Shitty First Drafts

In the paper "Shitty First Drafts" by Ann Lamott the author discusses how people tend to think that writers always have these great papers just spew out of their minds and onto paper when that isn't true.  She talks about how most writers  begin  by writing whatever comes to mind and throw it all together for the first draft as if a child would make it because no one else would see it.  Writers would then take out all the stuff that didn't make sense and didn't work and keep the stuff that they  thought was good.  Lamott also brings up how she has trouble writing sometimes because there are voices in her head nagging her so she cant focus, she then elaborates on how to get rid of these  pesky voices so that you may continue your shitty draft.

SWA Straub

In Straub's article "Responding" he informs us of a great way to peer review students essays without just telling them that their paper is perfect because you don't want to do the work of reading it.  He talks about how you should  always be very straight forward and to not be afraid to write a sentence instead of three words. Constructive criticism is a very important aspect of peer editing you don't want to put the person down too much and you also don't want to make there paper sound better than it actually is. The point of peer review is to help the student be a better writer and by following the steps of giving good feedback the reader can help the writer.

Paper Revision

Brett Babigian

Mrs. Fleischer

English 1A Sec 5

February 16, 2014

My Experiences with Reading and Writing

            My name is Brett Babigian; I grew up in Elk Grove, California and attended Franklin High School, a public high school with my graduating class topping 650 students. Throughout my time there, I became interested in engineering through their STEM program. I’m currently going to college to obtain a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering because I like to work with my hands and build stuff. I’ve always had a lot of experience with technology since I have had computer classes since first grade and my dad is a computer technician.  I have always been interested and good at math and science, but when it comes to writing and English classes I have always struggled.  Throughout my life my literacy has been shaped by various experiences from my schooling including phonics, reading competitions, and finding a novel of my liking, and will continue to play a huge role in my life after college.

            In elementary school, I first began to improve my literacy when I would go to my grandparent’s house and play phonics with my grandfather.  My grandfather was an English teacher and loved helping me with my homework.  He always corrected my spelling and grammar mistakes that I would write and say.  He would also use phonics, which is a method to teach reading and pronounce certain words and sounds.  Since he used this method to teach me about the English language I tended to have better reading comprehension than most other kids in my class during elementary school.

            When I was in the fifth grade my teacher came up with a plan with another teacher to have a reading competition between classes in order to get us to read more often.  My teacher announced to our class that the goal of the competition was to see which class could read the most pages in a month.  To be sure that we actually read the book that we said we did, we had to write a summary of what we read and turn it in with the page amount. The teachers would check it before adding the page count to our tally.  As I read all the books I could to conquer the most pages possible I began realizing a distinction in different types of books-there are some books that I actually enjoyed reading and then there are others that put me to sleep when I read them.  When the last days of the competition came to a close, the teachers announced the winner and my class won the pizza party.  Our teachers then explained to us that both of our classes would be getting a pizza party because the whole point of the competition was to get us to read every day in order to increase our reading comprehension and speed.  The books I read throughout the competition varied, but one series I read stood out.   In fifth grade the series called “Guardians of Gahoole” caught my attention.  It was a fantasy novel that had fifteen books in the series and was about an owl named Soren who is captured by an evil cult named The Pure Ones.  He escapes and leads a band of owls to a great tree called Gahoole where a all refugees go to.  The Pure Ones and the people of Gahoole have a war to determine whether evil or good will rule the world.  I eventually ended up buying and finishing the rest of the books in this series because I enjoyed it so much. 

