• Workshops that Work 2: Drafts & Revision –  this document describes a number of workshops that can be used for writing workshops of any length once students are working on a paper. Writing Fellows may also use these working with small groups of students outside of class.
• Below are specific workshops designed by Drew Writing Fellows and faculty
  • Working with First Drafts – workshop
  • Thesis and Organization workshop – workshop
  • Color Coding the Parts of a Draft to aid Revision  –- workshop
  • Using Skeleton Outlines in the Revision Process – workshop

• Additional resources to assign or use in workshop (see peer review questions)
  • Rhetorical Reading Information Literacy – handout
  • Paper Organization Flow Chart [Template] – a handout 

Why this workshop?

Students often struggle to read actively and therefore fail to get the most out of their readings. This workshop asks them to focus on a small sample of text, read and highlight it and then discuss what they took from it. In addition to students learning strategies for highlighting and note-taking, instructors may find this workshop a useful way to gauge the reading skills of their students.

Outcomes

Students will have a better sense of how to get more information out of their readings and remember more of that information so they can contribute to class discussions and write more effective  papers.

The Workshop

1. Begin the session with a brief discussion of reading strategies and the importance of active reading. You may want to discuss how you read and even demonstrate an annotated text.
2. Review the strategies for highlighting at the beginning of the workshop handout,
3. then ask students to practice reading and highlighting the paragraph provided.
4. Once they have highlighted the text, students should be put into groups (ideally 3-5 students per group) and asked to compare their highlighting and perhaps use it to write a one or two sentence summary of the main point of the paragraph.

Variations

You may want to highlight the text yourself and invite students to compare their highlighting with yours.

You may want to replace the sample with a sample from your class, this can be particularly helpful for a difficult text, the first reading of the semester, or an anchor text that needs to be understood if students are to learn essential concepts in the course.

Instructions

Copy the material below and print as a handout or share it with students

How to Highlight

1. Determine what information you need to know – what is the goal of reading this reading? What purpose will it serve in class discussions, future papers? Use those question to guide your highlighting process.
2. Try not to highlight more than one or two lines per paragraph – use highlighting as a tool to focus in on the most important parts of a paragraph, as well as a tool for your own future reference: what will future you want to remember about this specific paragraph?
3. Don’t over-highlight! It will muddle your brain. By making deliberate choices about what you find most important for future reference.

Practice here: You would use this paragraph in the context of a paper that is supposed to discuss how black motherhood is devalued in the United States and its impact on children:

Race and class discrimination in these cases will continue to be ignored unless special efforts are made to expose this problem.209 By focusing on historical race and class discrimination and the present hardships and barriers that poor, minority women are challenged by, the racial and class bias that underlies the criminal prosecution of pregnant users can be uncovered, discussed, and hopefully remedied.210 Framing the constitutional issue at stake as a violation of reproductive liberty also aids in confronting the devaluation of black motherhood.211 The need for action in this situation is especially urgent following the United States Supreme Court’s decision to deny certiorari on Cornelia Whitner’s appeal. This denial essentially upholds South Carolina’s criminal prosecution of pregnant drug users and allows other states to follow suit with the same devastating impact.212 Allowing these prosecutions to continue will only further degrade Black motherhood and result in throwing more children into an already overburdened child welfare system. Is this in the best interest of the child?

Why this workshop?

Students often struggle to read slowly or carefully enough to make the connections we hope they will make between texts. This workshops is designed to help them read more deeply and begin to make the connections necessary for effective reading, writing, and class discussion in the DSEM — and in other classes.

Outcomes

Students will have a better sense of how to get more information out of their readings, make connections between readings, and remember more of that information so they can contribute to class discussions and write more effective  papers. The instructor will also get a better sense of how well students read and where more time needs to be spent to help them trace connections.

This assignment can lead directly into a draft of paper #1 or paper #2. If students enjoy it, a larger 4-person panel presentation in “character” can help them prepare for revision of paper #3.

