A prolific painter of portraits before and after the French Revolution ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ch07.qxd 12/2/04 11:59 AM Page 345 explaining: the writing process 345 PEER RESPONSE The instructions that follow will help you give and receive constructive advice about the rough draft of your explaining essay. You may use these guidelines for an in-class workshop, a take-home review, or a computer e-mail response. Writer: Before you exchange drafts with another reader, write out the following on your essay draft: 1. Purpose Briefly, describe your purpose, genre, and intended audience. 2. Revision plans What do you still intend to work on as you revise your draft? 3. Questions Write out one or two questions that you still have about your draft. What questions would you like your reader to answer? Reader: First, read the entire draft from start to finish. As you reread the draft, answer the following questions: 1. Clarity What passages were clearest? Where were you most confused? Refer to specific sentences or passages to support your response. How and where could the writer make the draft clearer? 2. Evidence Where does the writer have good supporting evidence (specific examples, facts, analysis, statistics, interview results, or citations from sources)? Where does the writer need additional evidence? Refer to specific sentences or passages to support your response. 3. Organization Summarize or briefly outline the main ideas of the essay. Where was the organization most clear? Where were you confused? Refer to specific passages as you suggest ways to improve the draft. 4. Purpose Underline sentences that express the purpose or contain the thesis of the essay. Does your understanding of the essay’s purpose match the writer’s statement about purpose? Explain. How might the writer clarify the thesis? 5. Reader’s response Overall, describe what you liked best about the draft. Then identify one major area that the writer should focus on during the revision. Does your suggestion match the writer’s revision plans? Explain. Answer the writer’s own question or questions about the draft. If your students complain that their peers do not give good advice during revision workshops, two activities may help. First, model the workshop process on your own draft. (Make sure your draft is really rough and has clear problems.) If students are comfortable critiquing your draft, they will be more effective in reviewing each other’s drafts. Second, have students practice identifying key features (thesis, map, specific examples, paragraph hooks, definition, and so on) in a draft. Often, students give poor advice because they cannot yet identify rhetorical features in writing. A further benefit of this exercise is that identifying features (rather than evaluating) does not require students to give negative criticism and thus makes them more comfortable in peer groups. Once students can correctly identify features, then return to a regular revision workshop. PROFESSIONAL COPY—NOT FOR RESALE
ch07.qxd 12/2/04 11:59 AM Page 346 346 Chapter 7 explaining • Review possibilities for visuals or graphics. What additions or changes to images might be appropriate for your purpose, genre, or audience? • Compare your thesis sentence with what you say in your conclusion. You may have a clearer statement of your thesis near the end of your paper. Revise your original thesis sentence to make it clearer, more focused, or more in line with what your essay actually says. • Explaining means showing and demonstrating relationships. Be sure to follow general statements with specific examples, details, facts, statistics, memories, dialogues, or other illustrations. • In a formal definition, be sure to include the class of objects or concepts to which the term belongs. Avoid ungrammatical writing, such as “Photosynthesis is when plants absorb oxygen” or “The lymphatic system is where the body removes bacteria and transports fatty cells.” • Avoid introducing definitions with “Webster says. . . .” Instead, read definitions from several dictionaries and give the best or most appropriate definition. • Remember that you can modify the dictionary definition of a term or concept to fit your particular context. For example, to you, heroism may mean having the courage to say what you believe, not just to endanger your life through selfless actions. • Don’t mix categories when you are classifying objects or ideas. If you are classifying houses by floor design (ranch, bilevel, split-level, two-story), don’t bring in other categories, such as passive-solar, which could be incorporated into any of those designs. • In explaining how something occurs or should be done, be sure to indicate to your audience which steps are most important. • In cause-and-effect explanations, avoid post hoc fallacies. This term comes from the Latin phrase post hoc, ergo propter hoc: “After this, therefore because of this.” For example, just because Event B occurred after Event A, it does not follow, necessarily, that A caused B. If, for example, statistics show that traffic fatalities in your state actually declined after the speed limit on interstate highways was increased, you should not conclude that higher speeds actually caused the reduction in fatalities. Other causes—increased radar patrols, stiffer drunk-driving penalties, or more rigorous vehicle-maintenance laws—may have been responsible for the reduction. • As you revise to sharpen your meaning or make your organization clearer, use appropriate transitional words and phrases to signal the relationships among the various parts of your subject. PROFESSIONAL COPY—NOT FOR RESALE
Page 1 and 2: ch07.qxd 12/2/04 11:57 AM Page 302
Page 43: ch07.qxd 12/2/04 11:59 AM Page 344
Page 55 and 56: I knew my dieting had gotten out of

A prolific painter of portraits before and after the French Revolution ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?