Month: October 2018

While many people believe that arts and sciences should be integrated, is that necessarily true? Yo Yo Ma states, in his essay “Necessary Edges”, that “Empathy comes when you understand something deeply through arts and literature and can thus make unexpected connections”. This is a large claim to make. Empathy is a basic human emotion and can be felt by almost everyone on the planet, regardless if they have been exposed to meaningful art or literature. Claiming that it can only come from certain things undermines the feelings of everyone who hasn’t experienced that art or literature. What right does Ma have to claim that only those who have seen art and literature can feel deep and meaningful empathy? Ma also states in his essay that “Only one [Neural] pathway can be activated at a time, so when one is on, the other is off”. This directly contradicts his point and proves that arts and STEM cannot be taught at the same time. While they may be integrated and layered, one cannot be learning STEM and art at the same time. It is like juggling while riding a unicycle- doable but very hard to achieve successfully.

My first draft was very similar compared to the ideas in “Shitty First Drafts”, as much as I hate to say it. I am a person that won’t take up new hobbies because I can’t stand not being good at something, which makes writing the first few sentences and ideas very hard. I don’t want to create something if it isn’t going to be a quality piece. This article really opened my eyes to how I should be writing compared to how I write now. No one has to see this first draft, it is truly for my eyes and improvement only. My high school english teachers advice to me when I graduated was “Give yourself time to write” which I think applies very well to this topic. If I give myself the time to write a piece of shit and edit it, then I can produce something that is worthwhile of someone else’s time. I definitely struggled with writing this paper, similar to how Lamott struggled every month with her food reviews. I sat, I tried, I then panicked and contemplated dropping out of college. Finally I let myself type a few sentences, which then gives way to more, which then ends in a first draft. I feel that I can apply the techniques of just spilling everything out on paper in my next first draft, and I think that will help my writing tremendously. I really liked this essay, and I feel that it resonated with me. Her sense of humor brought out the bullet points she was bringing up and highlighted what she wanted to be seen. This was very helpful and hopefully I will be using a shitty first draft technique in the future to improve my writing.

I have always been very uncomfortable with the idea of peer review and letting my work out for others to see. I was always the person that felt that a first draft was for myself only, and it should only be seen by me. It is hard for me to give other people the ability to see and critique my work, but it is helpful and gives insight on how I can improve my writing and get better as a creator.