The Workshop

1. As homework, ask students to write one paragraph in which they place the reading for today in conversation with a prior reading in the class — you can specify the reading or offer 2 or 3 alternatives. [See assignment below].
2. Begin the session with a brief discussion of the ways ideas circulate in conversation with others, and the importance of seeing assigned readings as part of the overall conversation of the class rather than isolated nuggets of fact or opinion. Then explain the workshop. [10 minutes]
3. In groups of four [see logistics below], ask students to write a brief dialogue between two of the authors you have read this semester with two students working on each author (character). They should imagine the characters in a cafe (or bar) arguing about the topic at hand and focus on the main argument each would make and how the other would respond. Each author/character should speak in the voice of the text you read and express the opinions expressed in the text; however, the students can decide what aspect of the topic they discuss. [35-40 minutes]
4. When they finish drafting, one student from each pair should be elected “actor” and the two should rehearse the conversation/argument with the other team members providing stage directions and making revisions to the text as appropriate. Encourage them to be as dramatic as they like as long as they remain in the voice of the author. [10 minutes]
5. Allow time at the end [about 15-20 minutes] for each group to act out their dialogue in front of the class. If there is time, invite classmates to identify who is speaking in each case and to assess the accuracy of the argument.
6. Take five minutes at the end of class for students to write a brief reflection on what they learned about reading and making connections and what strategies they might use in the future. You can collect this and the dialogue, for not.

Variations

Select one image, example, case study, or quotation from the reading and ask students to explain how the author uses it to support the larger argument of the piece. The class conversation could then be the “author” explaining it to a curious student (using his or her own words and creative questions from the “student”).

Alternatively, select an image, example, case study, or quotation and ask students to consider how two of the authors they have studied would interpret it (this can also work if two authors use the same image, example, etc). The conversation then takes the form of the authors (“characters”) discussing the image/example/etc and offering interpretations.

This assignment can lead directly into a draft of paper #1 or paper #2. If students enjoy it, a larger 4-person panel presentation in “character” can help them prepare for revision of paper #3.

Logistics

1. Homework assignment: Write a paragraph in preparation for class in which you place the reading for today in conversation with a prior reading in the class [specify one or several possibilities]. That means, first that you should identify the argument being made in the assigned reading, and then think about another reading making a related argument on this topic. Your task is to consider the interaction between this argument and the other one you have identified.  Do they agree or disagree?  Are they making similar arguments but in different ways? How do they support the argument?
2. In workshop get into groups of four
3. In each group, 2 students will take on the role of the author of the homework reading, and 2 others will take on the role of the additional text.

Also use chapter 2 of They Say/I Say

See also “Working with First Drafts“

1. Sequence: Points in your summary should be in order of their important than the order in which they appear in the article.  Verbs like “starts,” “concludes,” “continues” are signals that you’re following the order of the article.
2. Avoid Description. Don’t say what the article is “about,” describing it’s content.  Instead, summarize the article’s argument is.  “In this essay, Judith Lorber argues that . . . .”
3. Pay attention to paragraph structure.  how are ideas connected? How do we get from one idea to the next?
4. Author.  Attach ideas to their source and author.  The author’s name and the title of the text should appear in the summary. e sure we can tell throughout the paragraph that you are still talking about the author’s argument.  In your paper, you’ll want to signal when you switch back to your own ideas.
5. Word Choice.  Use the language of the article or essay, especially for key words and terms.  “claiming an education” “social construction” “oppression.”  Be careful that in substituting a word of your own, you aren’t distorting the meaning of a term.
6.  Specificity.  Give enough detail about the argument that we can tell them apart and can tell what are the salient components of each argument?
7.  Your Opinion.  Your opinion should not be in the summary but it absolutely belongs in this paper. It may begin or end the paragraph which has your summary in it, because you will tell your reader how the text your summarizing contributed to your overall thinking about gender.

Editorial

Title of article or any short work is in quotation marks: “There is no Hierarchy of Oppression”

Title of Full Length Work is italicized or underlined; e.g: The Color Purple

In general, we write about what’s happening in any text in the present tense (e.g: “argues”) except perhaps when something is in the past in a novel.

Purpose

The goal of this workshop is to give students several different kinds of feedback from different readers to use as they work on a revision of the  over the weekend.

Instructions

For each of these three exercises you will trade papers with a different person.  After you complete each review, take time to discuss what you found with your reader.  All comments should be written on the draft, so you have three people’s comments collected on one draft.

