WR115An Introduction to College Writing Through Critical Reading: A Community of Scholars Examines Sports in Society

Monday, July 23, 2012First Drafts & UnityNoun Phrase Appositives

Order of Business10:20-10:35 Quiz: Shitty First Drafts

10:40-10:45 Reflective Freewrite & Homework Check

10:45-11:10 Review: Linking Sentences to Blueprints to First Drafts

11:10-11:15 BREAK

11:15-11:45 Unity Workshop

11:45-12:05 Noun Phrase AppositivesTicket out the Door

12:05-12:10 Homework Review

Quiz: Shitty First Drafts

1. According to Anne Lamott, what is the first draft like?

2. What kind of writing job did Anne Lamott have before she started to write fiction?

3. What advice for dealing with critical voices in her head did a hypnotist give Anne Lamott years ago?

Reflective Freewrite & Homework Check

• Place your homework on the table nearest where you sit and your Cornell Notes for “Shitty First Drafts” and your blueprint and if you have it, your first draft of Essay 1 ready for inspection.

• Please reflect and write about where you are in the essay-writing process

Overview of the Essay-Writing Process

YOU’RE DONE! Turn in your paper on time!

6. PROOFREAD. This means checking your work for typos, spelling, formatting errors, and

other mechanical errors (punctuation, capitalization, etc.)

5. REVISION AND PEER REVIEW. These two processes go hand-in-hand. Read your work with a critical eye beaded on organization, clarity, and coherence. Where do you need to further flesh out your ideas? What do you need to explain in greater depth? Where do you need to provide examples, illustrations, interviews, personal accounts, scenarios, and case studies to make your ideas crystal clear to a reader? Where do you need more support in the form of facts, statistics, authoritative statements, and expert opinions? You should put your paper through at least two serious revisions, producing second and third drafts. Use a peer reviewer, and if you like, have a tutor read your paper aloud to you so you can detect and correct your sentence errors. Use the tutor only to help you detect errors that you missed and to help you understand and correct stubborn errors.

4. WRITE THE FIRST DRAFT. Use the Blueprint Outline and/or your second or most elaborate idea map to

sketch out your first draft. Make sure that you write complete sentences, and make sure that each paragraph has a topic sentence.

3. ORGANIZE. Establish in your own mind how your ideas are related to one another. Write linking sentences that

explicitly state what the relationships are between your idea pairs. Or, freewrite in response to specific questions that you write about the relationships between your ideas. Evaluate these ideas for the strength of their relationships to your other ideas. Look for an idea that is central to your other ideas, or, look for your most well-connected idea. This idea will be your best candidate for a thesis. Map your ideas and transfer them to the Essay Blueprint.

2. DEVELOP SOME IDEAS. Read more; discuss more, and freewrite, freewrite, freewrite. Examine your freewrites, reading

and discussion notes, and underscore key ideas that jump out at you. Make a list of your ideas.

1. LEARN ABOUT A TOPIC. Read, discuss, observe, learn a vocabulary specific to your topic, and take notes.

Essay 1: Finding your Thesis Statement

Write about what process you used to identify your thesis statement.1. Did you use the Linking Sentences Worksheet to find

which of your ideas • Is most interesting to you?• Is most connected to your other ideas?

2. Did you brainstorm a second time to see what ideas emerged?

3. Did you use another method? If so, what?4. Are you still stuck?

Thesis Workshop

• Silently and reflectively review your Linking Ideas Worksheet. Consider the following and jot notes down on the worksheet: • Which of your ideas do you like the best? Why?• How are these ideas connected to other ideas?

• Take turns explaining to the others what you most like about your ideas and which ones are most connected to other ideas.

• When it is your turn to listen and respond, ask one clarifying question and one probing question (handout).

• Take notes.

Thesis Formation

• Once you have selected your main idea (thesis), you’ll need to shape it into a sentence:• The thesis should be an opinion—yours!• It should be debatable (more than one

point of view)• The thesis should state some kind of

relationship, like cause-effect. • Get busy!

