A Quick Comment about the Reading Process Piece

Group, as I comment on rough drafts, I just want to steer you in the right direction here. This particular essay is ultimately about your reading process. It's not about the poem as much as it's about how you made meaning out of it. How did that happen, actually?

Given that purpose, don't organize the body by the order of the poem. The goal is not to merely walk us through the text and share some thoughts on your final understanding of the lines. It's more about you walking us through how you made sense of it. Do you see the difference there? We won't get that exploration of your process if you're just taking us through the poem line by line. So start with what happened when you looked at the piece for the first time. Did you even read through it? Or did you immediately get stuck? When did you first get confused? Did you ever feel like giving up on it? Did you feel any breakthroughs or "aha" moments? That's where you need to push the piece.

MLA for the Reading Process Piece

Don't forget the final draft is due Thursday, 11:59 PM. Here are the slides from today re: how to do the Work Cited and how to work with poem quotations.

Slideshow from Today

Here's the one with the process tips and strategy we're using for our current project about the poem by Pat Mora. I'm also sharing a start of a draft for the project of my own, which is about the Kooser poem we read today. It will give you a sense of how to talk about the poem and your process—and how to quote yourself :)

What Film?

Here's a survey, kids.

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!

Tannen and Turkle: Books

Here are links to Tannen's and Turkle's books on Google, where you can at least read parts and see the Table of Contents. Would be easy to find a PDF of Tannen's whole book, and you might have luck with Turkle's. Both would likely be in libraries!