Activities for Chapter 6
Activity 6A
Find examples of texts in your major or future professional field and use them to complete the following chart. How might this information help you compose texts for that discourse community in those genres? In what ways does it confuse you—where do you see contradictions among the texts? Make a list of questions you may need to ask in future classes and/or professions about writing in those contexts.
| Type of Text | Focus How easy is it to identify the focus of the text? Is it stated directly (like in a thesis) or implied? If stated directly, where in the text? |
Development What kinds of development strategies are used? Is there a variety or does one or more dominate the text? |
Organization Discuss the overall structure of the text—does it seem to follow a prescribed format? How is unity and coherence achieved (e.g. headings, topic sentences, transitions)? What are the introduction and conclusion strategies? |
Activity 6B
This activity is what author Lee Gutkind calls “The Yellow Test” in the book Now Write! edited by Sherry Ellis and it helps you self-assess development in writing projects that require using sources. Take the draft of a writing project you are working on and either on paper with a yellow (or other light color) Hi-Liter or Magic Marker—or electronically using the “text highlight” tool—highlight the sentences, passages, or sections of the text that are your own development strategies and not information from sources or other texts. Then look through the draft and estimate how much is highlighted—20%, 50%, 80%? Consider the discourse community, genre, and rhetorical expectations of the writing project you are working on to determine what the best ratio is between your own development and information from sources. For example, if you are writing some sort of research project that requires using sources to explore a topic, shouldn’t there still be much highlighted in which you as the writer are explaining, discussing, and connecting the information among sources for readers? If you’re writing some sort of research project where you need to argue a position, shouldn’t there be adequate evidence from sources—sentences not highlighted—to support your points? Revise your draft accordingly—adding/cutting your development and adding/cutting information from sources as needed.
Activity 6C
You may find this activity especially helpful for an essay writing project you are working on. “Test” your draft for focus, development, and organization. But first, revise your draft a bit for its focus. This means revise your thesis statement to be sure it is clear, specific, and has a point of significance (a “so what?”); remember, check the conclusion of your first draft—oftentimes student writers have better working thesis statements there than in their intros. Okay, now you’re ready to perform this exercise.
Use your draft to reverse outline it. To do this, open a new, blank word-processing document and copy and paste your thesis statement and then all of your topic sentences from your draft—one at a time—onto the blank document (for most of you, your topic sentence will be the first sentence of each body paragraph—if it’s not, then copy whichever sentence is your topic sentence for that paragraph).
Read over your “outline.” What do you notice? Does it make sense? Can you follow along with the overall point and sub-points logically based on this outline? This is the test you want your final draft to be able to pass. Respond to the following question to help you determine how to revise your draft for focus, development, and organization:
- Can the reader understand your topic, its point of significance, and your stance—what specifically you’re saying about the topic—in your thesis statement? Can it stand alone?
- Based on your topic sentences, does it seem your body paragraphs are thesis-driven or source-driven? Do you have clear and separate supporting points for each body paragraph? Do they fit under the blanket/umbrella of your thesis statement? Do all of your paragraphs repeat the same point? Do you have multiple points in a single paragraph—if so, break them up and develop each point further with data and examples from sources and your own development strategy.
- Are the points in a logical order, in a way that lets your thesis evolve? If not, move them around, which means re-organizing your body paragraphs.
- How might you transition between the points—can you craft transitions with your topic sentences?
After making changes to such an outline of your draft, transfer them to your draft and revise and edit these and other issues to produce your final draft.