Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 22:01:33 EDT From: stretchtchtch tink! Organization: Qwerty Untied! Subject: EXERCISE: Teaching Writing (Part 1) Due to the fact that it was on sale, I'm going to spend a little time wandering through the pages of The St. Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing, Second Edition, by Robert Connors and Cheryl Glenn, ISBN 0-312-06787-9. Please give them the credit for the good ideas here, and I'll take the heat for the goofy stuff. Skipping rapidly past the parts on getting ready for the first class, living through the first few days of teaching, and through most of the section on everyday activities (all good, but we must make haste)... on page 59 (in Assigning Tasks to Groups), we find: "The following list of questions compiled by Mary Beaven provides a general structure for student critiques: 1. Identify the best section of the composition and describe what makes it effective. 2. Identify a sentence, a group of sentences, or a paragraph that needs revision, and revise it as a group, writing the final version on the back of the paper. 3. Identify one or two things the writer can do to improve his or her next piece of writing. Write these goals on the first page at the top. 4. (After the first evaluation, the following question should come first.) What were the goals the writer was working on? Were they reached? If not, identify those passages that need improvement and as a group revise those sections, writing final versions on the back of the paper. If revisions are necessary, set up the same goals for the next paper and delete question." So, in our terms, this week's exercise is a critique! Take one piece by someone (even your own work) and: 1. Identify the best part of the piece and describe what makes it work. 2. Identify one part of the piece that could be revised, and write out a possible revision to show what you think would be better. 3. Identify one or two things the writer can try that you think might improve their next piece. 4. Identify what you think the writer was trying to do with this piece (what were the author's goals?) Do you think they succeeded? If not, identify what needs to change to reach those goals and write out at least one alternative that shows how you think the piece could be improved. [psst? Don't give up, after a couple more bits on critiquing, we'll get to Emig's cognitive research, Moffett's continua of subject and audience, social constructionism, and a whole sheaf of other pinpricks, including something about Kenneth Burke and the Pentad, tagmemic invention, and other incoherences. So stick around and watch this space for other grindings from the mill of the writers.] Single Sentence Start? "Why didn't you buy it?" he said, and pulled the line. What line? What happens when someone pulls the line? And who is he talking to, what didn't they buy, let the little gray cells agitate and spin dry, hear them fry in the crackling grease of your terrible hot pan? Write! tink