Accountabilibuddies

I commented to Kevin Monday evening that I wished I had the ability to write something really well in an hour. My writing partner for one of my classes has that ability. She can wait until (sometimes) the 11th hour, and then pump out 1000 words that are organized, coherent, and written in an academic style that works well. I, on the other hand, usually write a very bad rough draft that sounds something like, "So in the book [citation needed] the author was commenting on a theory to use and then the method combined it to give empirical something [blah blah blah]" Here's an actual first draft of something I am working on now: "This is what Kerka [date] might describe as andragogy, that the “major difference between adults and younger learners is their wealth of experience (Taylor in Kerka DATE p. X?). This allows for more critical reflection and transformation. Furthermore, yadda yadda - make transition to personal and academic learning environments."

This will eventually become something I turn in. But there is always a fear that I can't make it work. Thus, the discipline of writing bad first drafts and going back to them. For me, this discipline requires writing every day, something my professor has encouraged us all to do. I feel like I kind of do this already (ahem, blog). Yet there is a difference in writing for the blog, and synthesizing readings, and analyzing themes. So in an effort to do more of this synthesizing/analyzing writing, a cohort mate of mine and I have become Writing Accountabilibuddies. We text one another at least 5 times a week to say we did our writing. As more deadlines approach for papers to turn in, my hope is that I'll have become more comfortable with sitting and writing very bad rough drafts and confident that they will be edited into something I can turn in. (I always have that fear that they won't). I'm not sure my anxiety about procrastination will ever allow me to pump something out the night before, but at least I'll have made friends with my very bad first drafts. Those ugly duckling first drafts that will eventually turn into beautiful papers now have a more confident author.