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Revise! Revise! revise!. Reworking your ideas in the best way possible. Nine Priorities. Thesis Statement Audience Following directions Support structure Syntax Diction Usage Spelling Presentation.
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Revise! Revise! revise! Reworking your ideas in the best way possible.
Nine Priorities • Thesis Statement • Audience • Following directions • Support structure • Syntax • Diction • Usage • Spelling • Presentation This is the where your voice can really shine – your humor, your style, your reverence – this also helps to establish your tone and how your audience receives your argument (s). This is also where an otherwise solid argument can fall flat – poor wording, over wordiness, poor punctuation that interferes with either the message or the perception the reader has of you, the speaker.
Problems with thesis statement: • Thesis is bad • Vague, mere fact, mere summary, ???? • failed to prove thesis • Not enough support/your evidence does not support your thesis statement • mere summary • off topic • Commentary does not link evidence to argument
Audience • need to use formal /academic language • Your reader is educated, but not a mind-reader • Don’t “talk” down to your reader • Don’t make your reader assume • Don’t assume your reader has the same context as you - explain
Argument • Clearly stated and argued • Counterarguments • Addressed • Not left refuted • Qualify your statements • Add boundaries (strengthens individual claims)
StructureI • Paragraph structure: • Topic sentence (general claim of paragraph) • Adding more clarity • Specific detail (good place to cite an author) • Commentary – developing the detail – how does it relate to your claim (do NOT restate the author) • Adding more clarity • Specific detail (good place to cite an author) • Commentary – developing the detail – how does it relate to your claim (do NOT restate the author)
Structure II • How does your overall paper develop? • Does it build to an ultimate conclusion? • Is each paragraph important? • Think of the shape of your argument: Strong Mid weak Strong, weak, strong Weak Strong Weak
Style • Think about all the authors we’ve read • Whose style did you enjoy? • Think about what made his or her style pop out to you. • You do not need to be Thoreau or Rodriguez or Prose or Orwell, but do not neglect to learn from them • Mix up your sentence structures – add variety to keep your reader’s interest • EX: A few longer sentences followed by a short, simple sentence allows your reader to focus on the latter • Verbiage- scholarly, but not pedantic, formal but not overly so (be careful not to be too heavily influenced by the archaic authors.)
Get out your rough draft • Take 10 minutes to annotate your own text • Key words/phrases • Important insights
Then… • Write a précis of your own paper (sometimes called an abstract) • Side Note: This is a relatively small paper for an abstract, but professors will often have students write one as an intro or pre-writing for a longer essay