Shitty First Drafts Summary

In Shitty First Drafts, by Ann Lamott, she tells us that getting a perfect first draft is not always going to happen. The way that we end up getting decent second drafts is by having terrible first drafts. Writing takes a lot of practice and it is not something that will hit you right away. Nobody writes a perfect first draft or even second draft right away. Lamott calls the first draft a child’s draft because you let everything you have to say go into that draft. The key is to put all your thoughts onto the page because you could end up putting a really good idea down. After all your thoughts are written on the page just start looking and seeing what you can get rid of. Lamott says to close your eyes and push out all the voices inside your head that are telling you what to do because at the end of the day you are the writer and it is your work and your say.

3 Genre Analysis Texts

Matthew Haulot

English 1A     

23 February 2014

Genre Analysis

            My first text is a book about auto racing. The tittle of the book is, Mark Martin Driven To Race, by Bob Zeller. This book explains the hardship that NASCAR drivers go through. It gives examples about how it feels to be a racer and what it is like to live that lifestyle. I have read this book and it made me respect these men even more than what I did before I read it.

            My second source is a picture(see below). This picture shows the chaos that happens in NASCAR. Just looking at the picture you can hear the roar of the engines and the shaking of the ground. It says, “look at this madness and how small of an area we can fit forty three cars.” To me it says that there is nothing more exciting yet freighting at the same time.

            And finally my third source is NASCAR.com. This source tells you everything you could ever want to know about NASCAR. It has all the information you could ever need. It sound professional and top class and looks like a professional website should.

 

Personal Narrative Final Draft

Matthew Haulot

Ms. Fleischer

English 1a

2-12-14

Personal Narrative

            I hated reading and writing growing up, I absolutely hated it. Growing up in the Bay Area schools were always over crowded. I was never the best student, never the best writer. I struggled with writing mostly because class sizes were too large and the teacher could not focus on one student at a time. The fact that I didn’t read much and didn’t have a large vocabulary didn’t help either. I hated reading, it was boring and the pages seemed to never end. Every time I flipped that page I only had more to read. I loved watching movies as a kid. My favorite movie growing up was “The Sandlot”. It described my childhood perfectly. Summer days were always spent riding my bike around my town with my friends, I was always outside whenever I had the chance. Unlike most kids, I was never a tech savvy person. Computers were too complicated; I enjoyed the simple things in life. I have never enjoyed reading but I have been lucky to have several teachers like Mr. Riley and Ms. Donovan who have pushed me to be a better English student.

Reading books was never fun to me but I have learned that there are some books out there that I enjoy reading. Out of the twenty or so books I have I read I have only enjoyed about half of them, if that many. It takes a special book for me to like and want to keep reading. I like books with action in them, something that I can

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get excited about. I want there to be a character that I can relate to in some way or a character that I look up to because of what they have done. One of my favorite books

is “Always Running” by Luis Rodriguez. It talks about growing up in L.A. and cruising the streets with gangs. I liked this book because it gave me reason to keep reading. Everything that the writer wrote pulled me in closer and closer, always wanting more. It is books like these that I enjoy, books that keep me on my toes. Another one of my favorite books is “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. I like this one because the story was so good and exciting. My favorite scene is where Lenny has to tell George that she killed the girl. This ruins all of the plans that Lenny and George had. I like this scene in the story because the way that Steinbeck makes George react later in the book and makes me as a reader want to keep reading. It never got boring to me and most books that I do read always seem to have boring storylines or boring characters and it has been that way all of my life.

            From fifth to eighth grade I struggled with writing. I wrote very simple papers. I tried to write as much as I could, not paying attention to structure or the tone of my writing. Somehow I still managed to get good grades and was told by many teachers that I was a good writer. I never thought that I was a good writer because I never put any time into it. At the end of my eighth grade year I had to write sixteen poems for an assignment. I thought for sure I was going to fail because I wasn’t the most creative writer. I worked hard at it and in the end when I turned the poems in my English teacher Mr. Shirley asked if he could keep them as

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examples. I was shocked when I heard him ask this. After that I had gained

confidence in myself and started to believe that I was a good writer. Teachers were

telling me this for years and I started to believe it just as I started high school, which would come in handy for the next four years.

