Return to Unit One:TR

Class Plan -- Unit One, Day 10

• Introduce peer review.
• Set up take-home workshop of Response Essays.
• Discuss Effective Paraphrasing and Quoting.
• In-Class Paraphrasing and Quoting Mini-Workshop

Assignment for Day 11

Writing - Answer #1-4 under "Working with the Text" on p. 150 [NOTE THAT THEY WON'T BE DISCUSSING THIS READING IN THE NEXT CLASS, BUT THAT THEY WILL NEED TO GO AHEAD AND DO IT SO THAT THEIR HOMEWORK FOR THURSDAY WON'T BE OVERWHELMING.]; Complete Response Workshop with two of your peers' essays.

Related Handouts

• Appendix 10: Response Workshop
  • Appendix 11: Paraphrasing and Quoting: Do's and Don'ts
  • Appendix 12: Paraphrasing and Quoting Handout

  Activities
  Daily - Have you participated in peer review of your writing in the past? If so, in what setting (in a class, with friends, etc.)? What are the advantages and the disadvantages of having a peer comment on your paper? What are three rules you would suggest for making peer review effective?

  Discussion of Peer Review - Discuss daily. You will want to emphasize that we want to concentrate on big concerns first in peer review workshops, i.e. content, organization, focus, etc. rather than style and mechanics. These things (style and mechanics) are important, too, but they are normally not THE most important aspects to focus on in workshop. [I often remind students that they aren't the things that I'm most likely to look at either. I will almost always focus on larger issues of focus, organization, development, etc. when I'm commenting on and grading their papers.] Bring in a few of what you consider to be the most important points from "Friendly Critiquing," then (again, from the daily) ask students to generate a short list of peer review rules for the class.

  Set up Take-Home Workshop - Have students get into groups of three and to exchange their drafts of the Response Essay. Pass out your workshop worksheet [Remember to have two for each student] (see Appendix 10 for one possibility), and explain that you will always offer this type of structure for them in workshop, but that they aren't required to answer EVERY question on the sheet. A good way of approaching this is to have them read through the Response essay once without commenting on it, simply noting on a separate sheet of paper the general problems that they see. Then on their second read, they can fill out the parts of the worksheet which address these problem areas before they move on to the less relevant sections of the sheet. Encourage students to use as much detail as possible when answering the questions and writing in the margins. Also remind them that you will normally give them class time to discuss their comments. This will be happening next class, and they should complete the workshop on the two drafts they have just collected. Finally, remind students that they should give priority to the questions/concerns that the writer indicated on the workshop sheet, and have them fill out the "writer" section of both workshop sheets they have been given. (They'll exchange workshop sheets along with their essays.)

  Discuss Paraphrasing Do's and Don'ts Handout - Using the handout (in Appendix 11, Appendix 12, or something similar of your own making) be sure to talk about both the characteristics of good paraphrasing and quoting, and the pitfalls that students are likely to fall into as they use their sources. A few of these pitfalls I've noticed in my experience are: paraphrasing that is too close to the original text (technically, plagiarism), use of quotes that are too lengthy and non-specific, the tendency to let quotes "speak for themselves" without the writer's own interpretation and connection to surrounding sentences, and the "floating quote" phenomenon, where students repeatedly use quotes without author tags or introductions that would provide some sense of coherence and context in their use of sources.

  You might also want to show some examples (using the handout or something similar) of using partial quotes (incorporated into the writer's own sentence) and of edited quotes. Note that these are both somewhat more "sophisticated" ways of quoting their sources.

  You might refer students to the sections of the Writing Center called "Paraphrasing from a Source" and "Quoting from a Source" (under "Working with Sources" in the "Reference Materials" section of the Writing Center) if they would like additional information on what is involved in paraphrasing and quoting.

  Paraphrasing and Quoting Mini-Workshop - [Reserve about 20-25 minutes for this.] Have students examine the essays they will be responding to for homework, noting places that could use more development, where paraphrases could be used instead of quotes, and where either paraphrasing or quoting could be improved. Put some questions for workshop on OH. Here are some ideas of questions you could use--In the margins of your partner's essay, indicate the following:

  • In what areas of the essay does there need to be more use of paraphrasing and/or quoting?
  • Where does there need to be more paraphrasing and less quoting?
  • Where is the paraphrasing dangerously close to the author's own words?
  • Where is the paraphrasing not detailed enough?
  • Where are the quotes too lengthy? What part(s) of the quote should the writer keep and what part(s) should s/he scrap?
  • Where is the writer neglecting to interpret/explain quotes that s/he is using?