In “Failure can be an Important Part of Writing Development”, Collin Brooke and Allison Carr discuss the importance of failing as a writer to become successful; kind of like a rite of passage. What Brooke and Carr want readers to understand is that the books students love and scholarly essays are not written amazingly as a first draft; they have been revised and edited over and over again, possibly by many people.
Anne Lamott has had her share of Shitty First Drafts experiences as a reviewer and editor, and knows that 9/10 a writer won’t get it right on the first try. Lamott’s main point is that everyone needs to start somewhere with their first drafts.
Students in college, and even adults as professional writers, are going to have 
many different rhetorical situations that they’ll need to adapt to. Brooke and Carr explain that requirements for each rhetorical situation and assignment are going to be different and more complex than the last. Because of this, students and writers need to know it’s okay to fail and learn from their mistakes.
Brooke and Carr share that when students are in the classroom and stressed about an upcoming assignment, the students just want to please their teacher and aren’t thinking about the big picture-what they can do with their writing. These students are prepared only to create one draft and turn that in; schools need to make it part of their curriculum for writing students that they know to write multiple drafts.
In this article I learned a lot, not only about myself but how writing in college should be. I learned that students should be making Shitty First Drafts. Entering my first English/Writing class in college I thought that every essay should be perfect the very first time. Looking back I know that I was very wrong and reading this article made me feel so much better. I was taught that rough drafts are actually a good thing and can make you a better writer.
Brooke and Carr state, “One of the most important things students can learn is that failure is an opportunity for growth.” I feel that a lot of students are only thinking about what the professor wants, which is explained later in the article by Brooke and Carr, and not thinking about what will help them succeed in their writing paths. Anytime a student “fails”, it’s an opportunity for them to learn and grow.
Everyone knows the famous phrase, “learning from our mistakes” and I think that can apply greatly here; students and young writers need to know that their first drafts are not going to be amazing, they might not even be close to great. But just getting everything down on a piece of paper and being able to revise later is a great start. Students need to know this and teachers need to teach this.
