ENGL 109F16 – Workshop Exercises

Exercise 1:

21 Sept (Weds)

Developing a topic

1. Identify your a) purpose

b) audience

c) genre

2. Assess your interests.

3. What do you know about your topic? Use brainstorming techniques to narrow it down.

4. What do you want to find out? Devise a research question.

5. Develop a topic statement.

6. Define (see NFG 39) and describe (see NFG 40) your topic (as best you can at this stage).

Exercise 2:

28 Sept (Weds)

Organizing research

Create an extended, annotated works cited list:

a) Create a works cited list including at least three reputable, appropriate sources for your journalism assignment. Use correct MLA format.

b) Choose three sources and summarize each of them in a paragraph (about 4-5 sentences each).

Exercise 3:

5 Oct (Weds)

Peer Editing

a) Exchange papers.

b) Summarize your friend’s paper.

c) Reflect on it. Try to answer some of the following questions in your reflection:

i) Did this paper give you new information?

ii) Did it convince you of an argument?

iii) Did it convince you of the significance of the information being conveyed?

iv) If it did, how did it convince you?

v) Would you use some of those techniques yourself?

d) Evaluate it constructively:

i) What did you like about it?

ii) What did you think might make it more convincing?

Exercise 4:

7 Nov (Mon)

Thesis Development

Essay:

#2: Literary Criticism

Essay 1 (1000 words): 20% (first full draft due in class Nov 9)

Choose one of the following options:

· Compare Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” to O’Connor’s “Everything that Rises Must Converge.”

· Compare three sonnets. You may choose any three sonnets.

· Write a sonnet. Then write a reflective essay

a) comparing your sonnet to Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” and

b) discussing the relationship between science and poetry.

Workshop:

1. Decide which question you want to address.

2. Look for an overarching similarity among your texts: a similar theme, a formal concern, a similar social context.

3. Identify differences in how your two texts treat that theme, form, or context.

Example of a compare and contrast thesis:

“While Obama and O’Connor both treat the theme of convergence, particularly with regard to race in America, Obama’s speech displays an optimism that O’Connor’s more nuanced story does not share.”

Points:

1. Their genres dictate some of these differences.

2. They are written at different moments in history.

3. They approach human psychology differently.

Exercise 5:

Nov 14 (Mon)

Pitching an Idea

i) Take 5 min to brainstorm an idea for your research essay.

ii) Take 15 min with your writing group to moot your idea. Pitch an argument. Get them to refute it.

iii) Choose one topic from your group. Choose one presenter. Help the presenter develop their pitch for the argument.

iv) Presenters, pitch your group’s idea to the class.

v) Evaluation process: TBA

Exercise 5:

23 Nov (Weds)

Competitive revision

1. Get into writing groups.

2. Exchange your introductions and outlines.

3. Choose the topic you like most.

4. As a group, write a skit that will present the topic to the class.

Be as silly as you want: explain the topic to your cat or to an alien; pretend you’re Samatha Bee; make it a kids’ show, an interview, or an expert panel. Be oppositional; present a refutation of the argument.