My Writing Process

To be honest, I am not the best writer and over the years I have tried many different writing techniques.  In elementary school, we learn that in order to write a suitable paper, we have to start with an organizational web to sort out all our thoughts, followed by a paper that is eventually grammatically corrected.  In middle school, I was taught to use an outline then finish writing the paper by elaborating form the outline.  In high school, we were expected to know how to write but then learned how to polish the paper.  Since being in college, when writing papers, I try to get all my thoughts out on the paper then organize it.  I start usually with one thought then add on.  I tend to add random thoughts at the end of the page until I can work them into my paper.  Then at the end I go through it and edit the paper to the best of my ability.  This process has worked great so far and has helped me with getting all my thoughts down and including them into a great paper. 

               The only issue with this process is that it often can become chaotic and unorganized.  After I get all my thoughts down on the paper, reading it out loud is the only way I can make sure the paper flows properly.  I also usually have to take a lot of what I thought was vital to the message of my paper, out because it didn’t work with the flow of the paper.   After I fix my papers I try to have another student, tutor, or professor to revise my paper.  I generally have issues with writing how I talk which, depending on the teacher’s preferred style, sometimes is frowned upon.  Although writing is not my strong suit, I write the best papers I can using almost the same technique as Lamot in her piece “Shitty First Drafts.”

XOXO, College Girl