* For the ENG 111 final exam, students will engage in the writing process by revisiting and revising Project/Paper 1. Note that meaningful, grade-changing revision is a rigorous, time-consuming process that many students are highly motivated to start but less likely to complete. This revision opportunity is NOT just an exercise in sentence-level changes and/or editing. Rather, it is an opportunity to carefully re-envision and thoughtfully recast the original essay by way of meaningful, large-scale revision techniques.
Final Exam Components
1) Revision Action Plan: In preparation for their revisions, students will read the provided selection from A Sequence for Academic Writing, create a Reverse Outline of Essay One, then use that to create an Action plan that lays out the steps they intend to take in revising their papers.
2) Revision of Project One: Students revise their essay based on their revision plan.
3) Reflection of the Revision Process: Students will write a four paragraph reflection in which they will explain the revisions they made to their Definition Essays, as well as discuss the strengths and weaknesses they demonstrated as writers during this past semester.
Once you have completed all three of these components to your final exam, you will place them all in a single word document and upload them to Blackboard.
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* Component One: Your Revision Action Plan
Component One: Your Revision Action Plan
Instructions:
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* Step One: Students will read critically Chapter 3: “Writing As A Process” from A Sequence for Academic Writing (Provided by Professor Bowden)
Publisher info for the reading follows:
Title: A Sequence for Academic Writing
Edition: 2nd ed.
Authors: Laurence Behrens, Leonard J. Rosen, and Bonnie Beedles
Publisher: Pearson
Publication Date: 2005
ISBN: 9780321207807
Step Two: Students will create a Reverse Outline of your Project One Definition and Exemplification Essay
1. In a Word doc, restate your thesis, making certain that the thesis you began with is the thesis that in fact governs the logic of the paper. (Look for a competing thesis in your conclusion. In summing up, you may have clarified for yourself what your actual governing idea is as opposed to the idea you thought would organize the paper.)
2. Summarize each paragraph in a single phrase. If you have trouble writing a summary, place an asterisk by the paragraph as a reminder to clarify it later.
3. Beneath your thesis, write your paragraph-summary phrases, one to a line, in outline format.
4. Review the outline you have just created. Is the paper divided into readily identifiable major points in support of the thesis? Have you supported each major point sufficiently? Do the sections of the outline lead logically from one to the next? Do all sections develop the thesis?
5. Watch especially for uneven development. Add or delete material as needed to ensure a balanced presentation.
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Step Three: Students will use their Reverse Outline to create an Action Plan that addresses each of the following questions:
Question One: How and where to you intend to incorporate the denotative definition of your chosen term, and how will you compare it to your definition of Success, Freedom, or Prejudice?
Question Two: What Global Revisions do you intend to make to your thesis, and how will that affect the overall paragraph structure?
Question Three: What Local Revisions do you intend to make to that paragraph structure?
Question Four: Please identify at least two problems your paper has that require Surface Level Revisions (examples: MLA formatting errors, subject-verb agreement errors, comma splices, etc.)
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* Component Two: Your Revision
Component Two: Your Revision
Instructions:
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* Step One-Global Revisions: Students will revise their essays by focusing on improvements to their thesis, the pattern that it creates for the body of their paper, and they will alter the purpose of their essay by finding a source that defines their chosen term (success, freedom, or prejudice, as outlined in Project One).
The students will then incorporate at least one new paragraph of content that compares their connotative definition argument (your thesis defining either success, freedom, or prejudice) to the denotative (the “dictionary definition”) meaning of the word, which you can find here: https://www.merriam-webster.com. You will look up the term you have chosen to define, and explain how your definition is unique and argumentative in light of the general ideas associated with the word.
*Helpful hint: Look back over the essay we covered in class called “Why Courage Matters” (Week Three; also included in the folder with this assignment) for an example of this in practice. You may remember McCain defines Courage as “a kind of madness” and compares that to the denotative definition of the word (“We are taught to believe that courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity for action in spite of fear”). You are to do the same for your definition of Success, Freedom, or Prejudice.
Step Two-Local Revisions: Students will revise their papers by editing body paragraphs, paying special attention to topic sentences that refer back to the thesis, and examples that follow those topic sentences
Step Three-Surface Revisions: Students will revise their papers by editing for errors of grammar, mechanics, spelling, and formatting.
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* Component Three: Your Reflection of the Revision Process
Component Three: Your Reflection of the Revision Process
Instructions:
* Step One-Paragraphs One and Two: Now that you have read A Sequence for Academic Writing and used it to complete your revision, write two paragraphs that address the Global, Local and Surface revisions you have made to Project One. Pay special attention to not only those phrases, but also make reference to Unity, Coherence, and Development, as explained in A Sequence for Academic Writing.
Step Two-Paragraphs Three and Four: Now that you have addressed your Revision directly, the final two paragraphs of your reflection should look back over your entire writing experience over our semester. In these two paragraphs, consider addressing any or all of the following questions:
1. How do you think you improved as a writer this?
2. What are some areas you need to continue working on, and why?
3. What have you learned about grammar and standard written English? How have you improved?
4. How did you collaborate actively in our class, and how did it help you this semester?
5. What did you learn about writing this semester that you found helpful or new?
6. What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of your writing process? In this area, you can discuss impacts of time management, environments, constraints, etc., and you can also discuss the various stages of the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing).
7. In what ways can you work to overcome these weaknesses in your writing process? For example, will you adjust your schedule to give yourself more time to work on the draft? Will you plan to use the REAL Center or the Writing Center? Will you focus more on prewriting than you did for previous essays?
* Reflection Guidelines:
1. Your Reflection should be four paragraphs, and no less than 500 words
2. MLA formatted
3. Times New Roman, 12 Pt. Font
4. Your Reflection should use terms from the assigned reading A Sequence for Academic Writing, and refer back to it when necessary
5. Your Reflection should end with a Works Cited page that contains citations for A Sequence for Academic Writing and https://www.merriam-webster.com
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