            Later in my academic career, my freshman year English teacher had everyone in the class choose a choice novel to read and write a report on.  She told us only to pick the book if we found it interesting.  My teacher helped us find a novel of our liking by having us complete a series of assignments that pointed out our interests in book whether it be fiction, folk-tale, mystery, or any other genre.  I chose to read the book “The Hobbit,” by JRR Tolkien because I had already seen the earlier Lord of the Rings movies and thought they were interesting and figured I would give reading one of the books a chance.  The moment I started reading the book, I was intrigued by its unique storyline and how the characters and story connected back to the later movies I had already seen. This assignment opened my eyes to a collection of books I loved, and after I finished “The Hobbit,” I decided to read the other books of the trilogy as well.  Before my English class freshman year, I hated books and reading them because I was always forced to read some boring literature that I had no interest in just because the teachers assigned them.  In this class I was finally able to choose a book to write a report on and I realized that maybe reading wasn’t as bad as I always thought it was.  My teacher taught me to open my mind to other possibilities of reading other than the ones the teachers assigns us to spark my passion of reading.

            Furthermore, reading and writing will continue to play a vital role in my life both in college and after I graduate.  While I’m in college most of my classes require me to read some sort of book whether it’s in my economics class learning about production lines, or in my mechanical engineering class learning about casting metal to make parts.  Almost all my classes also involve writing, where I will be forced to put my English skills to the test in order to create a research paper resulting in an excellent grade.  After I graduate I will continue to need reading, but mostly writing. As a mechanical engineer I will be designing parts, creating machinery, and making new items that I will have to create a report on. These reports will have to clearly explain not only how the part works but also why it is efficient and how it can be of assistance.  Most of the reading I will do after I graduate and even when I’m in college will be reading the internet for reviews of places and people.  For example, before I go to a place to get my car fixed or to stay in a hotel I’ll make sure that it has good reviews. The same goes for when it is election time and I’ll need to make an important choice as I vote for president and other important political positions. 

                 In conclusion, I have had many experiences that have shaped the way I read and write today that go all the way back to elementary school.  These experiences helped me learn about writing and reading and shaped me into the person I am today.  If not for these experiences I probably wouldn’t be very good at writing papers or reading novels and I know for sure that I wouldn’t like doing it either.  I’m glad that I have the ability to read and write well since these are key skills to have in college and life after college.

Peer Review #2

1. I like how you included a good description and background about yourself.  It  was  very interesting to know that you have a full ride at Sac State.
2. This paper was very interesting to me especially the part about your English teacher being  hot.  I feel that you could of added another experience that shaped your literacy as well as how reading and writing will help you in and outside of college.
3. You should include examples of some books that you read and enjoyed after  having class with Mrs. Smith and why those books peaked your interest.
4. Each of your paragraphs discusses only one idea, and everything in the paragraph is related to that specific idea.
5. Your  beginning paragraphs about  yourself are excellent and really give detail  about you and how you feel about math and writing were interesting  especially since i am the complete opposite. I do believe though that you should expand your fourth paragraph and elaborate on why you liked reading and writing more and focused less on why you disliked math.  The following body paragraphs after that all connected together with good descriptions of how your teacher helped you.  I recommend you make your thesis statement clearer though so that the reader knows exactly what you  plan to talk about.

Peer Review for Narrative

This thesis statement was clear and concise and connected to the entire paper. The vocabulary you used was great but I feel you should reduce the amount of complex words because not all readers will understand.  There are few grammatical errors that can easily be fixed if read over but other than that I feel this essay was very well written.

Draft #2 of Personal Narrative

Brett Babigian

Mrs. Fleischer

English 1A Sec 5

February 16, 2014

My Experiences with Reading and Writing

            My name is Brett Babigian; I grew up in Elk Grove, California and attended Franklin High School, a public high school with my graduating class topping 650 students. Throughout my time there, I became interested in engineering through their STEM program. I’m currently going to college to obtain a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering because I like to work with my hands and build stuff. My experience with technology has always been a lot since I have had computer classes since first grade and my dad is a computer technician.  I have always been interested and good at math and science, but when it comes to writing and English classes I have always struggled.  Throughout my life my literacy has been shaped by various experiences throughout my schooling including phonics, reading competitions, and finding a novel of our liking.    

