Step 1

Describe a time when you may have felt overwhelmed by a writing task, and, as a result, you procrastinated starting the task. Describe the task (writing a research paper or report) and your feelings about it.

Would it have been easier to tackle the task if you had approached it as your “shitty first draft” instead? Has it helped you to read about a professional writer who allows herself the opportunity to write a "shitty first draft"?

In designing the Research Paper project for English 120, I set out purposefully to create steps for the “bird-by-bird” approach. Instead of tackling the entire project--a five- to six-page research paper, incorporating quoted passages from at least five different sources--at once, we took it step by step: topic, research, more research, basic outline, advanced outline, first draft, second draft, feedback from peers, and editing. How do you feel about that approach? Did it work for you? Would you implement that approach again when faced with another research project?

To what could you apply the “shitty first draft” and/or the “bird-by-bird” approaches?

Guidelines

• Full credit: Write at least 250 words.
• No Credit: No submission within 48 hours of due date and time
• Due Sunday by 11:59 pm
• Points Possible: 5

Submitting Your Journal Entry

1. Please complete the assignment as a PDF or Word document.
2. Click the Submit Assignment link located in the right-hand column of the course window.
3. Click the Choose File
4. Navigate to your document and select it.
5. Click the Submit Assignment
6. Click the option for Turnitin indicated that your assignment is your own original work.