Shattered Glass

1. According to the movie, there are several processes involved in writing. First, a topic on which to write must be sought. Then, the gathering of information and note-taking. Next, the actual writing. After the work is written, it is reviewed and edited by the editor. The facts are also checked. The writers talk about their work amongst themselves, too. Then the work is revised and turned in for publication.

2. Stephen Glass collected data by (supposedly) going to where the news was happening. He went to a Republican convention to see what the young Republicans did during down time. He also supposedly went to a meeting between a software corporation and the kid accused of hacking it. While he was allegedly where the news was happening, he took notes. He then used these notes to write articles.

3. The ethical issue I see emerging in the movie is that of the falsehood of publications. It seems as though Stephen Glass made up his stories in order to become popular and make money. Perhaps the real news stories were dull, so he made up his own to capture attention. It seems as though he made his stories up because none of the people or places he referred to could be traced (he lied about his sources). Another ethical issue that took place in the movie was the firing of the editor. The editor stood up for his writers when they were required to do a lousy assignment by complaining to the boss, and as a result the boss fired the editor and promoted one of his favorite writers to the editor position. The writer who was promoted was not qualified to be an editor, but the boss put him in that position merely because he liked him.

Shitty First Draft

When Lamott uses the phrase "shitty first draft" she is referring to the first horribly written paper that writers, even professional ones, write. This is the paper on which you write down your initial ideas, even if you write them incoherently. Your ideas do not even necessarily have to go anywhere. The first draft is the one that no one will see. Your writing can even be childish; it doesn't matter for a first draft--you write whatever you want. It can also be way longer than it should be. It is really just a very unedited version of the paper. Sometimes shitty first drafts help you realize what you actually want to write about. After you write your first draft, you clean it up for your final draft. She writes, "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts . . . A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft--you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft-- you fix it up . . . And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's loose or cramped or decayed, or even" (2). I fix up my shitty first drafts by taking the advice that has been written on my papers. For example, I added a paragraph to my literature review and I made corrections to my works cited page. I will continue taking advice from Dr. Seloni and Bee to make my paper as good as I can.

Covering

One thing I cover is the fact that I am not particularly religious. I cover this because I live in a predominately Christian society and I do not want people to think that I am an untrustworthy, evil devil worshiper because I am not religious. This is not the case. I realize that many people probably would not think this way--at least openly--even if they are religious, but there are the radical people too who would. Another thing I cover is my intelligence. I feel like if I speak all intellectual like, people will think I am a nerd or "uncool". This is probably why I hang out with natural science majors, but when I am around other people I sometimes cover. I also used to cover the fact that I am in the middle class. Growing up, I was friends with the kids of doctors and lawyers. In other words, they were rich. I wanted to fit in with them, so I dressed like them and I drove a (really old) BMW in an attempt to cover up my middle class status. Now I don't really care about my class because all my friends went off the ritzy private schools and I go to a college where most of the students are middle class.