Draft Workshop: Paper #2

Today you will complete THREE assignments, each of which count for 10% of your paper #1 grade. Please make sure you complete ALL THREE assignments.

#1: Submit a draft of Paper #2

I asked that each of you have at least three solid pages of your first paper. Please put your draft in a Google Doc and share that document with dlupton79@gmail.com. You should also share the document with the two group members who will read your draft. Once you have done so, turn in a link to the document here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1u9Se64yHsi4ryRZ6xpEaJ2ZBDDQMekac24ThUGKtDwo/viewform?usp=send_form

#2: Draft Workshop #1

You will complete TWO draft workshops today. For each workshop, read your partner’s draft carefully, then copy and paste these questions into the Google Doc for the draft, answering each question in detail with at least a few sentences each. If you find it more helpful to answer any of the questions with inline comments, please note this below the question:

1. Begin by identifying the paper’s thesis statement. Does it make a specific and surprising claim about the interpretation of the text? Does it identify specific formal features of the text that support that claim? Suggest any ways in which the thesis statement might be improved.

2. Based on your understanding of the play, is the draft’s argument surprising or interesting? Why or why not?

3. Do you notice anything about the play that you would have expected the author to write about, yet it wasn’t covered in the draft? This might be a prominent formal feature (diction, syntax, etc.), a powerful image or metaphor, or something else entirely.

4. Are there any parts of the play that do not seem consistent with the author’s argument? Can these parts be reconciled with the author’s thesis? If so, how?

5. Compose a brief retrospective outline of the draft in which you identify each paragraph’s main idea in 3-5 words. Note any paragraphs that do not have clear (or clearly expressed) topic sentences, any paragraphs whose main idea does not relate clearly back to the thesis statement, and any paragraph that seems to have insufficient support for its main idea.

6. Identify any parts of the draft that, as a reader, you have difficulty understanding or following. Try your best to determine the cause of this difficulty; is the passage obscurely or confusingly worded? Is it insufficiently connected to the paragraph’s or the paper’s main idea? Provide your partner with any feedback that you think could help sustain the reader’s attention.

When you have completed the workshop, please turn in your work here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ZdqLN22yaILeAl1dXMOQtfm5MCvuBN6qXseb17BdYZc/viewform?usp=send_form

#3: Draft Workshop #2

Next, you will workshop a second group member’s paper, using the same procedures you used for Draft Workshop #1. When you have completed Workshop #2, turn it in here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/14cOjYFfPcINnyZ1wquqqzGDnz3m9iYxbhrTL3eUDsn4/viewform?usp=send_form

If you do not complete both draft workshops during the allotted class time, they are due by NOON on Wednesday, April 23. Late workshops will be severely penalized and may not receive any credit at all. Remember, your peers are relying on you for your feedback, so be thorough and prompt!