Starting in Week 2 and continuing for the rest of the quarter, you'll have one-on-one meetings in which you discuss your major essay drafts with Eric, our embedded writing tutor, and with Dr. Lance. There will be six (6) meetings total: three with Dr. Lance and three with Eric.

You must handwrite a 4-part "Before and After" list for each of these six meetings, as explained below. WRITE THE "BEFORE" LIST ON PAPER AND BRING IT TO THE MEETING, along with a copy of your draft. No later than 12 hours after your meeting, WRITE THE "AFTER" LIST ON THE SAME PAPER, take a picture of it, and upload the picture onto Canvas.

Before the conference . . .

LIST at least TWO SPECIFIC QUESTIONS you'll ask us about your essay. Don't just ask, "What needs improvement?" Instead, look at the learning goals and rubric from the syllabus (pasted at bottom), identify the writing skills you're attempting in this essay, and ask about how well you're doing them. For instance, you might ask questions like these:

• Is it OK that I don't say my thesis until paragraph 3?
• Am I using enough evidence to prove my point that ____?
• Have I addressed the main counterarguments that readers would have about ___?
• Is my transition between my 2nd and 3rd paragraph easy to follow?
• Did I manage to get you excited when I said ___?
• Is my use of the past tense appropriate for paragraph 4?
• Does my voice come through as friendly when I say __?
  
  

  After the conference . . .

Write up an action plan: LIST TWO OR MORE REVISIONS YOU PLAN TO MAKE NOW THAT YOU'VE MET. These should be items that Eric or I have brought to your attention, or that we discussed, or that you thought of after meeting. Explain not just WHAT you plan to change, but WHY making those changes will make for a more rhetorically effective essay--one that informs, moves, and delights your audience, and brings them around to your way of thinking. For instance, you might say. . .

• I'll start over with the idea that ___ because ____
• I'll add ___ to my thesis to account for the audience's opinion that ___
• I'll explain why ___ said ____ because Eric was confused about  _____
• I'll cut out page 3 and add a few paragraphs on __ to better support my thesis
• I'll use the present tense in paragraph 4 because ___
• I'll use the metaphor of ___ to say ___ because readers can relate to ____.
• I'll add information on ___ to make my voice more  ______
• I'll move paragraph __ to before paragraph ___ because the idea that ___ goes with ____

Learning Goals and Grading Rubric

Course Learning Goals (“B” level)

I want you to leave this course saying . . .

I have a powerful writing voice

• I can use my voice to get people to listen to my ideas
• I can use my voice to get readers excited, or angry, or sad about the things I’m excited, angry, or sad about
• I can vary that voice for different readers and in different situations, being formal or informal, friendly or authoritative as the audience requires.
• I can vary my sentence structure, punctuation, diction, and figures of speech to inform, immerse, delight and persuade

I am a perceptive reader

• I’m comfortable annotating readings to extract meaning from them and to articulate my responses to them
• I use a reliable dictionary to find definitions for unfamiliar words, and reread sentences using those words to understand their meaning—so that very few sentences escape my understanding.
• I appreciate the complexity in what a writer in saying, going beyond clichés when I summarize ideas
• I reread texts multiple times, deepening my understanding each time
• I recognize when writers are presenting others’ ideas, including those they disagree with
• I can summarize a text’s major arguments, and consider how its smaller points relate to them
• I make note of a writer’s voice and tone, and of the techniques writers make to create that
• I consider how writers are responding to their rhetorical situation, and can judge which of their techniques is worth imitating in my rhetorical situation

I’m comfortable responding to other people’s ideas

• I let my readers know which ideas are mine and which are from other people
• I get my readers to understand the context in which other people’s ideas were said, and how my context relates to that
• I can explain why other people’s ideas matter to what I’m talking about
• My readers can tell right away whether I agree or disagree with others’ ideas, and why
• I can break down for my readers the assumptions and warrants underlying others’ claims
• I can quote people when I need their exact words
• I can paraphrase people when I want to communicate their ideas, but in my own voice
• I can summarize the evidence other people have used to support their ideas, without making it sound like I agree with them

