Unit 3, Day 29: Tuesday, December 4

(If you are behind by today’s class you can choose to do either

today’s workshop or the workshop for Day 30)

- Review goals and expectations of the Essay 4 assignment

- Critique/workshop Sabatke and Essay 4 student sample

- Have students workshop their revised drafts for how well the argument’s structure fits their defined context (devil’s advocate activity)

Connection to course goals: As students make final revisions to their own papers, analyzing sample papers asks them to evaluate how effectively an essay meets the context and highlights options for how students might write their own papers. This class also emphasizes the importance of ongoing revision during the writing process.

1. Discuss Essay 4 goals and expectations students need to meet as they revise their paper (10 minutes): Prepare a discussion based on the Essay 4 assignment and all of the main parts and expectations you’ve emphasized in this unit. Highlight especially the need to have a focused, debatable claim that is appropriate to the writer’s context, audience and purpose.

2. Critique the sample student papers (15-20 minutes):

Give students a few minutes to read back over Sabatke’s essay and the Essay 4 sample.
Break students into groups of 3-4 and have them use the criteria list you generated in your discussion to critique the samples. Each group should come up with a list of 2-3 contextual strengths and weaknesses. They should be ready to share their findings with the class.
Whole class discussion: Have each group present their findings and ask other groups to respond. Did the other groups see this as a strength or a weakness? Why? Be sure that as a class you come to some consensus about the main strengths and weaknesses of each paper.

3. Mini-workshop to analyze how well students’ drafts are shaped for their defined context (45 minutes): Create a workshop that gets students to read others’ drafts in order to give the writer feedback on how well the argument holds up against opposing arguments and audience objections. For this activity, the reader should take on the role of the particular audience the writer has defined in the cover page.

- Have students get into small groups of 3-4. Each writer should get 2 other group members to read and write responses to his/her draft.

- Before they read a draft, students should carefully read the writer’s cover page and review the Position Analysis in order to get a clear sense of the writer’s exigence, audience, purpose and focus.

- As they read the draft, students should assume the role of the target audience the writer has defined and keep in mind the specific values, interests, and concerns of that audience.

- Have students respond to these types of questions for each draft they read:

How well does the writer respond to or address the objections that are raised in your mind as you consider this argument? Where does the writer effectively respond to an opposing argument that you would raise? Where does the writer fail to address an opposing argument you think is important?
Which particular reasons in this draft do you find most convincing? Which reasons are less effective? Why?
Which pieces of evidence are convincing or compelling to you? Which are less convincing? Why?
How could the writer have made the structure or organization of this argument clearer or more effective? That is, where do you start to get lost or lose interest? Which part or parts don’t seem to relate as much to what you think is important?
How credible does the writer seem to you? What makes the writer seem trustworthy? What makes the writer seem less trustworthy? How could the writer gain more credibility, in your view?

- Have students return the drafts and talk about their responses.

Assignment for Day 30:

- Revise and complete your Essay 4 draft to produce a polished draft for our full workshop on Thursday