Guidelines for Paper Workshops

Guidelines for Paper Workshops Instructor Alling ENC 1102

The Right Mindset Interested, well-intentioned reader Qualified to give feedback Write and verbalize feedback Mention specifics Ultimate authority for final work = writer

Assignment Instructions Literary argument (claims, evidence, assumptions, counter-arguments, emphasis on your claim) Convince reader that . . . ? Refer to the work Cite the work Length & format Location for submission

General Tips from Textbook 1. Have you avoided the “major mistake writers make when writing about literature”? “Retelling the story (plot summary) shows only that you have read it, not that you have thought about it. Writing a good essay requires you to arrange a pattern of argument and thought” (Roberts and Zweig 43).

General Tips from Textbook 2. Did you “make your own arrangement of details and ideas”? (43) “The principle is that you should introduce details about the work only to support the points you wish to make. Details for the sake of detail are unnecessary” (43).

General Tips from Textbook 3. Have you built your case using textual evidence? “Your goal is to convince your readers of your knowledge and the reasonableness of your conclusions” (43).

General Tips from Textbook 4. Have you used the most relevant textual evidence and clearly related that evidence to your claim? “It is vital to use evidence convincingly so that your readers can follow your ideas” (43). Phrases such as for example, this illustrates that, as the reader can see, when compared to, etc. assume “that the audience knows the story and now wants to read an argument in support of a particular interpretation” (44).

General Tips from Textbook 5. Does each paragraph begin “with an effective topic sentence, indicating that the writer has a good plan”? (45) Each paragraph should “successfully develop the argument promised by the topic sentence” (46).

General Tips from Textbook 6. Have you included a manageable number of major points? “Revising in order to strengthen central and topic ideas requires you either to throw out some topics or else incorporate them as subpoints in the topics you keep. To control your writing in this way will result in improvement” (46).

General Tips from Textbook 7. Have you tried to be original? • You select material for examination • You apply individual thoughts • You develop your central idea • You decide what is most important in the work • You arrange ideas in your order of importance • You argue in your own way • You explain the value of your interpretation (47-8)

General Tips from Textbook 8. Have you edited for exact language and sentence conciseness? “Everyday Use” is an interesting story. It shows family dynamics. ” vs. “Everyday Use” interests me because it shows how a parent-child relationship can begin to mend when family issues are confronted. (50)

General Tips from Textbook 9. Have you “integrate[d] passages and ideas into your essay”? (56) • “distinguish your own thoughts from those of your author” • “integrate material by using quotation marks” • “blend quotations into your own sentences” • “indent and block long quotations” • “use ellipses to show omissions” • “use square brackets to enclose words that you add within quotations” • “do not overquote” (56-60)

Resources on blog: Alling’s Checklist for Essays Descriptions of A-F Essays Conventions for Writing about Literature Integrating Quotations from a Literary Text into a Literary Analysis Paper

Peer Review Time • Read another student’s paper • Write comments—try for three (3) strengths & three (3) suggestions for improvement • Discuss comments • Consider volunteering to share

Guidelines for Paper Workshops