A Version 1.0

October 2004

As E. B. White said, "good writing is rewriting." I didn't
realize this when I was in school. In writing, as in math and
science, they only show you the finished product.
You don't see all the false starts. This gives students a
misleading view of how things get made.

Part of the reason it happens is that writers don't want
people to see their mistakes. But I'm willing to let people
see an early draft if it will show how much you have
to rewrite to beat an essay into shape.

Below is the oldest version I can find of
The Age of the Essay
(probably the second or third day), with
text that ultimately survived in
red