| Instructor: Dr. Jeff Webb |
Conferences
Read (or review) the following texts:
Booth, Wayne. The Craft of Research. "Revising Your Organization
and Argument" and "Revising Style." 201-233.
Preparation:
Hand in your draft on the day specified in the schedule.
Given that each conference is only 15 minutes long, you will need to be focused
to make the most of this time. You should come prepared to discuss your argument,
plans for revision, specific problems you may be having, as well as possible
solutions. Our conversation will be based on your plans for revision. The point
of this module, after all, is for you to learn to write well on your own. I
prefer to work as a guide or coach--someone who knows and understands the conventions
you're trying to learn and who would like to help you develop your own ideas.
Remember that a missed conference is tantamount to an absence.
Remember also that the conference is in lieu of
class.
How do you revise your first draft into a final draft?
In addition to responding to the specific feedback you have recieved in either
the peer review or the conference, keep these general principles in mind:
Revision entails
rethinking your thesis. Because clarity of vision is the result of
experience, it is unreasonable to expect to come up with the best thesis
possible--one that clearly accounts for the complexities of the issue at
hand--before beginning a draft, or even during a first draft. The best theses
evolve; they are the products of the kind of precise thinking that is only
possible to achieve by writing. Successful revision involves bringing your
thesis into focus--or, changing it altogether.
Revision entails
making structural changes. Drafting is usually a process of discovering an
idea or argument. Your argument will not become clearer if you only tinker with
individual sentences. Successful revision involves bringing the strongest ideas
to the front of the essay, reordering the main points, cutting irrelevant
sections, adding implications. It also involves making the argument's structure
visible by strengthening topic sentences and transitions.
Revision takes
time. Avoid shortcuts: the reward for sustained effort is a clearer, more
persuasive, more sophisticated essay than a first draft can be. (From Revising the Draft by Laura Saltz.)
Many of you are probably worried that responding to all
of the points we discuss during the the conference will require making your
papers longer. Not true. As you gain a better understanding of your argument you
will find that some material from the first draft is inessential and can be cut
out.
To encourage you in your pursuit of focused
argumentation, I will require that you adhere to the assigned page length limit
in the final draft. I will not accept papers over the
assigned page limit.
| 
