Research Essay peer review

< style="font-family: arial;">Today in class, we will do a Peer Review of your Research Essay drafts. In groups of three or four, hand out copies of your draft. One at a time, each person should read his or her draft aloud. Since everyone in the group will have a copy of the essay in hand, listeners can take notes and mark passages while the writer is reading.

When the writer is finished reading, reviewers should take a moment to write on the back of their copy of the draft the ONE thing they liked best about it and ONE thing they think could be changed or improved. Reviewers should sign their name below their comments.

Once reviewers have written these comments on the back of their copy of the draft, they should answer the following questions aloud while the writer takes notes of what is said.

• What did you learn from this draft? What are you curious to learn more about?
• In your own words, what is the main point of this draft?
• In your own words, what are the sub-points which illustrate this main point?
• How well does the writer integrate testimony from outside sources? Does cited research fit into the “flow” of the paper, or does research material seem tacked on?
• How many different research sources does the writer refer to? Is there an over-reliance on any one source?
• Point to any places in the draft that lack research evidence or where the research support seems “thin.”
• In what ways does the beginning of this draft grab your attention?
• In what ways do the middle parts of this draft guide your thoughts?
• In what ways does the conclusion of this draft tie up the discussion?
• Where (if anywhere) was the language or reasoning unclear or awkward?
• If this were your draft, how would you revise it?

After reviewers have finished commenting on these questions, they should return all copies of the draft to the writer, and the group should move on to the next paper.

This week's best o' blogs

Oooh, the best of blog competition is getting mighty fierce. This week we have one runaway winner and a close runner-up:

• Runaway winner: Free Blog # 7 from Dropshots
• Close runner-up: Hike from Hell from This is my life

You'll notice that both of this week's chosen blog-posts are story-style posts: readers, like small children, are enchanted by stories, so feel free to share your horror stories, success stories, and every sort of story in between.

Collage essay feedback

Last class, you compiled a collage essay using tasty bits culled from previous blog entries & your in-class practice writings. During the first part of today's class, I want to spend some time giving & receiving feedback on these collage essays.

Get together in groups of 3 or 4 read each of your groupmates' collage essays. (If your groupmates did their Research Blogs for today, their collage essay will be their next-to-last blog post; it will probably be time-stamped for Tuesday.) For each of the collage essays you read, post a SIGNED comment that addresses the following questions:

• What is the single idea or "thread" that ties these bits together?
• What is the best part or piece of the essay, and why?
• What part or piece doesn't seem to belong in this essay, and why?
• How would you revise this essay to make it read more smoothly?
• How would you rearrange this essay to improve its impact? (For example, would you rearrange the essay to start with the best or most powerful point, or would you end with the best or most powerful point? Would you rearrange the "guts" of the essay? Would you change or tweak the intro or conclusion?)

Peter Elbow’s steps to writing a cut & paste (collage) essay

• Find the good passages in what you’ve written & cut them away from the bad passages. Cut out anything in these passages that’s bad, unclear, or unnecessary: cut, cut cut!
• Review all the good passages you’ve found and find a single idea or “thread” that ties all or most of them together.
• Arrange your good passages in what you think is the best order
• Write whatever transition sentences, passages, or paragraphs are necessary to smooth out the seams between good bits.
• Go back & tighten/clarify the entire essay

The introduction and conclusion paragraphs of a collage essay are particularly important since they point to the single idea or “thread” that ties everything together. In mining your blog posts & in-class practice writing for collage bits, you might find that the themes of “writing,” “creativity,” and/or your research topic emerge as a possible unifying idea or “thread” to tie your essay together.

This week's best of the best

Here are your votes for this week's best free blogs...

• My motley crew from Tons of thoughts
• Bad bad dream from This is my life
• Political thoughts from Dropshots
• Life on the outside from The world through my eyes
• Everytime I see the Yankees symbol... from Diaries and confessions of...

Enjoy!

Tuesday's grammar fun

To get this week off to a super-fun start, today we're going to do two in-class grammar exercises. (audible groans)

First, if you brought your Literature Review draft, I want you to find the three sentences that I underlined during my conference with you. (If you forgot to bring your draft or if you haven't yet met with me to discuss your draft, you can use a classmate's three sentences.)

On a blank piece of paper, I want you to write a CORRECTED version of each of your three underlined sentences. You don't need to copy the "wrong" sentence; I just want to see three grammatically correct sentences. (You can correct your sentences in any way you see fit: you might add or remove punctuation, you might add or remove words or phrases, you might separate or join several sentences, etc.) I encourage you to work in groups and to ASK ME FOR HELP as you work on fixing your three sentences: I also encourage you to use the Punctuation Cheat Sheet which is posted in the Course Documents area of our Blackboard course-site.

When you've fixed your three sentences, give those to me and then log into Blackboard to take Grammar Quiz 2, which covers the Glossary of Usage in Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference. Note that you can take this quiz multiple times, you can use your book to take the quiz, and the questions will appear in random order each time you access the quiz. The quiz will be online for you to take & re-take at your convenience until midnight next Monday, October 18th.

Good luck!

This week's best of the best

This week, we had a 2-way tie for the "best of blog" award. The winners are (drumroll, please)...

• "bare it with dignity" from tons of thoughts
• "music to my ears," from the world through my eyes

Enjoy!

Reasons & evidence

Most research arguments consist of CLAIMS, REASON, and EVIDENCE. Some also have unspoken WARRANTS.

CLAIM because of REASON based on EVIDENCE.

This toothpaste is the best (claim) because it prevents cavities (reason) as proven by this study that shows that only 3 of people going to the dentist for fillings had used this toothpaste (evidence).

A WARRANT is the unspoke connection (assumption?) that connects the CLAIM and it’s reason:

WARRANT = the “best” toothpastes are those that prevent cavities

If you don’t agree with the WARRANT (e.g. if you believe the “best” toothpastes are the ones that whiten your teeth and/or keep your breath fresh), you won’t necessarily be convinced by the argument’s reasons & evidence


ACTIVITY: Use your favorite Internet search engine (e.g. Google, A9.com, etc.) to find 3 informational websites/articles on a given topic. (This might be your research topic, or it might be some sort of controversial topic or debate: for example, you might research what people are saying about who “won” the recent presidential & vice-presidential debates.) In a fresh blog post, give the link to the three web sources you find, and for each list in the form of a sentence that source’s Claim, Reasons, and Evidence. Do or don’t you agree with the warrant behind each source? Are you convinced by each’s evidence?

Ooops!

Grammar Quiz 1 is now back online after disappearing temporarily. It will be posted in the "Course Documents" area of our Blackboard course-site through midnight on Monday, October 4th. Apologies for the confusion, and thanks to Scribble for pointing out my goof!