MLA Refreshers . . . and Revision Tips for Project #1

Here are links to our slideshows from today:

• the one on revision, with examples from your drafts,
• the one with the wrong/right versions of WC entries, and
• the one with examples of in-text citations.

Starting Points for Project #2

Once you've picked your prompt, get started by recording some of your thinking:

• First, try fastwriting out any experiences you've had that could work as relevant examples to share. After all, while traditional scholarship and other readings work as research, there are other forms worth drawing upon: memory, observation, interview. Seeing what you remember is a good first step toward collecting material.
• Once you find those traditional sources and have spent some time with them, do more fastwriting: what are some relevant FACTS you've discovered?
• For another fastwrite, record relevant IDEAS and THINKING your experts share in the research you are reading. 

Finally, after you've recorded that material, do another fastwrite to collect what YOU think in response to your chosen prompt . . . All of this writing should prove useful as we move on. A good next step would be to look at the prompt, and formulate a working idea in response. You could plan a sketchy, rough outline—one that simply presents some smaller points you have to make in order to explain that larger idea. That would give you something to work and write from!