March 26, 2011
In the first 2/3 of the class, we worked on the research paper. Students now have all three points completed, so we will begin the process of revising and editing. The instructor had students call up writershelp and enter "revision" under "exercises." This brought up a checklist for revision (also in the Hacker book under "global revisions"). Using the "Improving the Organization" category as the starting point, the instructor asked students to look at all three points together and answer the questions in that category.
After that, she added "Does the paper flow logically?" and asked students to trade their papers. Students were asked to mark the paper where they became confused or where it did not make sense. They then were to convey this to their colleague both in writing with an asterisk and through conversation.
Next the instructor returned the feedback for Pt II (handed in last week). She gave students different areas of the paper to work on and asked them to revise. Examples of some of the areas were to break sentences down into more simplified versions or to add transitions to alleviate choppiness. After students did this, she went around to various students and read the results and gave pointers if necessary.
Next we worked on the poetry paper. Some students were puzzled about how to blend the research material from the literary databases into their paper. The instructor gave a demonstration on the overhead projector. A copy of this demonstration has been posted.
To Do for Next Week:
Research Paper: Take the input provided by the instructor for Pt. II and also the input given to you by the reading of your paper by your colleague. Revise, putting your three points together as a cohesive whole. Go through the revision checklist (listed above) and answer the sections under "Strengthening the Content" and "Clarifying the Point of View."
In addition, read Lester, Ch. 9. It is necessary to read and understand it before our revision session next week. You do not have to do the activities described by Lester, but read what he says.
Have the three points together to work with next week. Have them available as a digital copy and as a hard copy.
Poetry Paper: Blend research material to your paper. We will have three students present their roundtable next week: Robert, Melinda, and Rockell. These students must get their papers to the instructor by Fri., April 1, so she can format the papers for copying and distribution to the other students in the class.
Grammar, usage, etc. Do writershelp exercises: Hyphens, abbreviations, and numbers (under Mechanics)
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Instructor's explanation of how to blend literary criticism into poetry paper (also linked above).
