Edwin Land once said, “An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” In the two different writing, both authors come from very different backgrounds, but have similar messages. Amy Tan talks about not being afraid to do what you love, even if people tell you that you should major in something else. Anne Lamott discusses how you should not be afraid to write your first draft of a paper, it is suppose to be horrible. In her essay, “Mother Tongue”, Amy Tan discusses the hardships with her and her mother’s types of English, while in “Crummy First Drafts”, Anne Lamott talks about getting over your fears when writing the first draft of a paper; both of the authors essays vary in structure and tone, but have similar styles and purposes
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But, when I was reading “Crummy First Drafts” for the first time last semester it brought me back to a time when I was in ninth and tenth grade. In ninth grade, I had the worst English teacher in the school, Ms. Kincak. She taught us nothing about how to write, she would just say, “Alright go and write your papers”. When we were writing our very first essays, I realized she did not even really care about teaching; everyone received an “A” on their papers because she probably did not feel like reading them. I got so mad because I struggled a lot to write this paper and I did not get feedback on it, just a letter …show more content…
Jack as my teacher. I had heard he was a harsh grader, but overall a good teacher. I was afraid I was going to do poorly. Our first paper was on the novel, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. Mr. Jack gave us only a limited amount of instruction for this paper because he said he wanted to see what we already knew about writing. I was furious. I knew nothing about how to write a paper on a high school level. I barely even knew how to write a thesis statement or what it was. I received my paper back and I saw a “D” on my paper. I was disappointed, but knew it was coming. I went to go see him about it later that day. He told me my paper was good, but it seemed like it was first draft material. I sat with him and he gave me really great advice for writing. He told me similar things to what Anne Lamott said in “Crummy First Drafts”, you should write your first draft with no fears, just get everything out. It is not suppose be good since it is the first draft. Similar to Lamott, I feared sitting down to write every time no matter what the paper might be about. I too have critics in my head that tell me, “oh that’s stupid”, or “this sounds like a five-year-old wrote it.” I tried it out though when writing my research paper. I ended up received a 95% on my paper. I was extremely proud of myself and
But, when I was reading “Crummy First Drafts” for the first time last semester it brought me back to a time when I was in ninth and tenth grade. In ninth grade, I had the worst English teacher in the school, Ms. Kincak. She taught us nothing about how to write, she would just say, “Alright go and write your papers”. When we were writing our very first essays, I realized she did not even really care about teaching; everyone received an “A” on their papers because she probably did not feel like reading them. I got so mad because I struggled a lot to write this paper and I did not get feedback on it, just a letter …show more content…
Jack as my teacher. I had heard he was a harsh grader, but overall a good teacher. I was afraid I was going to do poorly. Our first paper was on the novel, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. Mr. Jack gave us only a limited amount of instruction for this paper because he said he wanted to see what we already knew about writing. I was furious. I knew nothing about how to write a paper on a high school level. I barely even knew how to write a thesis statement or what it was. I received my paper back and I saw a “D” on my paper. I was disappointed, but knew it was coming. I went to go see him about it later that day. He told me my paper was good, but it seemed like it was first draft material. I sat with him and he gave me really great advice for writing. He told me similar things to what Anne Lamott said in “Crummy First Drafts”, you should write your first draft with no fears, just get everything out. It is not suppose be good since it is the first draft. Similar to Lamott, I feared sitting down to write every time no matter what the paper might be about. I too have critics in my head that tell me, “oh that’s stupid”, or “this sounds like a five-year-old wrote it.” I tried it out though when writing my research paper. I ended up received a 95% on my paper. I was extremely proud of myself and