Class Thursday February 11: Workshop on Response essays

We used the assignment sheet to put together a rubric for figuring out what to work on in revising your response essays on McCall.

We started by reviewing the essay - to make sure we had a clear idea what McCall was writing about.  We then established the following pattern to figure out what to revise.

1.  Identify the main point of the response essay.  Which point of McCall's does the author respond to?  Is it an important point?  Does the author represent McCall's point accurately?

2.  Assess the focus.  Does the introduction set up the focus in terms of the main points McCall makes?  Does the author make a clear point with respect to the focus in each paragraph?  (If you can't say what that point is - the essay probably needs some work).  To sharpen the focus we identified material that should be deleted, ideas that should be added, sentences that needed to be moved, and information that needed to be changed, clarified or strengthened.  Make sure the focus developed in the paragraphs is the SAME focus you set up in the introduction + sum up in the conclusion.

3. Look at the development.  Did the author use examples, illustrations, "facts," personal experience, references to the media, etc to make their points clear and support their validity?  If not - the author should do some freewriting/brainstorming to figure out how to support his/her point.

4. Check the organization.  In general, in academic writing - the expectation is for students to make a general statement (a conceptual statement) and move to a more particular discussion.  The points in your essay should generally be organized in keeping with this principle.  Does the author state the "idea" s/he is discussing -before discussing particular cases or variation?  Also - in a response essay - the introduction should set up or introduce ideas/key terms from McCall's essay that the author refers to in his/her discussion.  Does the introduction do this?

The main point of today's class was that revision is not about spelling and grammar.  It is about strengthening your focus = sometimes even finding your focus.  Good writing grows out of re-writing.  Writing is part of the thinking process.  Often first drafts discover your idea - but they need more work before you can say exactly what you want to say in the best order.

We workshopped two essay - one as a whole group, and one in small groups.  You then wrote notes about what you needed to revise to strengthen your essay on McCall.  I will not be providing written feedback to direct revision for this essay => you will work from your notes - and from face-to-face feedback in conferences (which we will schedule on Tuesday).

We then discussed strategies for writing a response essay for Conceptual Metaphor in Everyday Language.


For Tuesday:
Write: Resonse to "Conceptual Metaphor in Everyday Language"

Have a good weekend and see you on Tuesday!