The Blueprint (Outline)

• Once you have formulated your thesis statement, it’s time to complete a blueprint.

• The blueprint is a virtual first draft. It shows how you are going to develop your thesis statement. Your three or four topic sentences should each develop your thesis in some significant way.

• The topic sentences should be drawn either directly or indirectly from your linking sentences worksheet, where you wrote out sentences detailing how your different ideas are related.

• Once you reach to this stage, you have organized the basic framework of your essay.

Introductory Paragraphs• You needn’t worry about writing an introduction until after you have

outlined your paper. Many writers will not write their introductions until after they have written a first draft.

• An introduction introduces the thesis statement. Sometimes the writer will explain why the reader should care about the topic, why the topic is important, and/or introduce the vocabulary and background the reader will need to understand the paper.

• Some writers like to introduce their thesis statement by telling a story, which can be factual or may be a scenario (imagine a situation…)

• It’s a good idea to write one or two sentences transitioning the reader from the introduction to the thesis.

• In formal college papers, it’s a good idea to place the thesis at the end of the introduction. The thesis will be one or two sentences long.

Developing your Topic Sentences (Body Paragraphs)• Each of your body paragraphs needs to be headed by a strong

topic sentence. • The topic sentence does two things:

1. It says something significant about the thesis statement, preferably by using a snippet or key word from the thesis. In this manner, the topic sentence ties the body paragraph to the thesis statement.

2. It expresses the main idea of the paragraph.• Topic sentences should generally NOT begin with there is,

there are, or it is. These words state that something merely exists.

How Body Paragraphs Are Organized• Each body paragraph should be organized so that a reader who is

assumed to know very little about the topic can follow and understand what the writer is expressing.

• This format is recommended:• Topic Sentence

• Then write a sentence or two explaining the topic sentence or making a major point.• Then write one or more sentences that provide support for that major

point—facts, authoritative opinions, anecdotes, explanation• And always provide an example or two to really make your ideas come

alive• Another major point (if desired)

• Support + examples• Concluding sentence

Concluding Paragraphs

• Concluding paragraphs in formal essays have one job to do: to concisely bring the reader full circle.

• In order to do this, a simple summary or re-iteration of your major points and your thesis statement is all that is called for.

• Your concluding paragraph should be short and sweet like a roasted maggot.

A Word to the Wise

• Remember, first drafts are first drafts.

• They are meant to be revised, which means that you look at your ideas at least two more times, each time with “new eyes”– those of your reviewer(s).

• Every time you even begin to think that you are writing something that is a mere shake away from a final draft, when in fact you are writing a first draft, please remember “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott.

Take a Break

• But keep it short!

• http://timer.onlineclock.net/

Unity Workshop• See Unity Review Workshop handout.

Appositive Workshop• Compare the two handouts for differences in wording.• What strikes you as an important difference?• Which version is more informative?

Noun Phrase Appositive Workshop

• A noun phrase appositive is a phrase of 1 to many words that is positioned next to noun (a subject or object) in a sentence.

• This phrase and the noun are a pair, and each can be substituted for the other.

• Noun phrase appositives function in two important ways:1. To add more information to a piece of writing in a very

economical manner.2. To combine sentences artfully and concisely.

Mini-Midterm Review• Finding prepositional phrases in sentences• Finding main verbs and their subjects in sentences• Combining sentences using appositives• A few questions about the Syllabus

Homework Assigned1. Second Draft, Essay 1

Due Wednesday, July 25th • Unity check: fully review and revise your second draft for unity.

Read Unity Workshop Handout.

• Add noun phrase appositives to your second draft.

2. Study for the Mini-MidtermWednesday, July 25th

3. Read Appositive Workshop Handout; find as many appositives in Version A (yellow) as possible.

Due Wednesday, July 25th