After reading Chapter 8 and 9 of The Bedford Book of Genres, I am feeling more confident about how scatter-brained my rough drafts are. I never thought writing for quantity instead of quality would actually yield such great work. Their advice to freewrite was also interesting. I always thought free writes were simply for creativity and brainstorming, but after reading I understand some of the best ideas come out during these forced writing sessions. The section of how to choose a genre to compose in was also interesting to me. There should be a lot more focus on selecting a genre style than just winging it. The style in which you convey your argument or story to the audience greatly affects how they interpret it, and more importantly, if they found it interesting and easy to read. Keeping your audience’s attention in a long academic paper can be tricky, so taking the time to appropriately select a genre style is a crucial step in the writing process. Writing isn’t supposed to be a cut and dry step, it’s a process that takes time and consideration. Something that also needs to be taken into consideration when putting a paper together is the revising and feedback process. Having someone else read your work form an unbiased standpoint is very important to point out flaws and errors you would likely read over when checking your drafts. Its also a great way to find better ideas or things to write about in a more efficient way. It’s okay and expected to create multiple drafts and ask for help. After reading these chapters, I feel better about approaching the first draft of project one, and my abilities to take that mess and turn it into something worth reading.
Comments