Activities for Chapter 7

The following activities will help you get into the mindset and practice of approaching your writing at the sentence level.

Activity 7A

Error log. To become a self-editor of your writing, you’ll need to learn to identify and correct your trademark errors—these are errors that you are prone to making. All of us as writers have them. This activity will help you identify your trademark errors and learn how to correct them, self-edit them from your writing. Draw on feedback you received from your instructor or a writing center tutor of a recent writing project to identify and correct three to five different trademark editing issues. Choose knowledge errors and not performance errors—for example, you don’t know how to spell definitely (you spelled it defiantly—thanks for nothing, autocorrect!) as opposed to you forgot the “n” in “an,” so it came out “a” (you know how to spell “an”—you just make a typo). For each error, (1) type out or write out the sentence and underline or highlight the error, (2) name the error and if possible quote a relevant rule or guideline from a writing handbook or online resource like the Purdue OWL and (3) type out or write out an edited version of the sentence, underlining or highlighting your correction. Complete this activity for each writing project, adding new trademark errors as you identify them.

Activity 7B

Commonplace Book. Keep a commonplace book, “a collection of copied passages” you admire from texts by multiple authors in various genres (Crowley and Hawhee 294). As Crowley and Hawhee explain, “In premodern times, most rhetors kept written collections of copied passages; these were called florilegia (flowers of reading) in medieval times” (294). You can even find in libraries the commonplace books kept by historical figures like Ben Jonson and Thomas Jefferson, and contemporary writers carry versions of commonplace books where they write comments or copy passages they “want to remember, copy, or imitate” (295).

As directed by your instructor—either included or separate from your Writer’s Notebook—for each entry you make in the commonplace book, copy (handwrite or retype—don’t simply copy and paste—and then cite) a sentence you come across while reading that you find particularly interesting or effective as a sentence (not so much for what it says but how it says it). Then write up an analysis of why you believe it’s so effective—its rhetorical effect—focusing on the specific strategies the writer uses. Choose sentences that you would like to imitate in your own writing, and in your analysis try to understand how the writer achieves the rhetorical effect through syntax (sentence structure), diction (word choice), style, punctuation, etc. In addition to examples in this chapter, draw on a writing handbook or an online resource like the Purdue OWL for lessons and examples of specific strategies for grammar and style. Micciche states two goals for this assignment:

First, to emphasize between what and how we say something; second, to designate a place where students document and comment on their evolving relationship to writing and grammatical concepts. Both goals circulate around the idea that learning how to recognize and reflect on language as made and made to work on people’s lives is central to being able to use language strategically. (724)

Remember the purpose is not only to identify and describe each sentence’s grammar and syntax, but also analyze the rhetorical effects of the writer’s choices of style and grammar in the sentence.

Activity 7C

Subordination/coordination practice. Pull the thesis, a topic sentence, or a transition sentence—or any sentences you realize probably should be combined—from a writing project you are working on. Similar to the example earlier in this chapter, rewrite the sentence using a variety of different coordination and subordination structures to show the relationships among the ideas. As directed by your instructor, you may practice first using the following example:

Professional athletes and celebrities make a lot of money. They are paid too much. This money could be used to help other people.

Readers may get the idea trying to be expressed but the relationships are not clear—and the three short sentences together are choppy and redundant. Write out ten different versions of this idea using coordination and subordination (draw on the structures/forms from the example earlier in the chapter). Then, read through your ten different sentences. Star the one you like best and explain why you think it’s best.