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Double-entry journal (DEJ). In this kind of journal, you write
down in the left-hand column brief quotes, a quick summary of an idea that
interests you, first impressions. In the right-hand column you have a
chance to respond to your writing in the left-hand column--argue with the
author, say what it reminds you of, think about an implication, take off on what
the author says. See
example.
Drafting. The process of writing several drafts should leave you with
a sense of having moved forward in your thinking about an idea. Below you will
see what is generally expected in a first, second, or later draft. However, it
is important to recognize that each person and each essay is unique. Some
writings feel nearly finished after the second draft, while others could go
through four or more drafts to feel finished.
Essays in 1201. You will write five essays, each of which will go
through at least a first and second draft. Each draft must follow MLA format, be
typewritten (double-spaced, with 1 inch margins) and stapled. It is strongly
recommend that you keep a copy of all drafts and revisions since papers can get
lost. In addition to saving your draft on your C or D drive, create a back-up
file on the Z drive.
First draft. This is often very exploratory. You're just getting a
sense of what your big idea is. If your first draft feels almost finished, then
you're producing an essay for an in-class essay exam and you're not writing
about something complex enough. On the other hand, don't turn in just one or two
pages of focused freewriting. The first draft should be a serious attempt to
present an idea with some evidence.
Focused freewriting. This is writing to help you get in touch with
your attitudes about an assignment or your thoughts about an issue. You may also
use this on your own to get into any assignment. Focused freewriting is usually
public; that is, you may be expected to share it, at least after you edit it.
Like freewriting, though, it is to be continuous and uncensored; you must only
stick to the topic. The purpose is to help you get in touch with ideas and
feelings that may be important for considering a particular assignment or
problem.
Freewriting. This writing may be used to start off class. It simply
means writing continuously without censoring what comes out. This writing is
private and doesn't have to be handed in. The point of this writing is to help
you become more fluent writers, much as a musician might do warm-up exercises.
Informal Writing. Informal writing gives you a chance to just "go with the
flow," to explore your thoughts, unload your feelings, reflect on how things are
going, try to make sense of something--all without worrying about how well
you're writing. Informal writing is not graded against certain academic criteria
or for grammar, as the formal essays are; rather, what is important is how
engaged you are in the writing. For example, it’s better to write passionately
and thoughtfully about how much an essay bothered you than write in a bored,
perfunctory way about the ideas and form of an essay.
Loop writing. This is a type of writing invented by Peter Elbow that
helps you further develop your own thinking starting from various places in
something you've already written. You write stories, dialogues, prejudices, etc.
that take off from a word or phrase or paragraph in some informal writing or a
draft. Later you think about how you might use this loop writing to discover
another point of view, bring in relevant personal experience, make your argument
more complex.
Metatext. This is what you write after you've completed the draft of a
formal essay. It may include several things: (1) the story of how you wrote this
draft, (2) what you feel you have accomplished so far, (3) where you feel you
have a problem, (4) how you might solve the problem, (5) what else you want to
think about in the essay.
Reading responses. Writing in response to a reading gives you a chance
to say what you think about what someone else has written. It's not a summary of
the article or story, although you might begin with a summary to help you
capture the essence of a piece. Rather, it's a time to say where you agree or
disagree, what you liked or disliked about the style. It's also a time for you
to piece together what you think a difficult text is all about. You may also say
what the article or story reminds you of.
Primary source. This is a source from which you draw your own
conclusions about a question or topic, not a source in which the author is
drawing his/her own conclusions. For instance, if you read Shakespeare's
Hamlet and make a number of observations and come to your own conclusion
about whether Hamlet is truly mad, Hamlet is a primary source.
However, if you read an essay about Hamlet by a literary critic and use
it to help come up with an idea for your own essay, you would be using a
secondary source. (See secondary source.)
Secondary source. This is a source that focuses at least in part
on the very question or topic that you're focusing on. For example, the critic
Edward Hubler makes his own comments on Hamlet's madness, which you might
consider as you develop your own ideas. Hubler's essay is a secondary
source. The primary source is the text of Hamlet itself, though.
In science, the experiment would be the primary sources; articles by other
psychologists are secondary sources. In history, the diaries and wills of
people living during a certain time period are examples of primary sources;
articles by other historians are secondary sources. (See primary source.)
Second draft. The second draft involves re-seeing or re-thinking the
ideas in your first draft and/or reconsidering how you present your ideas to the
reader. Thus, it is not just a matter of "fixing" wording or punctuation or even
of adding and subtracting a few sentences.
Third and fourth drafts (usually optional). While this draft may go
through some of the same kinds of changes that your first draft went through to
become your second draft, here you will focus more on elegance of presentation,
including sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and word choice. If you know
you're only going to write two drafts, you will need to attend to this
sentence-level editing in the second draft.
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