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TODAY’S AGENDA

Class Standards Reminder

Some Quick Mechanics

Revising at the Draft Level

Overall Meaning

Paragraph Level

Track Changes Demonstration

Conferences

STANDARDS

2 Revisions per paper

Office – Rm. 249 Liberal Arts Building

Office hours – 11:20-12:20 Tuesdays and Thursdays

Email – 24 hours except weekends!

CORRECTIONS

Go out on a limb

Explore

There’s no such thing as a finished piece; you just have to meet a deadline.

QUICK MECHANICS

“a lot”

Too, to, two

They’re, Their, There

Run-on sentences

A LOT

Two words

There is no such thing as an alot

TWO, TO, TOO

The professor told us two times not to make redundant statements. He may need to take that advice, too.

Two = a number

To = a preposition

Too = also

THEY’RE, THEIR, THERE

They’re going to pick up their books and write an essay for class over there.

They’re = They are

Their = possessive

There = place

RUN ON SENTENCES

Take a deep breath.

Read your sentence out loud.

If you’re out of breath, you’ll want to break up your sentence.

“This one time, I endeavored to write a run on sentence, which was rather difficult at first because I couldn’t think of anything to say, then I just decided to start saying stuff that came to my head and as it came to my head, it became easier to write a run on sentence without taking a breath, and thankfully commas exist otherwise I’d be choking trying to read this sentence out loud.”

AT THE DRAFT LEVEL

Revision is an ongoing process

Constant

Builds upon last segment

SOME TECHNIQUES

Set aside your first draft

Work from Printed Text (or with Track Changes)

Read the Draft Aloud

Revise in Steps

Address Instructor Feedback (when it comes)

Peer Review

SETTING ASIDE YOUR FIRST DRAFT

Take more than a few minutes

Wait until the next day

Read again from an impartial standpoint

Set aside time to re-read

PRINTED TEXT (OR TRACK CHANGES)

Allows an impartial stance

Grants ability to leave markup

Track changes – saves paper, leaves markup

READ THE DRAFT ALOUD

Helps with the impartial stance

Not in public

REVISION IN STEPS

Overall meaning and structure

Paragraph development

Sentences and Words

INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK

I promise you’ll get feedback soon – by Thursday

Refer to it as a building block

Pay attention to the revision process

PEER REVIEW

Common practice

Find someone to help

Someone honest

OVERALL MEANING

Does the piece flow?

Do the paragraphs makes sense in sequence?

PARAGRAPH DEVELOPMENT

Does each paragraph have a topic?

Do the paragraphs fully explore their point?

Are they the correct length for their topics?

FULLY DEVELOPED PARAGRAPHS

One weekend, I tried to grade a mess load of papers (mess load being a technical term). I put all the papers out on my desk, sat in front of my computer, and proceeded to fail at grading. Sure, I marked up some of the papers. I made comments where they were needed. But I still haven’t finished the lot of them.

I could have lied about the whole affair. I could have claimed that my papers were stolen by an academically minded thief, or a very selective fire broke out in my house. In the end, though, I felt it more important to own up and say tell everyone that they’d receive their papers on Thursday. So that’s what I did.

BREAK IT DOWN

What were the topic sentences?

Did the paragraphs fully explore their topics?

Was the transition strong?

Were the paragraphs too long or too short?

Between these two paragraphs, could you reasonably tell what the paper was about?

TRACK CHANGES

Open Up Microsoft Word – or if you can’t log in to the computers, look over someone’s shoulder.

Follow along with me!

OPEN SOURCE

OpenOffice and LibreOffice are free versions of the Microsoft Office pack.

Available for any system

Fulfill many of the same functions

Different placement in the program. But look around.

GOOGLE DOCS

Google Docs are now a part of Google Drive

Far be it from me to tell you what to do, but the Docs are the best free collaborative writing software available.

Try out Gmail

Follow along

WORDPRESS

Should have an email sent already.

If you haven’t, I haven’t received your Wordpress information.

Make sure if you haven’t sent your Wordpress account information that you do so by midnight tonight.

If you’re having trouble, let’s talk about it during the conference period.

CONFERENCES

Status check.

How is your proposal coming along?

If you aren’t conferencing, you should be working on the writing assignment for the day.

WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Write a short proposal (introduction, problem, objectives) concerning a problem in your everyday life that you’d like to fix. It can be as simple as needing to fix the sink or as large as finding out what you’re doing with your life on a cosmic level.

Type this proposal or write it by hand. When you’re done, pair up, then email it (or hand over the handwritten copy) to one of your peers. That peer should then email (or hand over their handwritten copy) to you.

Revise the proposal on a structural level using track changes. Do the paragraphs flow? Is the purpose of the piece clear? Leave comments and markup in the final piece.

Save the file and email it to me with both partners’ names on it. If you handwrote it, hand revised copy to me.