Reading Response November 14th

Summary:

Murial Harris says that teacher, especially English teachers, make students turn in multiple drafts of a paper before the final draft. The idea behind this is to show the students that a final draft may be completely different from a first or second draft. She points out there are two different kinds of writers, procrastination writers, who focus on their topic, and draft writers who write to try and develop their topic. She also points out that some writing doesn't permit drafts and writing must focus on topic right away. Later on she points out that the draft writers and final draft writers are also in the professional writing world. Throughout the essay, the idea that single draft writers are more keen to audience writing while writers who develope their topic in a multitude of essays are writing to please themselves. The essay debates which one is better and the advantage and disadvantages of both.


Response:

This essay really dragged on. The one interesting point that was made was the fact that even writers in the professional world are one draft writers. This made me feel like I wasnt alone. I know that developing an essay is probably a little better, lets face it, we all know that. So personally I didnt see the point in this essay. It seemed a little self evident. I was more impressed that she managed to get 18 pages out of such a bland topic...maybe her first draft was better!