            In elementary school, I first began to improve my literacy when I went to my grandparent’s house during the day since my parents were still at work when I got out of school.  My grandfather was an English teacher and loved helping me with my homework.  He always corrected my spelling and grammar mistakes that I would write and say.  He would also use phonics, which is a method to teach reading and pronounce certain words and sounds.  Since he used this method to teach me about the English language I tended to have better reading comprehension than most other kids in my class during elementary school.

            When I was in the fifth grade my teacher came up with a plan with another teacher to have a reading competition between classes in order to get us to read more often.  My teacher announced to our class that the goal of the competition was to see which class could read the most pages in a month.  To be sure that we actually read the book that we said we did, we had to write a summary of what we read and turn it in with the page amount. The teachers would check it before adding the page count to our tally.  As I read all the books I could to conquer the most pages possible I began realizing a distinction in different types of books-there are some books that I actually enjoyed reading and then there are others that put me to sleep when I read them.  When the last days of the competition came to a close, the teachers announced the winner and my class won the pizza party.  Our teachers then explained to us that both of our classes would be getting a pizza party because the whole point of the competition was to get us to read every day in order to increase our reading comprehension and speed.  The books I read throughout the competition varied, but one series I read stood out.  I eventually ended up buying and finishing the rest of the books in this series because I enjoyed it so much. 

            Later in my academic career, my freshman year English teacher had everyone in the class choose a choice novel to read and write a report on.  She told us only to pick the book if we found it interesting.  My teacher helped us find a novel of our liking by having us complete a series of assignments that pointed out our interests in book whether it be fiction, folk-tale, mystery, or any other genre.  I chose to read the book “The Hobbit,” by JRR Tolkien because I had already seen the earlier Lord of the Rings movies and thought they were interesting and figured I would give reading one of the books a chance.  The moment I started reading the book, I was intrigued by its unique storyline and how the characters and story connected back to the later movies I had already seen. This assignment opened my eyes to a collection of books I loved, and after I finished “The Hobbit,” I decided to read the other books of the trilogy as well.  Before my English class freshman year, I hated books and reading them because I was always forced to read some boring literature that I had no interest in just because the teachers assigned them.  In this class I was finally able to choose a book to write a report on and I realized that maybe reading wasn’t as bad as I always thought it was.  My teacher taught me to open my mind to other possibilities of reading other than the ones the teachers assign us to spark my passion of reading.

            Furthermore, reading and writing will continue to play a vital role in my life both in college and after I graduate.  While I’m in college most of my classes require me to read some sort of book whether it’s in my economics class learning about production lines, or in my mechanical engineering class learning about casting metal to make parts.  Almost all my classes also involve writing, where I will be forced to put my English skills to the test in order to create a research paper resulting in an excellent grade.  After I graduate I will continue to need reading, but mostly writing. As a mechanical engineer I will be designing parts, creating machinery, and making new items that I will have to create a report on. These reports will have to clearly explain not only how the part works but also why it is efficient and how it can be of assistance.  Most of the reading I will do after I graduate and even when I’m in college will be reading the internet for reviews of places and people.  For example, before I go to a place to get my car fixed or to stay in a hotel I’ll make sure that it has good reviews. The same goes for when it is election time and I’ll need to make an important choice as I vote for president and other important political positions. 

            In conclusion, I have had many experiences that have shaped the way I read and write today that go all the way back to elementary school.  These experiences helped me learn about writing and reading and shaped me into the person I am today.  If not for these experiences I probably wouldn’t be very good at writing papers or reading novels and I know for sure that I wouldn’t like doing it either.  I’m glad that I have the ability to read and write well since these are key skills to have in college and life after college.