I’m comfortable expressing and supporting my own ideas, even when I know others will disagree

• I write arguments that have debatable claims and themes
• I find varied evidence and engage in reasoning to support those claims throughout my arguments, so that everything in my essay relates to my main claims
• I provide definitions of terms crucial to my argument, and do so when readers need those definitions
• I anticipate and respond to concerns that different readers might have about my ideas

I organize my writing to please, inform, immerse, and persuade my readers

• I make sure each paragraph I write has a main point
• I group paragraphs together that relate to each other
• I help my readers to understand the connections between my ideas by using transitional words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs

I use a writing process to develop and communicate my ideas

• I develop my ideas through different kinds of prewriting: contemplation, conversations, freewriting, and brainstorming/outlines
• I recognize the first draft as a time for getting ideas down on paper or onscreen, not for getting them perfectly phrased and organized
• I revise my writing to make it better
  • I listen to what my peers and instructor say about my writing, and make decisions about how to change it
  • I reread my own writing, and I make decisions about which ideas to keep and which to kill
• I know the kinds of grammar and wording errors I usually make, and I can find and correct 80% of them when I edit my work
• I give myself time to proofread my work before I turn it in, leaving no more than one or two fixable spelling/proofing mistakes in a writing piece.

Final Portfolio Rubric: To earn an "A" as in amazing

Critical Reading: You are able to identify specific techniques that our authors use, including articulating non-obvious ideas about what the author did, how it affects the reader, why it is effective--and how you can adapt and transform these techniques to successfully improve your own writing or solve problems you encounter as you write.

Developing Ideas & Claims: Your central arguments respond exceptionally well to the prompts: you come up with narrow, very specific ideas that are both non-obvious and quite interesting. Readers learn from your essays. You understand when and how to define key terms and ideas in your essays, and how to both teach and persuade the audience, when necessary. You anticipate and gracefully respond to readers’ concerns, and appeal to differing audiences: skeptical and favorable, inexperienced and fans.  Your claims -- from largest ideas to even tiny opinions -- show evidence of audience awareness: you have clearly considered multiple perspectives and read your work skeptically, looking for places to question and perhaps even change your own claims, and the assumptions underlying them. It is likely that, as you have written drafts, your critical thinking and research have changed and narrowed your opinions from draft to draft--you are eager to challenge your own assumptions in pursuit of a truthful essay.

Supporting Details & Evidence: You use multiple types of evidence in the major assignments: first-person description, images, secondary sources (through quotations, paraphrase, and summary), extended metaphor, hypothetical examples – you seamlessly blend types of evidence, depending on what is most appropriate for the writing situation and your audience. You show variety and thoughtfulness in how much evidence you use to support each point: your writing shows you anticipate when readers need more or less evidence to be convinced and entertained, and you choose an amount of evidence that is proportional. You pleasurably immerse your readers in the experiences you describe and situate those experiences in larger cultural trends relevant to them.

Organization: Your essay organization is stunningly effective in making readers listen: Each paragraph/section of your writing helps the reader better understand or engage with the sections that follow. In addition, your essay may also have a central organization strategy or recurring organizational theme or technique that is well-suited to the writing task and helps orient the reader and increases their pleasure in reading. The relationships between ideas are made clear to the reader, though not in formulaic or repetitive ways; the reader always understand exactly why they are reading what they’re reading. You make appropriate use of features, including the ones listed on the “C” rubric.

Tone, Language & Mechanics: Your grammar is basically flawless: there may be occasional typographical errors or small lapses (because even great writers are humans) but the work has clearly been proofread very closely in a way that enhances your credibility as a writer. You use advanced sentence structure (different sentences lengths, high-level constructions, non-repetitive formulations) and punctuation when it supports the effect you are attempting to create for the reader. Your language is well-chosen and specific: your wording consistently helps your writing achieve its intended effect--precise vocabulary helps narrow your claims; poetic language makes your reader laugh, cry, or cry out in indignation; punctuation controls your pauses and emphasis, etc.