In “Failure Can Be an Important Part of Writing Development,” Collin Brooke and Allison Carr discuss that failure is important in writing. Students have to switch from course to course, which usually have different expectations of writing. Even as students change grades the expectations without further instruction. Students are automatically graded on perfection without knowing how to achieve it. Brooke and Carr believe teachers should focus as much on fixing failure as they do rewarding successes. 
All great writings have to start somewhere. J.K. Rowling says she failed epically when writing Harry Potter. It is important for students to understand that failure is a good opportunity to grow. Turning failure into success is an amazing ability. Writing is not natural nor easy, so failure is inevitable. A lot of times students stress over trying to get it perfect on the first try, when that is not realistic. Instead of focusing on perfection, focus on your ideas and revise later. When teachers center grades around effort rather than perfection students will produce better points.
As a student I too worry about being perfect in my writings. The fear of imperfection restricted my writing ability. Brooke and Carr state “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You have to start somewhere”. This is extremely important to teach new writers. The act of writing can be daunting especially if you think you must be perfect. In school students strive for perfect grades which only come with perfect writing, usually on the first try. In reality, your first attempt of writing should be focused on getting ideas on paper, not excellence. It wasn’t until my freshman year of college that I learned that writing is not always about perfection. When my mindset about writing changed, so did my writings.
Over the course of my first college composition class we were taught to embrace failures. Instead of being graded on mistakes we may have made, we were graded on the effort we put in. This was incredibly helpful when trying to improve my writing abilities. Instead of stressing over imperfections, I spent more time putting effort into my ideas.
Now, as the composition class comes to an end, I feel that my writing has improved more in this class than it has ever before. I credit that growth to the focus on effort rather than perfection. 
Brooke and Carr’s belief that failure is important to writings success will hopefully spread to educators at all levels. By implementing the importance to failure early, the writings of students will greatly improve.
