Week 11: Planning Revision ENGL 1301 Mrs. Edlin

Revision Up until now, you’ve been producing texts and critiquing others' texts. It’s time to turn your attention back to your own work and revise in preparation for turning in the 1.2 drafts. An earlier brief assignment asked you to analyze drafts for elements that needed revision. Now, you need to apply that revision analysis to your own writing. Today, you will spend some time with your own drafts and work towards a complete revision plan to help you move towards the completion of draft 1.2.

Rethinking Organization One good way to check the organization of a draft is to outline it. Using your own draft 1.1, complete the following steps: Number the paragraphs in the draft  Read through each paragraph, jotting down its main idea or topic.  Then examine your outline, and ask yourself the questions that follow.

Rethinking Organization Do the main points clearly relate to the thesis and to one another? Are any of them irrelevant? Should any sections or paragraphs be moved to another part of the draft? Can you identify any confusing leaps from point to point? Do you need to provide additional or stronger transitions? Do you leave out any important points?

Rethinking Organization If the answers to any of these questions are yes, then take a few moments to note what revision needs to occur. If the answers to these questions are no, then you may not need to significantly reorganize your draft as part of the revision process.

More Organization A basic principle of clarity is that any unit of discourse – a sentence, a paragraph, a section, a whole document – should begin with a short segment (topic sentence) that introduces and frames the longer and more complex segment that follows. Go through your essay paragraph by paragraph. Underline the topic sentence of each paragraph. Circle words in that paragraph that signal key terms or themes given in your topic sentence. If you notice that you don’t have topic sentences or you don’t have support for the topic, then revise.

Reflection Write up a brief (150-200 word) reflection of what you accomplished today. What areas did you find that required revision? How will these revisions strengthen your paper? What revisions do you still need to complete?

Homework: BA7 Objective: To demonstrate your ability to apply principles of revision to your own writing. Purpose: In BA6, you identified the elements that needed revision in someone else’s paper. In this assignment, you will do the same thing for your paper.

Homework: BA7 Description: First, write a short summary of the strengths and weaknesses of your current draft. Using instructor feedback, peer critiques, and your own analysis, identify the specific elements that work well for your intended reader and those that do not.

Homework: BA7 Next, write a plan of action. For your plan of action, begin by identifying three specific areas or elements from your draft that you intend to revise and explain why you chose each one.  Remember, your focus here should be on global revision (see chapter 4b of the handbook).

Homework: BA7 Then, using the recommendations from chapters 6 (see pp. 118-124) and 10 from First-Year Writing and chapter 4 of the St. Martin’s Handbook, explain the steps you will take to revise each one.  For example, if a particular paragraph is too vague for your reader, what are you going to have to do to make it more specific?

Homework: BA7  If your topic sentences do not represent the main idea of each body paragraph, what will you do in order to better understand the main idea of each paragraph prior to revising each topic sentence? This should be submitted in an essay of 500-650 words.

Homework: BA7  Your essay on revision (500-650 words) should follow this basic format: Paragraph 1 – short summary of the strengths and weaknesses of your draft based on your peer critique and instructor feedback Paragraph 2 – plan of action with three specific areas that require revision Paragraph 3 – Explanation of the steps you intend to take to revise the three areas discussed in paragraph 2.

Other Homework St. Martin's Handbook: Chapters 4i, 4k-l, 5a-b, 5d-e, "Revising Paragraphs Sentences, Words, and Tone," "Editing," "Proofreading the Final Draft"; Chapters 40 and 43, "Concise Writing," "Memorable Prose"