Monday, May 1, 2006

Reading

Notes

We will be primarily concerned with the influence of variation on our ability to interpret these poems — and, time permitting, the role of context on our understanding of them.

These sonnets are your last opportunity to write a make-up response paper, which is due today. Please also make sure to have your Titus and McElroy reviews finished by today, if you haven’t turned them in already.

On revision

The process of revision is more than one’s correcting surface errors, including punctuation and spelling errors. While it is important to correct such “mistakes” (since these corrections help to clarify communication), we should consider revision in light of its Latin root, revisere ‘to look [at] again.’

Revision is a process in which you critically reassess your argument and the order and quality of the evidence that you use to support it. Do you make clear connections between your evidence and your argument? Are there counter-arguments that you must consider? Are there aspects of your analysis that you leave unsaid? Do your evidence and thesis statement make sense in light of each other? Would a different presentation of the evidence enhance your argument? You should ask these kinds of questions as you begin your revision process.

For some of you in the Shakespeare class, especially for those of you who have particularly well-developed drafts, the revision process might be quick and relatively painless. But be aware that revising your essay might take as much work as — or more work than — your draft. Consider these thoughts as you revise your essay, some of which already appear in this post but are repeated for emphasis:

Revision should be more than an exercise in correcting punctuation and spelling errors. I will appreciate your efforts to correct spelling and punctuation, but such efforts are not acceptable on their own. Spelling and punctuation are surface structures that enable the effective transmission of information but generally have little impact on the actual content of the essay. At every step in the revision process, therefore, you should ask yourself evaluative questions (e.g., “Do I support that claim?” or “Why is this statement important to my argument?”).

Don’t be afraid to revise with impunity. You will feel better about the end result (and I probably will, too).

I should add that if writing is part of your profession, you will probably always be better off revising your work before it “goes live” (or whatever the correct term is).

Two examples from my own experience

Pawel recently caught an embarrassing error in a post for this class. If he hadn’t told me about it, I would have missed it — and would continue to look particularly inept to any passers-by.

I also recently received a rejection letter for an article I’ve been working on. While it’s not fun to hear that my work isn’t “good enough,”" the journal editor sent along comments from the anonymous readers of the article. Their remarks were for the most part encouraging — and their suggestions actually have helped me rethink some of the gaps in my argument that were eating away at me, but to which I hadn’t found an acceptable solution. With revision, the readers said, I had the makings of a solid, publishable article.

A slight schedule change is in the works.

It appears that I will not be able to complete grading essay drafts and hand them back until Wednesday. Because this does not give you sufficient time to complete any real revisions according to the original schedule, the essay is now due at the time of the final exam. I encourage you, however, to finish your essay — and turn it in — as early as possible.

The May 1 schedule will cover the assigned sonnets. Time permitting, we will begin review for the final exam. The format of the exam will be similar to the midterm; you can expect a higher amount of passage identification, two short-essay questions, and more terms to identify.