Writing Exercises

Reminder: For questions about how to submit your written work, consult the Course Participation and Submission Guidelines.

1. Exercise 4. Critical Reading of "A Place Called Midland." Answer the questions below about your reading of "A Place Called Midland" by Susan Orleans. Prepare answers by providing the question heading and then respond to each heading in paragraphs. After each response, make sure you provide how you know (look to the text) your answer fits how you respond. This will not be submitted or shared, but is an important exercise to improve you critical reading skills.

1.1 In what genre is this text written? How do you know?

1.2 Is this a published or a student-produced piece of writing? How do you know?

1.3 What is the author's purpose for this piece of writing? How do you know? Who is the intended audience? How do you know?

1.4 How effective is the language the author uses? Is it formal? Informal? Appropriate? How do you know?

1.5 What kinds of evidence does the author use in text? Does she use statistics? Quotes? Personal stories? Does she cite other information?

1.6 How appropriate or effective is this evidence? How would a different form of evidence change the intent of the work?

2. Peer Review 2. Peer Review of Descriptive Essays.

2.2 Post a draft of your descriptive essay on the Peer Review: Descriptive Essay page.

2.3 Read the Descriptive Essays written by two classmates and prepare a one-page memo-style response to each member of your group. Post your memo as a reply to your classmate's writing.

In writing your memo, please make sure you create headings for each part of your response: Contextual Factors, Addressing Genre, Language, Evidence, Clarity, Organization/Structure, and Summation. You should post your memo of feedback as a reply to the writer's post in the Peer Review Forum.

Contextual Factors
What is the author's purpose for this piece of writing?
Who is the intended audience?

Addressing Genre (Descriptive Essay)
Is this work a descriptive essay focusing on one place of significance?
Did the writer stay within the assignment parameters (one place)? If no, point out where the author departed from the assignment and can get back on track.

Language
How effective is the language the author uses? Is it too formal? Too informal? Perfectly appropriate? Cite specific examples and offer feedback.

Evidence
What kinds of sensory details does the author use to support the descriptive essay? How are they used? What details could use more work and which ones are particularly effective?

Clarity
Are there places in the writing that you find confusing? What about the writing in those places makes it unclear or confusing?

Organization/Structure
How does the author move from one idea to another in the essay? Are the transitions between the ideas effective? How else might he/she have transitioned between the ideas. Keep in mind spatial order in this case, or how the description of place unfolds in the essay.

Summation
How has this essay influenced you as a writer? What techniques in your peer's essay will you attempt to employ in your own writing going forward?

3. Essay 4. The Descriptive Essay (Final Draft). After completing all of the assignments in Module 5 (all readings and discussion posts), revise Descriptive Essay. Add the final draft to your writing portfolio.

4. Grammar Report 3. As with previous grammar assignments, research a grammar problem that you've been assigned and create a teaching report to share with your classmates. Submit your report as an assignment and post a copy of it to the appropriate forum.