• • Week 4 Assignments

  • This week, we will be thinking about and working on revision!

    • Week 4 Assignments
    • GA and LJ DUE by 10am Tuesday, March 3
    • RWA DUE before class Thursday, March 5
  • LEARNING JOURNAL 4
• • • • • Please spend 10 to 15 minutes free writing about your strengths as a communicator.
        • People often talk about (and sometimes seem to like to talk about) the fact that they “are not very good writers,” or “don’t know how to write,” or “sure could use some help with writing.”  And yet, people seem almost never to talk about needing help with talking.  Why is that?  Please write a paragraph reflecting on this phenomenon of how critical people are of their writing and yet how confident they appear to be in their talking. Then, please write one paragraph in response to each of the following questions:
          1/ Do you believe people are more confident in speaking than in writing, why or why not? 2/ Are you  more comfortable and confident expressing yourself in writing or in speech?  Why do you think this is the case?  3/ What factors are involved in your feeling more comfortable with one as opposed to another mode of communication? 4/ What are your strengths as a communicator specifically?  How would you describe them?  5/ Do you have these strengths in both written and spoken communication, or one or the other?  If the latter, how might a strength in one mode be transferred or translated to the other?
        • With structured free writing, the only rule is that you are NOT ALLOWED TO STOP WRITING.  This means that if you do not have something to say/write, you just write, “I have nothing to say at the moment,” or “My mind is blank,” etc.  Please time yourself for this structured free writing assignment.  If you know where to start, just go ahead and start.  If you don’t know where to start, consider using this prompt: “My strengths as a communicator are…”
• Group Assignment 4.1:
• • Based on the questions below, please write three to four sentences describing your feelings and thoughts about Revision.  I’d like you to first think about this word and what connotations it has for you.  Can you recall any particular experiences when you have had the opportunity to re-see something, e.g., see something in a new way or from a new perspective?  What was that like?  Could that experience inform your understanding of revision in writing?  Why or why not?
  • Group Assignment 4.2: Revision through Rewriting:  Please choose one paragraph from the first draft of your literacies narrative essay and answer the following questions:  What is this paragraph about?  What is the purpose of this paragraph?  As written, how well does this paragraph fulfill its purpose?  What questions might a reader have about this paragraph as it is currently written?  After answering these questions, please re-write your paragraph FROM SCRATCH.  Then, post 1/ the original paragraph, 2/ your answers to these questions  and 3/ the re-written paragraph

•   RWA4: Preparing a Finished First Draft
  College Writing
  Professor Rodgers

To complete this assignment, please do the following:

First, read over your literacies narrative essay draft and take notes on it.  What is it about?  What is the “story” that you are trying to tell?  What are some of the most interesting passages in your draft?  Do these support what you think your personal essay is about?  If no, should you perhaps change your focus to make it possible to include these passages?

Second, once you have read through your first/exploratory draft, taken notes on it, and noted any places where sentences may not be clearly communicating to your audience or your points may not be clear, please complete the Personal Essay Reflection Questions below.

1. What is your essay about?
2. How well does your title reflect the content of your essay?  Does the title capture the reader’s attention?  Why or why not?
3. Who is the audience for the essay?  How is that evident in this draft (word choice, style, other?)?
4. What do you believe makes the draft unique both in terms of its content and the style of the writing?
5. Do you feel that this draft fulfills your purpose for the essay and this assignment?  Why?  Why not?  What might it need in order to better fulfill its purpose?
6. Are there any points or sentences that you believe your reader may be confused by? If yes, please place a question mark beside each point or sentence and re-write the point or sentence to answer the following question:  “what is it I am trying to say here?” and/or “what point am I trying to make here?”
7. Does each paragraph support a central point? Are there paragraphs that support multiple points and should be broken up into two paragraphs? Are there paragraphs that are too “weak” to stand on their own as paragraphs? If so, please make revisions to these paragraphs as appropriate.
8. Reviewing this draft alongside Professor Rodgers’ book, particularly pp. 10-13 and pp. 31-36, please write down any questions that you have about college writing based on your work drafting and revising this essay.

Third, please look over your draft again alongside these notes, the notes from your peer editor on the “Peer Editing Worksheet,” your answers to the above “Personal Essay Reflection Questions,” and the original guidelines for the assignment and prepare a revised draft in which you integrate all of the suggested changes that you believe would improve the draft.  You will be handing in this REVISED draft along with your FIRST draft and the completed QUESTIONNAIRE on Thursday, March 3.