Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Class Blogger for the Day: 9/19

Like any other Monday, Wednesday or Friday in ENC1101, Professor Lang started the class off by taking attendance. Since she was a little late (happens to all of us) so she didn't have time to ask us an interesting question and we were all so eager to begin proof reading each others drafts. What we focused on the majority of the class was proof reading our peers drafts but we worked with someone who hasn't already read our paper. Before we split away with our partners, Professor Lang went through a few powerpoint slides that discussed global issues and higher order concerns. We learned that when doing peer review, you want to look at the global issues or issues that affect the paper as a whole, look at the thesis or focus, audience which is the teacher and peers and making sure it is appropriate. You want to also take a look at the purpose, organization, development of paragraphs and the point of view of the paper. Instead of just looking at what we should do, we went over a few things of what NOT to do. What you are NOT doing is you are not editing, you are just revising. We learned that revision is NOT rewording and avoiding repetition or fixing an error that does not affect other parts of the paper. You are also not working with local issues/ lower concerns (grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.). You are looking critically at your own writing to determine: if it is really worth saying, if it says what you wanted to say, if a reader will understand what your are saying. We also went over what is peer review? She explained that it is objective feedback, having a fresh set of eyes is always a good thing and to be kind but honest while peer reviewing. After this we went over briefly the when and the why of peer review, to learn to look at your own writing in a different way.
Then we finally broke off with our partners and began reading through each others essays. We were told to underline  passages that we thought were strong, draw a squiggly line under passages you thought were weak or confusing and leave comments and recommended revisions along the way. After you finished proof reading, we were told to get out a separate sheet of paper and quickly answer the following questions. 

1. Consider what the assignment is asking you to do. Is this essay fulfilling those requirements? Why or why not?
2. What is working well in the essay? Explain why they are working well.
3. How is the organization of the essay working? What changes might you recommend?

After we read and answered those questions on a separate sheet of paper, we then discussed with our partner what our comments meant and how we felt about their paper. And finally as the class came to an unfortunate end, as always we blogged the last 5 minutes about what we thought went well, what did not go well and what will you change or won't change about your paper. Since we don't have class this Friday the 21, our homework for Monday the 24 is to read McGraw Hill Handbook, intros and conclusions and bring the handbook to class. Also because we didn't use the second copy of our draft in class make sure you bring it to class on Monday. 

I hope I was able to give a good brief description of class today!! Here is a fun link about why proof reading papers is important...ENJOY!

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