            High school English classes were easy for me, mostly because I had good teachers were good ones who explained everything thoroughly. I had confidence in my writing and started to do well but my junior year would be a challenge. My British Literature teacher Mr. Riley was tough and mean. Real mean. He was very picky and had very high expectations. I thought I would do well in the class at first but when I got my first paper back and saw that I had received a C, thoughts started running through my mind. I didn’t know what I did wrong and was honestly scared to go talk to him about. It only took one more bad grade for me to walk in there and ask where I was going wrong. Surprisingly, he couldn’t have been more helpful. I started to see my mistakes and understand them more than just a couple of words scribbled in the margins. Mr. Riley taught me how to write with meaning and it was Ms. Donovan that taught me how to write with detail.

            At the start of my senior year in high school I was placed in an expository writing class. I thought it would be an easy A and a waste of my time but I found out that it would not be a waste of my time on the first day of class. The teacher Ms. Donovan was very helpful, always willing to look at my work before I turned it in. She was the one who taught me to write with rich detail and to never leave anything out. I went from writing narrative stories with no description to writing narrative

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stories that almost had too much description. It became hard for me not to describe an object in my writing or not to give reason to why something happened. It was a good thing I learned this because I didn’t read, and that’s where you pick those types of things up. Out of all the classes I have ever taken this has been my favorite. I say it has been my favorite because it made me look at writing differently. Before I always saw it as a report or an essay I had to do but after this class I saw writing as a way of putting my thoughts into words to share with people. Now I know that is basically what an essay and a report can be but to me it is a completely different concept.

Reading and writing is one of the most important skills that anybody can ever have in this world, and I am fortunate enough to have them. Right now they are important to have because in order to make it through college you must have them and be able to do each one well. Reading is more than just reading the words on the page. Its understanding what the writer is saying being able to apply that meaning to something. Inside of school reading and writing is helping me get good grades and understand what I am learning about. Outside of the classroom reading and writing is helping me communicate and get things done. Without them I would be lost and the whole world would be a mystery. Once I graduate from college reading and writing will be crucial. In order to become a firefighter you must have good communication and writing is a big part of that. Reading and writing are helping me study to become a firefighter and pass all the exams that I have to take. Being able to effectively say what I want to say is going to be very important in the future to my own success and the success of others because communication between firefighters

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can be life and death in some cases. There is no doubt that reading and writing will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Once I understood how to write good papers I started to enjoy writing. The problem was that it took me so long to figure it out. Writing all those poems in eighth grade gave me confidence and having Mr. Riley made my writing have meaning. I know that without him my writing would be much worse. Reading and writing is something that will stay in my life forever and it will be a big part of success. Its not going anywhere so I may as well learn as much about as I can while I am here in college.

One of My Favorite Books

Virtual Peer Review Script: Randee Lee

1. The thing that I like most about this paper is when you talk about how those girls attacked you, yet it made you a stronger person and you took the positive out of it.

2. This paper is about what you did to become a better writer, whether it was your english teacher that made you keep logs about characters or the scenes or it was being president of Japanese American Citizens League Eden Youth Group community service group, both helped make you a better writer. This paper does a good job at addressing the points but it could use more detail in some spots but for the most part it does fulfill the basic requirements that need to be met.

3. It would be a good idea to add more detail about how you will use reading and writing in the future. Try to expand on that a bit more.

4. Each of your paragraphs discusses only one idea and everything in the paragraph is related to that specific idea.

5. Overall I think your paper is very well written but there are a couple of spots that need some work. Your introduction hook could be a little stronger, share something from the heart about reading and writing and how you feel about it and strengthen your thesis a little bit more. It is strong but i feel like your body paragraphs don't support it enough. Your intro is strong, it shows us what you will be talking about in the paper and is very descriptive. You give great detail in the body and you do not leave anything out. 
Overall the paper is very well written and spelling and grammar mistakes are not to be found. I really like it.

Virtual Peer Review Script: Brett Babiginan

1. The thing I like most about the paper is how you talk about going from hating reading and writing to learning that it is not that bad if its about something that interests you. I like this because I can relate to exactly what you mean.

2. This paper is about how you have transformed in a reader and as a writer over time. This paper stays on topic the whole time and does a good job at answering the main points in the prompt and fulfills all the necessary requirements. 

3. There needs to be more detail where you talk about the series of books that you continued reading and what it was about that series of books that interests you. 

4. Each of your paragraphs discusses only one idea and everything in the paragraph is related to that specific idea.

5. You're introduction is great. Once I read that I had to keep reading. In the second body paragraph you talk about reading a series of books, try expanding on why you liked that series and tell us what the series of books is. Your third and forth body paragraphs flow very nicely, They have good transition sentences and your conclusion wraps everything up nicely. 
Overall the body paragraphs support your thesis and you remain on topic the whole time. I did not find and grammar or spelling mistakes either. But I would suggest maybe a little stronger hook in the beginning of the introduction.

