Major Paper Revision Assignment

Draft Workshop: Wed., Dec. 12

Due: Fri., Dec. 14

Purpose

Choose either the Memoir or the Visual Analysis you wrote for our course, and revise it.  Rather than starting over or taking a radically new direction, work with the draft you turned in to bring it up to your current writing level.

Invention

Keep in mind as you brainstorm/draft:

●    This is a chance to revise, not start over.  You may need to reconsider everything from the material you included to the audience you addressed to the style you used, but your new draft should be working toward the same purpose as the original was; it should be the same sort of paper, trying to accomplish the same goals.

●    Consider the comments you received on your final draft as a starting point, not a laundry list.  The comments are necessarily brief and point to only the most important things that need addressing.  To revise successfully, you will want to get input from as many people as you can, including, probably, more extensive comments from the instructor.

●    You may need to find more information, or read new sources, to really improve on the original paper.  It is expected that your revision will differ substantially from the original draft, and much of that may be new material.

●    The standards for the revision are higher than those for the original paper.   Think beyond simply “fixing” the paper’s problems to see how you can make it stronger, more coherent, more eloquent; use what you have learned.

Expectations

A successful revision will:

1.        Address significant problems with the original paper;

2.       Work toward the same goals as the original, and do it better;

3.       Appeal to the audience more successfully and subtly;

4.       Work more consciously within the expectations of the genre and medium;

5.        Marshal better emotional appeals, logical reasoning, and examples to enhance your points;

6.        Improve on the original’s style, tone, humor, phrasing, metaphors, word choices, etc., where applicable.

7.        Demonstrate what you have learned in this course.

Length: See original paper requirements.

Special Grading Consideration: You will receive a separate grade for your revision, as it is a separate assignment from the original paper. Please note that it IS possible to earn a LOWER grade on your revision. This can happen if you don’t pay very close attention to the expectations listed above.

However, assuming you surpass the original grade with your revision, I will also bump the original grade by ½ a letter.