Fleming college Communications I (COMM 201) Week 10 Seminar

Week 10 Seminar Agenda Revision strategies for profile writing Cooperative language skills activity

Reading Discussion “True Writing is Rewriting,” by Beth Shope “There is no such thing as good writing—only good rewriting.” Harry Shaw “Books are not written; they are rewritten.” Michael Crichton What do you think is the difference between revising and editing? What do you think are the most significant revision/editing strategies noted in the reading? During the discussion open up a Word document (perhaps even a table that has editing in one column and revision in another). Work together to create a list of common writing issues and editing/revision strategies as identified by the students. This document can then be posted and shared for your section.

Revising versus editing Revising: improving your draft at the IDEAS LEVEL (content, organization and tone of your essay) (A MACRO PERSPECTIVE) Editing: eliminating errors at the SENTENCE LEVEL (grammar, spelling and punctuation) (A MICRO PERSPECTIVE) The most common error students make is to address everything at once – from the overall structure to spelling mistakes.

Revising: IDEAS LEVEL An intriguing, well-focused subject For the Profile assignment, consider … An intriguing, well-focused subject An engaging opening (including a “nutshell paragraph” that identifies the subject and gives it broad appeal) Effective topic sentences & paragraphing (rich and vivid detail) Vivid presentation (rich & vivid detail) description from observation AND quotations from interview(s) A dominant impression/interpretation clear role as detached or participant observer (or both)

Editing: SENTENCE LEVEL Editing means that we proofread for these kinds of errors: Sentence fragments Comma splices and run-on sentences Subject verb errors Poor word choice (diction) Awkward phrasing Punctuation errors Spelling mistakes and ‘sound-alike’ errors (e.g. your vs. you’re) “English is Crazy” Citations Plagiarism Rap

Figure 1. APA Interview Citation rule. APA Style Blog.

Let’s Look at your Profile Trouble Shooting Guide Good advice on how to revise drafts based on feedback

Adding Linking Words to your Profile Which profile paragraph would you rather read? Jack Jones attended Fleming College to study Drug and Alcohol counselling. He worked as a counsellor in Peterborough for five years. He went to Winnipeg where he ran his addiction outreach program. Jack moved to Vancouver to expand the program. His program has spread across Canada. Jack Jones attended Fleming College to study Drug and Alcohol counselling. After graduating, he worked as a counsellor in Peterborough for five years. Then he went to Winnipeg where he ran his addiction outreach program. Next, Jack moved to Vancouver to expand the program. Since then, his program has spread across Canada.

Language Skills Quiz Another element of the revision process is, of course, addressing more specific errors. This activity is called a “quiz”—but it is not connected to marks. Instead, it is designed to engage students in working through some of the most common writing errors—and also to show them that they can often fix these issues, even if they don’t have the language to describe the writing error. Common writing issues that are covered in this quiz include fragments and run-ons, punctuation errors, modifier issues, subject-verb agreement, and pronoun errors. Part 1—10 minutes Students complete the “quiz” independently—ask them to work quickly and go with their first instinct. Part 2—15-20 minutes Students work cooperatively with a partner to go through the quiz, compare answers, and collectively come up the answer that they now think is correct. Where there is discrepancy between answers, students should try to explain their answers and persuade their partner that their answer is indeed the correct one. The one additional thing to ask them to work on together is to not just identify the right answer, but to come up with some reasoning for why the incorrect options are, in fact, incorrect. Part 3—15-20 minutes Take up the quiz as a group—from having done a similar kind of activity in the past, a strategy for providing students with mini lessons on the most common errors represented here is when you indicate which question is correct, you take a few moments to discuss why the incorrect one are wrong.