Tag: mapping

Writing Groups

Ethnicity/Gender

• Amanda C
• Ashley
• Kate
• Kyle
• Michael

Violence, Extremism

• Anthony
• Bridget
• Jennifer
• John
• Tia

Generation, Occupation

• Amanda Gen
• Brook
• Sara
• Winston
• Sam

Mapping Your Work-in-Progress

• Read through your draft. Use the Insert Comments function to write a summary of the function of each of your paragraphs. You’ll want, thatis, to briefly state what you do in each paragraph. Most of your sentences should thus begin something like: “I argue that . . .” Or “I analyze the scene in which . . . ” Or “I develop this idea by . . .”
• Once you have this running series of summaries, see if you can arrange them in a paragraph that maps or outlines the progress of your essay as a whole.
• Think about what you might need to add to or change in this paragraph (and thus your essay). Revise your paragraph to reflect those changes. (You might also want to create a To Do list of work you need to do on your piece over the weekend—or beyond.)
• Consider whether you might want to insert a version of this paragraph somewhere near the start of your piece. (It’s often the second paragraph.)

Identifying Keywords

Read through your draft once again. This time, use different colors to highlight the following kinds of terms (or phrases).

1. Titles and names of the texts and people you are discussing. This should list in short form what your piece is about.
2. Keywords and phrases that the writers or people you are discussing use to describe or interpret their experiences. This list should begin to suggest the issues or questions your writing is addressing.
3. Keywords or phrases that you introduce to explain what you see as going on. (If you don’t have many of these, then you need to generate some.) This list should begin to identify your perspective as an author.

As you work on your project, you will want to think of ways to highlight the words in categories 2 and 3 (particularly 3).

Of Interest

Loretta Ross, “Call-Out Culture Is Toxic“, New York Times, 8/17/2019.

To Do

1. Mon, 10/28, class: Bring five print copies of the first draft of your project. (Shoot for at least 1,500 words). You can single-space these copies, but leave extra space between the ¶s.
2. Wed, 10/30, and Fri, 11/01, class: We will workshop your drafts.