Blog #5

A very misleading statement that many people believe about writing is ‘The paper won’t be revised substantially’. The truth of the matter is that this statement has no truth in it what so ever. When you write a paper, it should be written in multiple drafts and then a final paper. What would be the point of all of these drafts if the paper was not going to change much? For the first draft, it is only a very basic skeleton of what your paper should look like at the end. The difference between draft one and your final paper should be drastic, going from just jotting down ideas and where you want to go with the topic to a complete understanding of the topic with clear analysis or your opinion on it.

On the other hand, a very important writing tool that many people condone for some unknown reason is the statement ‘you can use your own writing voice’. When writing a paper, or anything for that matter, it is important to show yourself in your words. As a grew up, I was taught never to use words like ‘I’ or ‘you’ because it was too personal and papers were supposed to be objective. In reality, it is totally fine to use these words as long as it is not overboard. A paper should be abjective, but that does not mean you cannot throw in a splash of color every once and a while. Using your own writing voice is what makes reading your papers fun.

Comment for Alexa B:

I definitely agree with you about using your own experiences and observations. The statement I chose was very similar: ‘you can use your own writing voice’.  Without adding our experiences, a paper would be too dull to comprehend. It is important that we add in our experiences so that the reader is hooked.

Comment for Donovan: You made some good points that I did not think about. I agree with you; one must know their thesis when starting a paper. If you do not knwo the direction in whcih you are writing, your work will be all over the place. I believe that when writing on a topic you must choose a side and firmly stick to it. You cannot write a paper when you have no idea what the direction is.