Class Homework for 4.21.11

Instead of a reading assignment this week, your homework for class will consist of bringing a hard copy of your draft to class with all of the following directions completed:

1. It's time to dust off those rhetorical analysis skills! But this time, you are going to be rhetorically analyzing your own argument instead of someone else's. To complete this part of the homework, identify the rhetorical devices you used in your argument. Underline or highlight places where you have used a pathos driven narrative, specific example, precedent, testimony, inductive or deductive reasoning, figurative language, etc. Be able to describe to someone what effect you think the strategies you have used will have on your audience (which means you must have a specific audience in mind). If you have a hard time finding any rhetorical strategies in your own essay, you have found a gap that needs to be revised. 
2. Identify and write out in a outline-style sentence list that briefly states the lines of reasoning you developed throughout your argument. If you cannot concisely identify the lines of reasoning, or if they do not build logically, you have identified a candidate for content revision. 
• Example: A. Establish that prairie dogs are in danger in X location. B. Establish the need to protect prairie dogs from harm for Y reason. C. Propose a solution, such as banning the housing development in X location and creating a prairie dog safe haven. 
3. Identify and underline or highlight your counter-arguments in a different color than you used on your rhetorical devices. On the back, answer the following questions: Have you presented a strong counter-argument? Do you have a source that supports that counter-argument, or is your information about the opposing view from one of your supporting sources? Do you provide a strong rebuttal?
4. Underline all of your source citations in a third color, then answer the following questions: Have you used one source or a few sources much more often than the others? Are these sources well integrated? Is their connection to your argument clear?
5. Finally, review your findings from this homework, as well as your grader commentary. Now make a list of your top three priorities for revision. Do you need to narrow your topic and strengthen your lines of reasoning? Do you need to find a few more strong sources so that you are not leaning on a few too much? Do you need to develop a counter-argument or incorporate common ground? Do you need to add rhetorical devices to strengthen the delivery of your argument? Decide what is lacking, and what will make your draft stronger and write your priority list on the back of your draft.

Brief Assignment Eight: Sentence Level Revision

In this assignment you will substantially revise a paragraph from your researched argument focusing on sentence level revision and using the chapter 42 of the e-handbook as a guide. Include in your assignment:

1. Your thesis statement, for context
2. Your original paragraph
3. The revised paragraph
4. A paragraph evaluating your revisions and their impact on the audience, purpose, and meaning of your draft as a whole

Below is a review of some sentence level constructions to look for as you revise your paragraphs. If you need any additional explanation, your e-handbook is a great resource for information and examples, especially chapters 30-46. 


Sentence style:

• Emphasis- are the ideas that you want to emphasize at the end of your sentences?
• Climactic order- are ideas arranged in increasing order of importance?
• Conciseness- are there redundant words that you can eliminate? Are there any empty words or meaningless modifiers (absolutely, awfully, definitely, great, literally, really, very, etc.)
• Replace wordy phrases- See page 685 of the e-handbook for a list of concise replacements for wordy phrases.
• Coordination- make the precise relationship between ideas clear with the appropriate coordinators, either coordinating conjunctions or semicolons. 
• Subordination- have you distinguished minor ideas from major ones with the appropriate subordinating conjunctions or dependent clauses?
• Sentence variety- are the length of your sentences varied? Are the openings of your sentences varied, or do you finding several sentences in a row the same way?
• Eliminate expletives- avoid starting sentences with there or it followed by a form of to be or other linking verb. 

Sentence Clarity and Grammar- Revise for:

• Sentence fragments
• Sentence sprawl
• Misplaced and dangling modifiers
• Faulty parallelism
• Unclear pronoun reference
• Pronoun agreement
• Incorrect pronoun case
• Omitted commas
• Superfluous commas
• Comma splices
• Apostrophe errors
• Words easily confused

Homework for 4.14.11

The focus for this week's class will be on sentence level revision. You have practiced critiquing drafts for large scale, conceptual and organizational issues. Now, building on our sentence style work from last week, we will continue to look for ways to incorporate improvements to your drafts at the sentence level.

• First Year Writing Chapter 8: pp. 286-305
• Bring a body paragraph from your draft to class for a sentence level revision exercise. The body paragraph must be printed out for peer review work.

Reading Homework for 4.7.11

• Chapters 42-45 from the E-handbook.
• Grammar Girl- Mixing verb tenses: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/mixing-verb-tenses.aspx

The quiz over this reading will ask you to revise a list of five sentences that I will provide based on the sentence style skills learned from the reading and the grammar girl podcast.

Additional Guidelines for BA7: Source Integration

Your assignment will need to include:

• Original source passages- one to two sentence passages where you have incorporated a direct citation into your argument.
• Evaluation of original passages- how well have you integrated the source into your passage? Do the sources currently help strengthen your argument? What role do they play? Do they help define a concept? Present a counterargument? Have you used too many sources? Do you rely on a few sources excessively? 
• Strategies for Revision- How might you integrate the source material in a way that will be more effective for your readers? What signal phrases can you use to better specify the information you are citing (remember there is a table with signal phrases in chapter 15 of your e-handbook)? Is the quoted portion longer than necessary?
• Revised source passages
• Evaluation of revisions- How do these changes enhance the quality of your source integration?

Make sure that each section is clearly labeled.

Simple surface level changes, such as changing around a few words or signal phrases, alone will not be sufficient in this assignment. You have the ability to try different strategies and receive feedback before your next draft is due. Chapter 15 from the e-handbook has important information about ways to integrate source material, and will help you think critically about and voice the choices you make in regards to your revisions. Make sure you not only direct your reader to the changes you have made, but specifically relate why those changes will make your argument more effective. This will require you to make connections to your argument as a whole.