While reading Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts”, I found myself relating to her in more than a few ways. As I wrote my own first draft I felt that I was going in circles repeating myself while I tried to write. Lamott wrote that she sat in panic as she tried to start her reviews; she would sit there for ten minutes sighing about the thought of what to write. I too felt like starting my paper was a daunting task that I’d never be able to finish. However, once I began to write my ideas flowed onto the paper, even if they made no sense it was a start. I think she hit the nail on the head in this article.

Revision Plan Strategy:

Based on the feedback I received from my peers it became evident that my thesis was not specific enough. My goal is to specify my central argument and what I stand for in this paper to make my thesis clearer. First and foremost, to do this I plan to go back to my own draft and look at my peers’ notes and comments to see what they suggested and decide whether those suggestions are necessary or not. I plan to go through my paper again to see which sections need further clarification or clearer connections to my argument. My peers noted that my claim sentences were not present early enough in their paragraphs, so I also plan to reorganize each paragraph as necessary. I think my biggest challenge will be reorganizing my paragraphs. This may be challenging because I may also have to reorganize the sentences around it and potentially even rewriting the paragraph to say exactly what I want it to. If a challenge comes up that seems too difficult to figure out on my own I have a variety of resources to turn to. I have my peers’ notes which can help lead me in the right direction. I also have the books we use in class, “The Little Seagull” and “They Say, I Say” which both have a lot of really helpful writing tips such as organization, writing techniques, writing a thesis statement, etc. These can be really helpful when making revisions on your paper. If even those can’t help me I can turn to my teacher for further assistance. Sometimes you just need to bounce ideas off of someone and hear your ideas coming from someone else to figure out what exactly you are trying to say.