UPCOMING DUE DATES
Monday 3/25: Secondary Research -- Three Annotated Articles with Reflection due (see assignment posted under Thursday 3/21)Wednesday 3/27: Outline (rough is fine and then add more detail in class) due
Monday 4/1: Rough Draft due
Thursday 4/4: Final Draft due
RECENT HANDOUTS AND PRESENTATIONS
- Research: Interview Subjects Brainstorming
- Research: Pre-Interview Survey
- Research: Interview Questions
- Research: Interview Tips
- Secondary Research Guide
- Research: Outline instructions
- Research: Model outline for paper based on Rocco's story corps cartoon as the primary source
- Research: Drafting tips for expressing and developing your points
- Malcolm Gladwell's "Slacker"
- Andrea Elliot's "An Imam in America"
- Brian Braniac's "When Tragedy Strikes" (about a mom and epilepsy)
- Sally Smartypants's "Ciao Rocco: Evicted Families and Gentrified Communities in New York's Little Italy"
Monday 3/25
- Finish research assignment -- you are behind and need to get caught up. Refer to last week's post for my verbal instructions to make sure you complete the research with your "eye on the prize"
- Begin the outline process
- Write your main idea at the top of the page so that you keep your "eye on the prize" -- that is the idea that your whole paper seeks to express -- continue to refine the idea, making it more complex and interesting.
- Start your outline by thinking of the three or four sections that relate to your person's experience and deal with a part or an aspect (usually a more specific view of the problem or ideal or life lesson) of your main idea
- Name each section! Don't just call it section 1, 2, or 3 -- you need to see the main point of the section so you can decide if each supporting point applies.
- Now start to list each of your supporting details in the section to which it applies. Label each point as either NARRATIVE, EXPOSITORY, or COMMENTARY so that you can make sure that you have a blend of each mode in all three sections. List each point in brief (a phrase or short sentence)
- Refer to the model outline and model draft for the paper written about Rocco's story corps cartoon as the primary source to see an example how keeping conscious of the three writing techniques will help you structure paper to discuss the person's experiences (narrative) as well as the context for their experiences (expository).
- Your goal here is to work through the LOGIC and the RELEVANCE. In short, you are playing two games -- looking for what details don't fit (like the Sesame Street game) and looking for the best order to sequence your points. In some sections you might start with expository research to provide background before you discuss your interview subject. In other sections, you might want to start with narrative and then give the background. It is up to you. But you need to think about what order and logic will best express what you want your reader to see about your interview subject.
- Move things around and really think about your flow -- then you will conquer all of those decisions before we start drafting.
Tuesday 3/26
- Continue to work on outline
- or if horror of horrors, you are still working on research, get it done!
Wednesday 3/27
- Finish outline
- or if horror of horrors, you are still working on research, get it done!
Thursday 3/28
- Finish outline or, if horror of horrors, you are still working on research, get it done!
- Start writing your rough draft
- Look at your outline and start to bracket your points as paragraphs (you can just draw a bracket or quick box around the points that go together in one paragraph). Think about which supporting details naturally go together and group those as a paragraph. When you switch to a new idea, switch to a new paragraph. It is a much more organic and flowing paragraph structure than formal papers you have written the past -- you should feel the moment that you transition to a new idea and then you will know to start a new paragraph.
- Be inventive and creative -- think about how you can bring the narrative experiences to life.
- You cannot write all your narrative points as stories (too long, too much) but choose one or two important ones that would really help you reader envision your interview subject, his/her life, and the times in which he/she lives; imagine the experience as a movie -- really see the experience and then retell the story as if it was happening. Here's an example (kinda gross but it gets at the point --
- AVOID -- When Bob got shot, he realized his life would never be the same.
- TRY -- Bob felt the bullet before it even reached his thigh; life seemed to move in slow motion. He reached down, his hand covered in blood. In the time it took for his body to sink to the marshy ground, he knew his life would never be the same.
- Keep clear what information comes from sources you so do not commit inadvertent/accidental plagiarism, but don't stress too much about formatting or lead-ins -- that should be something you work on during revision
- Be loose and free with this first draft -- get it done and get it done quick. Mediocre writing happens in the first draft; good writing happens on revision. So you just need to get this first draft done so it gives you time to revise.
- Here is the most important thing -- make sure that all the sections of your paper work together to make clear your main idea. What you do not want to end up with is several sections of your paper that do not go together, that seem like each one is its own paper -- everything should work together to express a key idea of who your person is, what his/her values and priorities and morals are, and what his or her life teaches us about America in this time period.
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