4) Final Project 4

7/30/2019 4) Final Project 4

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Jared Powell

English 1510

Michael Johnson

12/12/12

Successful Writing: A Young Writers Opinion

We are good at writing or we are not. Good writers do not use personal or first

person forms in their writing. Good writing is formulaic. How many times have we

heard these things being thrown at us as writers? If youre anything like me than the

answer is to many. Successful writing is more than just following simple constructs.

Everyone has a slightly different definition of what successful writing is, but to me

successful writing is presenting an original claim in a manner that can be supported by

experts and evidence so that the reader is persuaded to agree with the author. In other

wordsif the writers objectives are accomplished then that particular piece of writing

was a success or successful.

Because the term successful is a general and loose term that has to be evaluated

on a case-to-case basis it is impossible to simply say a paper was or wasnt successful.

For example, where one paper might work another would fail. Looking at my own

definition of what makes writing successful there are key concepts that allow a paper to

accomplish its goals. To truly define a successful piece of writing the key concepts

underlying the definition of what makes writing a success must be evaluated within the

piece itself. These concepts are understanding writing as a process and understanding the

concept of discourse community. If a particular piece of writing shows an exceptional

understanding of these concepts than generally it can be classified as successful. Moving


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ultimately towards explaining my own theory it is important to first understand what led

me to believe what I believe.

Starting with the idea of writing as a process it is evident that successful writing is

not necessarily something that is achieved after one try. Anne Lamott echoes this idea in

her article, Shitty First Drafts. In her article Lamott says, The first draft is the childs

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 (Lamott 302). Obviously this

illustrates the idea that magic doesnt come out on the first try. Ideas have to be on paper

before they can be successfully and logically organized into something that will move a

listener or reader. Lamott finished this thought by saying, You just let this childlike part

of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page there

might be something on the very last linethat you just lovebut there was no way to get

to this without first getting through the first five and a half pages (Lamott 302). There

is no way to achieve something worth including in the final product without finding first

inside of a previous attempt.

Furthering what Lamott says Sarah Allen in her article, The Inspired Writer vs.

The Real Writer gives valuable insight into viewing writing as a process. Allen shares

the story of David Bartholomaea very successful scholar in the field of Rhetoric and

Composition. Allen says, he didnt learn to write until after he completed his

undergraduate studies, and that he learned it throughexperiencehis dissertation was

rejected for being poorly written (Allen 29). Obviously the man went on to being a

very established name in his field. This is further evidence that successful writing takes

time and cannot be completed after one try. Sarah Allen shows that being a successful


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writer is a process attained through many sessions of trial and error because being a good

writer is more than just a natural skill set. Countless authors have declared this idea, and

anyone who has ever achieved any sort of successful writing knows it to be true.

The other concept that is involved with successfully composing a particular piece

of writing includes understanding discourse community. When we write we are

attempting to be a member in a particular discourse community or we are writing as

members of a particular discourse community. It is essential to know who the audience is

when persuasively writing or when writing to achieve a goal. A key voice involved with

discourse communities is James Paul Gee. Gee claims that we have to be engaged deeper

than just being involved when being apart of a discourse community. This is because a

discourse community includes a group that is all on the same page. He says, At any

moment we are using language we must say or write the right thing in the right way while

playing the right social role and (appearing) to hold the right values, beliefs, and

attitudes (Gee 484). When writing successfully it is essential to appear the correct way.

If the audience is not kept in mind the meaning behind what is said will not reach its true

potential. A lot of the meaning will get lost between the writer and the reader.

Combining the two concepts it is easy to see how they go hand in hand with

successful writing. Looking at one more sourcethe English 1510 class syllabus

successful writing is described as this course is meant to provide practice in composing

and revising expository essays that are well organized, logically coherent, and effective

for their purpose and audience (Johnson 1). Looking into the statement that is made it

is easy to see that viewing writing as a process and keeping in mind the audience are two

of the most important aspects of writing being deemed successful.


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Moving forward it is appropriate now to look at my own theory of writing. To

quickly recap I defined writing as presenting an original claim in a manner that can be

supported by experts and evidence so that the reader is persuaded to agree with the

author. In other wordsif the writers objectives are accomplished then that particular

piece of writing was a success or successful. Adding to that definition it is clear that

because of the ambiguity that accompanies the word successful to deem a paper

successful or not take a deeper analysis into the two most important concepts of writing

the writing process and discourse community. If knowledge of those two concepts is

demonstrated in the paper it can generally be interpreted as a success. To condense this

information my own theory on writing is that successful writing accomplishes the goals

of the author while establishing a knowledge of the audience as well as the writing

process.

