Wednesday, September 22, 2010

In-Class work for 9/23: Prewriting and Drafting


Does this look familiar? In working towards your drafts, we're going to try something a little different this time. Try following these steps, and see where they take you. Over the course of the semester, you'll have the chance to figure out the techniques that work best for you.

To start off with this time, DO NOT write an outline. DO NOT start by writing your thesis and sketching out three supporting paragraphs.
Instead, let's start a conversation between you and your text. This is where They Say, I Say comes in.

1) Begin with They Say: write a paragraph that summarizes the text(s) you're working with. Be sure to talk about ideas or argument as well as the facts or what happens. Look at chapter 2 "The art of summarizing," from They Say for ideas about how to go about this.

2) Now, for I Say: write a paragraph that gives your initial reaction the text and the question. You can draw on your own personal expereinces or your experiences as a reader.

3) The money quotations: choose the quotation that you think is most important in answering your question. Write the sentence of your essay that will come before and after the quotation. See chapter 3 "The art of quotation" from They Say for more about how to go about this.

Draw on these three paragraphs when putting together your draft. Still don't do an outline. Don't set a given number of paragraphs. Just make sure your draft makes sense.

HW: For Monday, post a draft of your essay to the blog and read Eric Schlosser's "Global Realization" from the packet. While you're reading, think about what kind of encounter between America and the World is being described in the essay.

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