Personal Narrative Draft Two

When reading this it would be helpful if you could look at my transition sentences and look to see where I can add more detail. Thank you.
Personal Narrative

            Ever since the day I was born I always wanted to be a firefighter. Growing up in the Bay Area schools were always over crowded. I was never the best student, never the best writer. I struggled with writing mostly because class sizes were too large and the teacher never could focus on one student individually. The fact that I didn’t read much and didn’t have a large vocabulary for a third grader didn’t help either. I hated reading, it was boring and the pages seemed to never end. Every time I flipped that page I only had more to read. I loved watching movies as a kid. My favorite movie growing up was “The Sandlot”. It described my childhood perfectly. Summer days were always spent riding my bike around my town with my friends. I was always outside whenever I had the chance. Unlike most kids, I was never a tech savvy person. Computers were too complicated; I enjoyed the simple things in life. It wasn’t until high school that I started to strengthen my writing skills and fully understand what it took to become an effective writer.

            From fifth to eighth grade I struggled with writing. I wrote very simple papers. I tried to get write as much as I could, not paying attention to structure or the effectiveness of my writing. Somehow I still managed to get good grades and was told by many teachers that I was a good writer. I never thought that I was a good writer because I never put any time into it. At the end of my eighth grade year I had to write sixteen poems for an assignment. I thought for sure I was going to fail because I wasn’t the most creative writer. I worked hard at it and at the end when I turned the poems in my English teacher asked if he could keep them as examples. I was shocked when I heard him ask this. After that I had gained confidence in myself and started to believe that I was a good writer. Teachers were telling me this for years and I started to believe it just as I started high school, which would come in handy for the next four years.

            At the start of my senior year in high school I was placed in an expository writing class. I thought it would be an easy A and a waste of my time. I found out that it would not be a waste of my time on the first day of class. The teacher Ms. Donovan was very helpful, always willing to look at my work before I turned it in. She was the one who taught me to write with rich detail and to never leave anything out. I went from writing narrative stories with no description to writing narrative stories that were almost all descriptions. It became hard for me not to describe an object in my writing or not to give reason to why something happened. It was a good thing I learned this because I didn’t read, and that’s where you pick those types of things up.

Reading books was never fun to me but I have learned that there are some books out there that I enjoy to read. Out of the twenty or so books I have I read I have only enjoyed about half of them. It takes a special book for me to like and want to keep reading. I like books with action in them, something that I can get excited about. I want there to be a character that I can relate to in some way or a character that I look up to because of what they have done. One of my favorite books is “Always Running” by Luis Rodriguez. It talks about growing up in L.A. and cursing the streets with gangs. I liked this book because it gave me reason to keep reading. Everything that the writer wrote pulled me in closer and closer, always wanting more. It is books like these that I enjoy, books that keep me on my toes. Another one of my favorite books is “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. I like this one because the story was so good. My favorite scene is where Lenny has to tell George that she killed the girl. This ruins all of the plans that Lenny and George had. I like this scene in the story because the way that Steinbeck makes George react later in the book makes me as a reader want to keep reading. It never got boring to me and most books that I do read always seem to have boring storylines or boring characters. It takes a special book for me to keep reading.

            Reading and writing is one of the most important skills that anybody can ever have in this world and I am fortunate enough to have them. Right now they are important to have because in order to make it through college you must have them and be able to do each one well. Reading is more than just reading the words on the page. Its understanding what the writer is saying being able to apply that meaning to something. Inside of school reading and writing is helping me get good grades and understand what I am learning about. Outside of the classroom reading and writing is helping me communicate and get things done. Without them I would be lost and the whole world would be a mystery. Once I graduate reading and writing will be crucial. In order to become a firefighter you must have good communication and writing is a big part of that. Being able to effectively say what I want to say is going to be very important in the future to my own success and the success of others. There is no doubt that reading and writing will stay with me for the rest of my life.

            I never thought I was a good writer until I got into high school and that’s where I really started to develop my writing skills. I never believed that I was and believing that you are good at something is the first step to actually being good at it. I never enjoyed reading as a kid, I would much rather be outside or inside watching a good movie. Writing was hard for me at first because I did not understand what it took to be a good writer. I only found out when somebody told me that I was.