Abigail Todd

Prof. Melton
Engl. 5 Sect. 05
February 19, 2016
Writers Narrative
The essay that I felt I did not get a satisfactory grade on, did not receive a bad grade in any way,
it received an average grade but I was unhappy with it because I knew that it had potential to be an
above average grade. Knowing that if I had put more time and effort into the different aspects of writing
the essay before actually writing it made me disappointed in the final grade. So for this History essay we
had a choice of three prompts and each prompt was explained in depth in class about two weeks before
the essay was due. Immediately after being given the prompts and listening to the professor explain what
exactly he was expecting for each topic, I started my writing process.
When given an option of different topics or even different prompts within one topic, much like
with this History essay, I will spend a significant amount of time deciding what topic I should write on
or which prompt is the prompt for me. The reason behind this is mostly so I can pick the topic that is
most interesting to me and will help me flow into the most natural writing process possible. Which
means I can finish the essay without ending up with something that is overly forced or stiff. When I
reread through my final essay, I want it to flow and sound comfortable. I want it to read like I know
everything needed to know on whatever topic I have written on.
The first thing I did when receiving the prompts was put off even choosing a prompt. By doing
this I was able to spend the following class meetings learning more about the general topics that all three
essay prompts were based around while listening to the lectures and taking notes. This is similar to when
Murray mentions in Write before Writing how writers try not consciously to think about what they are

going to write so they can subconsciously think about it (Murray 376). By putting the essay off and not
really focusing on it closely I could make mental notes of what was relevant to the different possible
prompts. Waiting to choose the prompt for my essay until at least a week after I was given the options
ensures that I could make the most informed decision possible so I would not pick a prompt, start, get a
few paragraphs in the realize that I either hated the prompt I picked or that I did not know enough
information to work with the prompt I had chosen. I wait until as close to as late as possible to really get
into an essay because at that point I have had the maximum amount of time to consider the prompt, think
about what I know on the topic and how I should arrange those into a coherent essay that gets my point
across.
When I first start to get ideas down on paper I like to write out every possible idea I can think of,
coming from every perspective and including every aspect that could be useful at all. For me this is my
version of a Shitty First Drafts especially when Lamott writes there may be something in the very last
line on page six that you love (Lamott 23). This is important to my writing and something I always
have to do because if I have a list of ideas or different perspectives I can bring up in the essay allows me
to remember everything I have thought of. Then I can pull from the list later on when I feel I have
exhausted an idea and need to add something in or need a new idea to relate back to what I have written
before. This process was especially helpful for this History essay because I was comparing and
contrasting Romanesque and Gothic architecture so writing down all the ideas I had for each part of the
essay allowed me to completely exhaust an idea then go back through the list and either pick the best
one from the list or pick the idea most easily related back to what I had just talked about. This enables
the first official draft of my writing, or the first using complete, coherent sentences to go a lot smoother
and be written a lot faster.

After I have a semi-coherent and kind of well structured draft I start with my revision. A few
years ago I would not revise at all; whatever was written down in the first draft was staying there, all I
would do is read through for spelling errors and any painfully obvious structural errors but past that,
nothing. Now I try to do quite a bit of revision, mostly pulling out sentences that pull away from the
main idea from the essay. Before I could really revise my work and have the process be worthwhile I
had to figure out how to do really revise and now I know from Murray that this is a common thing when
he says that a writer must learn to read critically but constructively, to cut what is bad, to reveal what is
good (Murray 57). In my history essay specifically I had to cut a lot of sentences that distracted from
my core arguments, exhibiting the similarities and differences in Romanesque and Gothic architecture.
After going through and cutting all the sentences that felt useless. Then I went back through and decided
if the essay was enough after cutting the sentences or if I had to go back in and redevelop ideas or add
on to my ideas. After doing this I had my finished essay that I turned in.
In the end I was unhappy with the grade and feedback on this essay primarily because I know I
should have spent more time developing my ideas, writing multiple drafts and less time procrastinating
and putting this essay off until the last minute. If I has spent more time in the prewriting or development
stage of this essay I think it would have been improved drastically. Using what I know now, had I been
able to apply the ideas from the class readings and use those ideas to influence my writing process
mostly at the prewriting and revision stages.

Works Cited
Lamott, Ann. Shitty First Drafts. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New
York: Pantheon, 1994. 21-27.
Murray, Donald M. The Makers Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts. The McGraw-Hill
Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. New York: CUNY,
2002. 56-60
Murray, Donald M. "Write Before Writing." College Composition and Communication. No.4
ed. Vol. 29. N.p.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1978. 375-81. Print.