12.2 Workshop

Tonight's class focused on revising.  I described revising as part of an overall writing process which begins with gathering ideas through talking or writing, then moves to finding a focus and drafting a body of writing which develops that focus.  It is usually best not to begin revising for correctness and style until you have developed a significant amount of writing.  This is because the drafting process is about keeping your mind open and letting the ideas flow, while the revising process is about choosing among ideas, and being particular about language choices and forms.

Once you are ready to revise, I suggested starting with considerations associated with focus, organization and development.

Ask: if your points or in the right order, if your research has enough detail and background to follow your ideas, and if each point/paragraph of your essay develops/connects to your focus.

Once you have revised for focus, organization and development, and are satisfied that you the right material to work with, you can begin "proofreading" for correctness and then finally for style.

When proofreading for correctness, I suggested that you work on one writing issue at a time, and that you notice YOUR particular patterns associated with that issue.  For example, if you are working on pronoun use, pay attention to the places where you use them correctly & incorrectly.  Review what your grammar book says about your pattern, or look up your issue on the Purdue OWL or in a writing handbook. Make a note of your frequent mistakes!

After you have worked on your most frequent patterns for error (I have made a list of 3 in most of my comments to you), read through to see if you can find other kinds of errors.  Once you identify an error - look for other errors of the same kind.

Assignment:
Post examples of your error patterns on the sentence pattern page.

1.Name the pattern (pronoun use)
2. Paste in  examples of your mistakes followed by their corrections.
I hung the pan on his rack over the sink.
I hung the pan on its rack over the sink.
The city council released his decisions in the news paper
The city council released its decisions in the news paper.

Patterns we have identified in your essays include:
verb forms (use of tense,  infinitives, -ing forms and so on)
run-on sentences/ comma splices
pronoun use
use of articles

You should post at least 5 different kinds of patterns to on your page.

For Dec 9 & 16: In class next week, you will continue to work on finishing your memoir and posting to your sentence pattern page.  We may spend some time in class sharing sentence patterns to work on - if the technology allows us to.  We will also talk about setting up for our final class where you will share your memoirs with one another.