Day 25
English 104, Section 1321
For Today:
25. Tu 5/23 READ: From website: George Orwell, Politics and the English Language.
TURN IN: Action plan for revising essay based on peer review.
FOCUS: Return and review first drafts.
Attendance.
Update on Fake News Paper Conference
Group work: continue peer review of first drafts.
General comments on first drafts. Methods toward writing a Second Draft.
(Remember: Turn-It-In for this draft and Annotated Bibliography).
Discuss: Politics and the English Language.
Next Class:
26. Th 5/25 READ: Individual Research reading & Politics and the English Language.
TURN IN: One page essay: My Improvement Plan.
FOCUS: Sentence workshop. Focusing your argument. How does Orwell help us rewrite and did he predict the false news of today?
27. Tu 5/30 READ: From website: Jared Diamond, Collapse, Chapter 14, Why Do Some Societies Make Disastrous Decisions?
FOCUS: Are we headed for Collapse?
28. Th 6/1 READ:
TURN IN: Second Draft, Research Paper
FOCUS: Preparation for writing final in-class essay. Class review.
•••••
General Second Draft Notes
· Revisit your title. Is it still the right title? It will help you focus on your main idea. Title like the paper itself, often need to go through a process of evolution.
· Revisit your thesis. Is it focused? Does it fit the essay you actually wrote? Will it confuse your reader going on. Are there things in your essay that don't fit with your thesis and wander off course? Is it clear and identifiable?
· Just because I didn’t give you a note, doesn’t mean you can’t improve on something yourself. MAKE YOUR PAPER READABLE, CHARMING.
· Check out Hacker for details on citations and paper form. Get it right. (If you do it correctly now, you will get it right later, when it counts.)
· Remember this essay is a 2000 word essay, plus the works cited page.
· Please put a word count at the end of your text, on the last page, in the lower right hand corner: (1989 words)
· Go back now and see if the sections of your argument are in the right order. Would your paper be stronger if you switched the order? Did you play something out too early? Did you end on a weak note? Now that you are in a position to look at the whole paper, check to see if you can’t find ways to improve the overall effect of your writing. Do you need to counter some opposing argument? Do you need to give credit to someone who’s ideas you have borrowed or adapted? Sometimes you even need to re-outline the paper to see what you've done and where to go.
· Framing. Introduce your source. Why are they important? Why should we believe them? State your purpose for using the quote so we see the relationship between the quote and the idea you're pushing. Don’t assume we will see the same thing in the quote that you do. Trim the quote down so we won’t make contrary assumptions. Then lead us out of the quote and build a transition to the next section.
· Do your introduction and conclusion match? Are there obvious parallels between the one and the other? Does the conclusion support and advance your thesis? Does it have style? Will people remember it?