First, switch essays with someone who has never read your work before-- don't switch with someone in your writing group. As you start the activity, begin reading your classmate's work from the conclusion of their essay, and working backwards do the following for each paragraph of your essay:
• Identify
and paraphrase the topic of the paragraph into one sentence—what is your classmate trying to say in that paragraph?
• Identify
what the paragraph does—its purpose and connection to the essay. Why is it included in the essay?
• Put
the above items in a numbered list on a separate sheet of paper-- number the paragraphs backwards, so #1 should be the conclusion, #2 is the second to last paragraph, and so on and so forth.
Considering the overall organization of your essay, answer
the following questions:
• How
well does the essay flow from beginning to end?
• Where
does the organization not make sense or lose its flow? In any specific paragraphs? Can they be re-ordered to make more sense?
• What
can you do to fix any of these problems?
• Are
there transitions between paragraphs?
• Considering
the overall organization within paragraphs: Does each paragraph focus on one
main point? Are there paragraphs where the point is not clear, or where 2-3
unrelated points are raised? Do other sentences in the paragraph work to
support the main point? Are there transitions between ideas within the
paragraph?
After constructing the backwards outline for your classmate, switch papers, review what your classmate had to say about you work, and then have a discussion about your findings.
No comments:
Post a Comment