I have taught Composition at McIntosh College, Great Bay Community College, and Full Sail University, as well as College Prep Writing at Springvale Adult Education in Springvale, ME. The main component of my method of teaching Composition is repeated revision. While I like to require students to hand in one draft and one revision, I allow students to hand in repeated revisions of a paper if they wish to continue to improve their grades. Throughout the semester, regardless of our current topic, I continue to promote the importance of revision (and, as an extension, peer review) in the writing process. The following is my syllabus from this course and a sample of an in-class assignment I would give.
Sample Syllabus
Course: ENG 101: English Composition I
Instructor: Mark D. Thomas
Course Description:
This course places the development of composition skills in the context of the reading and writing process. Students will examine a variety of texts for idea development and analysis of the organizational patterns that underlie personal and academic writing. (This course may not be applied to meet certificate or degree requirements.)
Course Objectives:
In this course the student will:
• Interact with a variety of selections for the purpose of developing his/her ability to read, process, and respond to written material
• Use readings as models for effective writing skills: grammar, style, content, organization
• Write essays based on readings and personal experience
• Practice shifting between composing skills and editing skills through writing process
• Build vocabulary through exposure to words and ideas in readings and subsequent application in writing
• Build research skills and use appropriate documentation form
Textbooks:
Rules for Writers (7th Ed.) by Diana Hackett and Nancy Sommers
ISBN-10: 0312647360 ISBN-13: 978-0312647360
Short Takes: Model Essays for Composition (11th Ed.) by Elizabeth Penfield
ISBN-10: 0205171370 ISBN-13: 978-0205171378
Grading Breakdown
Homework/Essays – Drafts and Revisions: 30%
Research Essay (includes drafts, source work, and outline): 30%
In Class Writing: 20%
Workshop/Peer Review: 20%
Schedule (research activities in bold)
Week 1: Introductions, Paragraphs, short writing exercises
Week 2: First draft of Narrative due
Week 3: First draft C&C due
Week 4: First draft Informational due, Begin Research
Week 5: First Revision due, Source Work
Week 6: First draft Argumentative due, Conferences
Week 7: First draft D&C essay due, Documentation
Week 8: Second revision due
Week 9: Research Outline due
Week 10: First draft Research Essay due
Week 11: Third revision due, Conferences
Week 12: Fourth revision due
Week 13: Catch-Up
Week 14: Revised Research Essay due
Week 15: Fifth Revision due, Conferences
Week 16: Last Chance Revisions due, Reflection essay due
*There will also be regular readings out of Short Takes, but those will be assigned as needed.
Essays
In addition to several short pieces of writing and responses to literature, you are expected to craft five formal essays, all of which will be revised at least once. With the exception of the 6 page research essay, all drafts and revisions should be at least 3 full pages long.
Manuscripts should follow the guidelines set out by MLA/APA and include: 12pt. Times New Roman Font, double-spacing, and 1 inch margins with left justified, indented paragraphs. Essays and other applicable homework not in this format will be returned ungraded and will be considered late.
All homework is due by midnight and posted in the digital dropbox on Blackboard. Please do NOT bring hard copies to class or e-mail assignments to me unless I specifically ask for them. Hard copies will only be required when we workshop and/or peer review, and I will let you know when those times will be.
Any work that is not turned in by the due date will be considered late. I will take any work up to a week late, at a penalty of five percent per day that it is late. Any work not in by the one week deadline will be considered a zero.
Revision is a critical component to any writing class, assignment, or project. As such, revision is built into this course. Aside from the final research paper, we will also be doing five smaller essays. You will be required to do at least one revision for each assignment. Revisions should be a significant reworking of the first draft and not just grammar and spelling edits.
Though one revision for each essay is mandatory, I will also accept additional revisions at any point up to the last day of class (12/15). At the end of the semester, you will receive one final grade for each essay that takes into account the entire process from draft to revision. So if you get a C on the first draft, but you then ultimately rework that paper up to an A, you will get an A for that assignment.
It should be noted, however, that if you fail to hand in a draft by the deadline, I will not accept any revisions of that essay. The same holds true for the assigned revisions. Also note that because revision is part of the process, do not expect to be able to skip it if you are satisfied with the grade for the draft. So if you get a B on a draft and do not hand in a revision, do not expect to get a B for your final grade on that essay.
Sample In-Class Assignment
Peer-Workshopping – Week 4
As you may have noticed, the main focal point for this course is revision. As I have said in class at least once, revision is the process that makes bad writing good and makes good writing great. Having read Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts,” we hopefully now have an understanding of what I mean by that. Much of the rest of this semester is going to be spent examining our work and exploring ways that we can improve upon it.
But we do not have to do this alone. Writing is often considered a solitary activity, however some of the best ideas for revision we can get come from other people. A few times this semester, we will be engaging in peer review. What this means is that we will be sharing our work with one another and giving each other constructive feedback on how our writing could improve.
I will be breaking everybody up into groups of 3-4 people, and we will keep these groups for the whole semester. You should have each brought in 3-4 copies of your Compare and Contrast essays, enough so that each person in your group (including yourself) can have a copy of your work. By next class, you need to have read each of the essays from the other members in your group and written comments based on what you saw worked and/or didn’t work. Comments could take the form of in-line notes taken while reading or long-form ideas written up after reading the entire essay (both similar to what I have given you already on your early work). Chances are, your comments will include at least some of both.
What are we looking for with comments? First and foremost: honesty. We do not want to be mean in our criticism, but being overly nice in order to not offend does not help any either. It is okay to let the writer know what you do like about his/her essay, as then s/he will know the sorts of things to keep doing, but that cannot be the only comments you leave. No piece of writing is so perfect that it cannot be improved. Inform the writer when you read something that doesn’t sound right or that reads odd to you. These are the sorts of things that can help the writer get better, and are our main focus.
The other important thing to remember when giving comments is to provide detail to them. Don’t just say that something doesn’t work for you, explain exactly what it is that you are getting hung up on. Why are you struggling with it? Is there something you don’t understand? The more detail you can provide, the more the writer will have to work with.
Next class, we will meet again in our groups. One at a time, each group will spend 15-20 minutes discussing each paper, talking through what went well and what could be improved upon, giving each writer plenty of material to consider when sitting down to revise.
Today, after forming groups and having some time to exchange papers, email addresses, and general introductions, I will be handing out a sample essay that we will read together and critique. This should give you a good idea of the sorts of things to be looking for as well as the sorts of comments you should be trying to make.
Mark D. Thomas 