule. When placed under the very burdensome and stressful lifestyle that college brings to the plate, students generally focus on their short term writing assignments and otherwise neglect deadlines that are due weeks in advance. In actuality, if a professor gives weeks to complete an assignment, it isn’t because he or she is being courteous, it’s because the assignment should be given sufficient time for research, revisions, etc.!

So, you’ve finally decided to plan ahead and use the next week to your full advantage. What steps should you take when completing a writing assignment due one week from today? Many students use very different methods when planning out their assignments, personal preference is essential. However, taking myself into consideration, I grab my assignment prompt, find a computer, and type away. Think of it as capturing a stream of consciousness and placing it onto paper. Type whatever comes to mind, ignoring grammatical errors (for now). Obviously this technique will produce a rather rough sketch, but the point of this exercise is to get the majority of your content onto paper.

Writing an argumentative research paper on foreign policy? Without hesitating, picture how you want to form your argument. What is your claim? Do you have supporting evidence for that claim? Go ahead and type whatever comes to mind. Once you get a rough idea of the logical structure of your argument, a natural organization will begin to form. Self dialogue may even ensue: “Ok, this is my stated claim. I’ll place this at the end of my introduction…and the rest of these statements will each act as a premise supporting my thesis….I better go ahead and make each premise a topic sentence for the remaining paragraphs within the body of my paper.” Once you get the content down and recorded, you will have more than enough time for sentence refinement and organizational restructuring. This strategy is mainly advantageous when students have a rough time starting their paper.

I have one last suggestion that is not often taken into consideration. Being that you have a week to prepare, I cannot more than stress the importance of meeting with your professor during his or her scheduled office hours. Make an appointment if you have to. Professors enjoy working with students who take a very active role in their assignments. This is an important step for more than one reason alone. It would be wise to verify that you are following the writing prompt accurately, your professor may offer to check over your rough draft, or even make suggestions you hadn’t even considered!

How to Manage Multiple Sources

When writing an essay that includes a lot of research, it’s hard to keep all of the information straight! Here’s an easy way to save time and stay organized when writing that I learned from my English 102 professor, James Holsinger; I like to call it “The Note Card Method.”

While doing your research, write down each summary, paraphrase, direct quotation, and citation (as it will appear on the Works Cited Page, i.e. in MLA, APA, or other format) on separate note cards. It helps to color-code (i.e. black ink for summary, blue for paraphrase, green for direct quote, and red for citation) and/or to label at the top of the card what sort of material it is (i.e. “Summary,” “Direct Quote,” etc). Be sure to put the page number—if there is one—on which you found the information at the bottom of the note card; this will save you time with your in-text citations.

Label each card with a source number. For example, if you have a summary and direct quotation from a certain textbook, label the summary card, direct quotation card, and citation card with number 1 in one of the top corners. For all material from the next source, label with number 2, for all material from the next source, label with number 3, etc.

Put your citation cards in the order that it will appear on your Works Cited page, and simply type it out. Your Works Cited page is done!

Next, it’s time to organize the information you found. Look at all of your materials: summaries, paraphrases, and direct quotations. Group cards of similar topics together; these will go together in paragraphs of your essay. Decide in what order to present these topics, and put the groups of cards in that order.

Now, all you have to do is fill in with your own writing! You already have the information from your sources in the correct order, and since they’re numbered by source, in-text citation will be fast and easy.

I hope this technique helps you as much as it’s helped me! Good luck with your research papers!