My Super Duper Shitty Draft!

So here is my really, I mean really SHITTY draft!!!

As a girl, growing up in the Eastern Sierra, Holly Harris learned to love and appreciate the outdoors. Amongst open fields, tall mountains, and forever meandering rivers she found her passion––a passion for nature (something more describing here). Throughout her life this passion has been the trail of breadcrumbs––even through waitressing , school, and volunteering the passion for nature (lingered) in the back of her mind. She explained to me that she didn’t really plan on becoming an environmental consultant, but she kind of grew into it and her career is something that is constantly evolving, (very much like writing??). Harris always knew that she wanted to make a difference in the world and work with something interesting , but exactly what that was going to be she wasn’t sure of , so, she worked for the forest service doing work habitat surveys and restoration ecology, that led her on the path towards working for the local government, covering legal issues and stopping development from harming precious eco-systems, and finally she found her heart at Rincon Consultants, where she feels she can hold herself to her early promise to make a difference in this world. Harris holds firm that in order to make a difference it is important to be kind to yourself and others––it is about helping not preventing, it’s about guiding not confronting. She also adds, that to make an impact she has to try to understand and appreciate the audience’s side(..). Writing has become a tool for Harris to implement positive change in her environment.

   

            (Knowing and understanding the audience’s voice, in order to implement change, is the

most important aspect in the field of environmental consulting.)

Most of the writing that Harris does serves a specific purpose and it has to speak to her readers. Understanding the purpose of the writing itself and who the reader is can change the outcome of the projects she is trying to implement. This is something every writer has to consider before writing, along with personal voice. In How to Read Like a Writer, Mike Bunn, talks about the importance of reading like a writer. In order to do that, you need to understand the purpose of the writing and who it was intended to reach and touch. It is a relationship between the reader and the writer, they have to have a conversation through the shared interest, i.e. the writing sample. To have a productive and engaging conversation the reader and the writer have to have a mutual understanding, a common ground to stand on. Harris explains that most of the time, less is more, “people generally add a lot of words when they write, words that don’t need to be there. I know because I used to do that too, just to sound smart, but it has to be at a level at which my audience can understand and it has to be straight to the point.” When talking to Harris I also got the impression that making it easier for the reader to understand and connect to the writing is very important, the reader’s interest is easily lost (forever). In order to do just that (make it easy for the reader) Harris uses certain moves as a writer, “people need to be able to read it and understand what is happening at once, so you will want to constantly summarize and make things into bullet points. Having information being organized, clear, and concise is golden when you try to win people over.”   

  

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