Labor Required: 4.5 hours
Over the course of the next week, spend 4.5 hours working on your paper. Rather than asking each of you to produce a rough draft, I want to give you the opportunity to carefully consider what work you need to do at this point in your writing process. Many of you prematurely jumped to writing in your last paper when you should have spent more time close reading. As a result, your close readings lacked depth. This week, spend time doing what you need to do to set you up for writing. Possible activities can include:
You should not do the following:
You should start writing a draft when you've done at least 2.5 hours of additional work.
MAKE SURE YOU DOCUMENT EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR LABOR.
In the last twenty to thirty minutes, organize your labor log, write a brief reflection on what specific tasks you've spent your time on (as specifically as possible) and why. Be specific. (For example, "From 3 to 4pm, I looked at x passage. Half of that time I was reading and annotating. The other half of the time, I wrote some of my thoughts on close reading analysis, etc.).
Conclude your reflection by writing on how you will approach your final draft labor: What do you still need to do? What weaknesses are you noticing? How will you address them in your final draft? What other passages should you consider?
On Monday April 9, 2018 hand in the following:
Over the course of the next week, spend 4.5 hours working on your paper. Rather than asking each of you to produce a rough draft, I want to give you the opportunity to carefully consider what work you need to do at this point in your writing process. Many of you prematurely jumped to writing in your last paper when you should have spent more time close reading. As a result, your close readings lacked depth. This week, spend time doing what you need to do to set you up for writing. Possible activities can include:
- Finding other passages, or images or specific places you want to write about and spending half an hour close reading them WHILE IN UNCERTAINTY.
- Writing bits and pieces of a draft.
- Free writing on a conclusion or on anything related to your paper.
- If you feel like you really need an outline, then you may also spend time doing that. However, do not treat the outline like an all-mighty authority. Treat it as flexibly as you would a free write, otherwise you will find yourself trapped in it when you're writing your draft.
You should not do the following:
- Write a full draft without any further preparatory work. None of you are ready for this, and it will most definitely lead to weak analyses in your paper.
- Spend all your time just reading and organizing and doing no substantial writing towards a draft. Balance is key!
You should start writing a draft when you've done at least 2.5 hours of additional work.
MAKE SURE YOU DOCUMENT EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR LABOR.
In the last twenty to thirty minutes, organize your labor log, write a brief reflection on what specific tasks you've spent your time on (as specifically as possible) and why. Be specific. (For example, "From 3 to 4pm, I looked at x passage. Half of that time I was reading and annotating. The other half of the time, I wrote some of my thoughts on close reading analysis, etc.).
Conclude your reflection by writing on how you will approach your final draft labor: What do you still need to do? What weaknesses are you noticing? How will you address them in your final draft? What other passages should you consider?
On Monday April 9, 2018 hand in the following:
- Whatever work you’ve produced for your paper (close reading of passages, free writes on sources, a rough draft).
- The brief report on how you’ve chosen to spend your time.
- On Wednesday April 11, 2018, you will have a day to work on your paper in class. You may use this time to write or read. You may also use this time to get peer feedback. If peer feedback is something you are interested in, then please email me ASAP and let me know that you'd like to do that. You should then also prepare a paragraph asking your peer what you'd like feedback on, and give it to them on Monday April 9.