1.  Opening Paragraph & Paper Structure.  Trade essays with your partner.  Read the first paragraph of the essay ONLY.  List the three or four points you expect the essay to develop based on the first paragraph.  If you can, number these points in the order in which the paragraph suggests they will appear in the paper. i.e.  How does the first paragraph predict the paper’s structure?
2.   Summary – Before trading papers each person should mark the places in the paper where they feel they used summary.   Trade papers and read each other’s summaries using the criteria on the back of this sheet and the guidance in Chapter 2 of They Say/I Say.  Make specific suggestions by referencing the list on the back; write the numbers of the issues you think the writer needs to work on next to the relevant paragraph.
3.   Reader Response — Reader reads the paper and puts an X in the margin every place they find it rough, hard to understand, lacking a connection – every place your reading process is interrupted or you have to pause.  When you finish, discuss with each other one or two of the major spots you found and explain to each other what the issue is with the sentence or paragraph.

HOW TO USE THIS FEEDBACK IN REVISION.

1. If your reader has been unable to deduce from your first paragraph what your paper will cover and how it will be structured, you need to revise the first paragraph to do a better job of introducing and setting up your discussion.
2. Use your reader’s feedback to make revisions to your summary following the guidance on the back as indicated by your reader.
3. Look at each spot your reader has marked. What do you think caused your reader to pause?  Is the sentence unclear?  Is a transition missing?  Is there a word misused or a grammatical problem with the sentence?

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING SUMMARIES (ALSO USE CHAPTER 2 OF THEY SAY/I SAY)

1. Sequence: Points in your summary should be in order of their important than the order in which they appear in the article.  Verbs like “starts,” “concludes,” “continues” are signals that you’re following the order of the article.
2. Avoid Description. Don’t say what the article is “about,” describing it’s content.  Instead, summarize the article’s argument is.  “In this essay, Judith Lorber argues that . . . .”
3. Pay attention to paragraph structure.  how are ideas connected? How do we get from one idea to the next?
4. Author.  Attach ideas to their source and author.  The author’s name and the title of the text should appear in the summary. e sure we can tell throughout the paragraph that you are still talking about the author’s argument.  In your paper, you’ll want to signal when you switch back to your own ideas.
5. Word Choice.  Use the language of the article or essay, especially for key words and terms.  “claiming an education” “social construction” “oppression.”  Be careful that in substituting a word of your own, you aren’t distorting the meaning of a term.
6.  Specificity.  Give enough detail about the argument that we can tell them apart and can tell what are the salient components of each argument?
7.  Your Opinion.  Your opinion should not be in the summary but it absolutely belongs in this paper. It may begin or end the paragraph which has your summary in it, because you will tell your reader how the text your summarizing contributed to your overall thinking about gender.

Editorial

Title of article or any short work is in quotation marks: “There is no Hierarchy of Oppression”

Title of Full Length Work is italicized or underlined; e.g: The Color Purple

In general, we write about what’s happening in any text in the present tense (e.g: “argues”) except perhaps when something is in the past in a novel.

A skeleton outline is a helpful tool to use when evaluating the structure of your paper. Using a draft you have already written, insert information into the paragraph sections below. You may add / subtract paragraph sections as necessary.

Introduction

• Thesis statement:

Paragraph one:

• Topic sentence:
• Main point of paragraph:
• Evidence Used:

Paragraph two:

• Topic sentence:
• Main point of paragraph:
• Evidence Used:

Paragraph three:

• Topic sentence:
• Main point of paragraph:
• Evidence Used:

Paragraph four:

• Topic sentence:
• Main point of paragraph:
• Evidence Used:

Conclusion:

• Topic sentence:

Now that you have filled out the paragraph sections, reflect on the following:

1. What is the function of each paragraph? What is each paragraph doing in your essay?
2. Does each paragraph introduce one new point? If not, can you separate your paragraph into two or more paragraphs in order to highlight a single unit of thought in each?
3. Do you have a topic sentence adequately introducing the point you are about to make in each paragraph?
4. Do you have evidence to back up each point you make?
5. Is the order of your paragraphs logical? Could you rearrange them to make your argument stronger?
6. What will you do to improve your paper for the final submission? If this is a second draft, what did you do to improve this from your first draft?