Draft 1 of Narrative

Brett Babigian

Mrs. Fleischer

English 1A Sec 5

February 16, 2014

My Experiences with Reading and Writing

            My name is Brett Babigian; I grew up in Elk Grove California and attended Franklin High School where I was introduced to their STEM program which peaked my interest in engineering.  I am going to college to gain a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering because I like to work with my hands and build stuff.  My experience with technology has always been pretty good since I have had computer classes since first grade and my dad is a computer technician.  I have always found an interest and been good at math and science but when it came to writing and English classes I have always struggled.  Throughout my life my literacy has been shaped from various experiences throughout my schooling such as phonics, reading challenges, and finding a novel of our liking.    

            In elementary school I first began to improve my literacy when I would go to my grandparent’s house during the day since my parents would still be at work when I got out of school.  My grandfather was an English teacher and always would help me with my homework and correct spelling and grammar issues that I would write and say.  He would also use phonics which is a method to teach the ways to read and pronounce certain words or sounds.  Since he would use this method to teach me about the English language I tended to have better reading comprehension then most other kids in my class during elementary school.

            When I was in the fifth grade my teacher had come up with a plan with another teacher in my grade to have a reading competition between classes to get us to read more often.  My teacher announced to our class that the goal of the competition was to see which class could read the most pages in a month’s time.  To be sure that we actually read the book that we said we did we had to write a summary of the book and turn it in with the page amount and the teacher would check it before adding the page count to our tally.  As I read all the books I could to attain the most pages possible I began realizing that there were some books that I actually enjoyed reading and then there were others that put me to sleep as I read them.  When the last days of the competition came to an end the teachers announced the winners and my class won the pizza party.  Our teachers then explained to us that both of our classes would be getting to have the pizza party and that the whole point of the competition was to get the students to read every day, and increase our reading comprehension and speed.  The books I read throughout the competition varied and one series I began reading I actually ended up buying and finishing because I enjoyed it so much. 

            During my English class my freshman year my teacher had the class choose a choice novel to read and write a report on the one that they enjoyed the most.  She told us to only pick the book if we liked.  My teacher helped us find a novel to our liking by having us complete a series of assignments that pointed out our interests in book whether it be fiction, folk-tale, mystery, or some other genre.  I chose to read the book “The Hobbit”, by JRR Tolkien because I had already seen the other Lord of the Rings movies and thought they were interesting so I figured I would give reading one of  the books a try.  The moment I started reading the book I was captured by the unique storyline and how the characters and story connected back to the later movies and after I finished the book I decided to read the other books of the trilogy as well.  Before my English class freshman year, I had hated books and hated reading them since I was always forced to read some boring literature that the teachers had assigned me.  Finally I was able to choose the book to right a report on and I realized that maybe reading wasn’t as bad as I always thought it was.  My teacher taught me to open my mind to other possibilities of reading other than the ones the teachers assign us so that we might find out if we love reading.

            Reading and writing will continue to play a vital role in my life both in college and after I graduate.  While I’m in college most of my classes have me read some sort of book whether it be  in my economics class learning about production lines or in my mechanical engineering class where I must read about casting metal to make parts.  Almost all my classes also involve writing as well, where I will have to put my English skills to the test to create a research paper or a report paper to earn me an excellent grade.  After I graduate I will continue to need reading and mostly writing. As a mechanical engineer I will be designing parts, creating machinery, and making new items which I will have to create a report for that will explain not only how the part works but  why it is efficient and how it can be of assistance.  Most of the reading I will do after I graduate and even when I am in college will also go to reading up on the internet for reviews of places and people.  Before I go to a place to get my car fixed or to stay in a hotel I want to make sure that it has good reviews and the same goes for when it is election time and I will need to make an important choice as to who I am going to vote for president and other important political positions. 

            I have had many experiences that have shaped the way I read and write today that go back all the way to elementary school.  These experiences helped me learn about writing and reading and become the person I am today.  If not for these experiences I probably wouldn’t be very good at writing papers or reading novels and I know for sure that I wouldn’t like doing it either.  I am glad that I have the ability to read and write fairly well since these are key skills to have in college and the life after college.