I believe that to evaluate the writing process there are three main areas to look at

outlining, drafting, and refining. Outlining is the very first thing that must be done for a

writer to even start writing. This idea is different for everyone except for one traitthe

act of outlining includes amassing ideas. Outlining could be looking over a group of

guidelines or it could be literally creating a very basic sketch with a pen and paper. It

doesnt matter where the ideas are placed it just matters that they are gathered.

Once an outlining has been completed drafting is next. Drafting is the process of

putting the ideas that were amassed during the outline to work. Whatever popped into the

writers head goes into the first draft. Echoing what Lamott said, that it is absolutely

necessary to write poor first drafts. I think that a first draft should be as broad and

general as it can be. That is the point. We are supposed to write first drafts so that we can


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narrow the focus of the piece in draft number two and even more so in draft number

three. Writing is a process and the magic doesn't always come out on the first try. This

moves into the third pointrefining.

Refining drafts is essentially a never-ending process. Even successful papers can

be refined. Refining papersbetter known as revisingis the process of making

changes to the paper to encourage expository essays that are well organized, logically

coherent, and effective for their purpose and audience (Johnson 1). Anything that adds

to the piece of writing is done during this stage.

Next, looking at discourse community, it is important to understand that we are

never really saying original ideas. As writers we are constantly joining conversations that

have already been established. This idea shows that by making a claim or writing about a

topic to accomplish a goal the author is a member of a certain discourse community or at

least attempting to be one whether they recognize it or not. The author has to appear a

certain wayjust as Gee saidfor the messages portrayed to really get across to the

audience.

Moving onto my own writing and looking at it from a before and after lens

using the guidelines that have been laid out previously it is clear that I wrote some

successful pieces and some not so successful pieces. I have included a look into both

project one and project three. I have included these pieces of writing because they show

how I viewed successful writing before and after I developed my theory on writing.

These two projects do a tremendous job of demonstrating how and why my theory was

formed.


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Looking first at project number onebefore I established my theoryit is clear

that my paper is not as polished as it could have been. I did not demonstrate a clear

knowledge of the writing process and I was not keeping in mind my audience. A review

of my final draft said, I am justto confirm that the draft you sent me is, in fact, your

final draft? Outside of an expanded intro and a deletion later in the paper, this draft seems

remarkable similar to your earlier draft. I did revise my final draft from my first draft,

but I did not understand that revisionsor refining the paper as I called it in my theory

means more than just changing content as Iunderstand it. The content must be changed

to aid the reader or audience in how they understand it. This obviously plays into both of

the main points in my theory.

Also, I had a lack of sources in my first project. A reader was quoted as saying,

The one biggest criticism I have, however, is the lack of sources. As a reader, how ready

are YOU to buy into an argument that has so few sources? This again goes against

thinking about the audience as well as backing up any claims that I made. I backed up

my claims with expert evidence, however, the evidence was not substantial enough to

really sell my audience.

Progressing towards project three I did a significantly better job. My theory on

writing had been established and this project definitely shows that I kept it in mind. This

piece of writing wasin my opinionthe most successful piece of writing I have ever

produced. I gave a clear understanding of the writing process.

There were three revisions of this paper and all of them were significantly

different from the last. In every revision I made major changes that greatly contributed to

the overall message of the paper. Also, I wrote the paper with the reader in mind. I tried


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to correct the errors that were made in project number one. A reader verified that I was

successful in this by saying, Jared, as you identify in your cover letter, this paper is well-

researched and well-sourced. I think you demonstrate that you have a passion and

knowledge for this area, and you do a good job establishing a frame. This shows that I

acknowledged a previous mistake of not citing enough sources. I researched more for

this project so that I could do a better job of appealing to the audiencekeeping in mind

the discourse community I was writing to. Additionally I showed that I wrote in a way

that my audience would logically accept what I was saying. Something the reader

validates by saying, Also, your argument that coaches should adapt the Zeus computer

system makes sense, and you've shown that it could be beneficial towards the ultimate

goal of winning. Thereof coursewere areas that I could have improved further.

This is part of the ongoing process that constitutes writing, but overall I thought that this

paper was a success seeing as it matched the criteria and goals that I intended it to.

What makes writing successful deals with key concepts that can change and shift

for writers as they grow and mature with their skill. My theory definitely has taught me

things about writing that I never thought I would acknowledge or even learn about. Just

as the writing process is continuous I think that my ability to achieve success as a writer

is as well. There is always something a writer can improve on, but he must keep at it in

an effort to do justice to the process and his audience.


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Works Cited

Allen, Sarah. The Inspired Writer vs. The Real Writer. From Writing Spaces:

Readings on Writing Vol. 1. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, Eds. West Lafayette:

Parlor Press, 2010: 34-44.

Gee, James P. Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction. Journal of

Education 171.1 (1989): 5-17. Print.

Lamott, Anne. Shitty First Drafts. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing

and Life. New York: Anchor, 1994. 21-27. Print

Michael Johnson, English 1510 Course Syllabus

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