Action List for Tuesday, November 16, 2010

• Read "Abstracts and Executive Summaries" (Chp. 12 in WTP).
• Remember that DWA #13 will be held during class.
• Choose a focus for your Formal Report.
• Continue researching and finding sources for your Formal Report.

Practice Passage for Part Three of the Editing Exam

As requested in class yesterday, I have created another sample passage similiar to what could appear on part three of the exam.  As always, read slowly.  Perhaps mark subjects and verbs.  But go over it and then look at the key.  remember, I am only asking for things we covered in class this week.  Do not make this harder than this is by looking for other things.

This is the passage to edit.

This is the answer key to the passage to edit.

Action List for Tuesday, November 9, and Thursday, November 11, 2010

For Tuesday, November 9, 2010:

• Prepare for the Editing Exam.
• Continue conducting research for the Formal Report. 

For Thursday, November 11, 2010:

• Prepare to spend class time doing some prewriting activities for the Formal Report (you may wish to bring a laptop).
• Remember that DWA #12 will be held during class.

Action List for Thursday, November 4, 2010

There is nothing specific to do for class.  You may wish to bring Tuesday's readings to class for any questions you have.  Thursday is when we will go over sample questions in detail, and it will count as DWA #11.

Guidelines for the Editing Exam

You will be taking the Editing Exam in class a week from today.  On that exam, you can expect the following types of questions.

• There will be questions that ask you to define terms in bold in WTP and terms in italics from the scanned reading.  For example, what is the difference between a clause and a phrase?  Also, what is a nominalization?  This section will be worth twenty points.
• There will be questions that ask you to apply the knowledge in these chapters to actual sentences.  For example, I could ask you to classify sentences according to the four sentence types.  Also, I could ask you to rewrite passages so that they are more parallel.  Finally, I could give you a passage or a few sentences and ask you to cut the fat.  This section will be worth forty points.
• There will be passages that you must edit fully.  For example, I could give you a passage and ask you to edit it using all of the ideas in both readings.  Also, I could ask you to take a passage and edit it to create a final, usable document (much like the exercise we did in class where you created a library handout based on the large clump of text I gave you).  This section will be worth forty points.

If you miss the exam, I will give you a makeup, but it will consist of a different format and different questions than the exam I give during class.  You will most likely be asked to do more with less, meaning there will be fewer questions that you have to edit in multiple ways.

Action List for Tuesday, November 2, 2010

• Read: "Editing for Style" (Chp. 5 in WTP) and "Style: Shaping Sentences for Precision and Emphasis" by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen (PDF).
• Remember that DWA #10 will be held during class. 
• Remember that it will be Election Day, so vote!

Action List for Thursday, October 28, 2010

• Read Columbine, Chps. 51-53 and the Afterword (pgs. 338-70).
• Prepare for Reading Quiz #8 (your last quiz in this class).