CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper Unit 9 Seminar David Becker Welcome to College Composition II!

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper seminar agenda Our seminar will focus on:  Polishing your final formal persuasive research paper.  Understanding the different stages of rewriting a draft.  Apply proofreading strategies to detect punctuation, spelling, and sentence-structure errors. In this unit, we will discuss how to:  Use several effective proofreading strategies  Use a number of other techniques to revise and edit.  Apply revision strategies to your paragraphs to help you revise for the final project.

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper but first … Do you realize how far you have come in with your writing so far? You have completed a bulk of your research, learned how to properly cite your sources and are in the home-stretch now. Give yourself a pat on the back! congratulations!

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper revisiting revision and editing As we learned in Unit 8, there are some important differences between revision and editing: Revision focuses on the "big picture" while editing focuses on the details. But in addition to the post- draft outline and the Paramedic Method of Revision, there are other techniques that can help you make it through the final stages of the writing process to read about and try.

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper revision and editing Philip Vassallo’s article, “Protect Your R.E.P.,” stresses the importance of planning and revision while writing a document. Though Vassallo is writing for a business audience, his points are relevant for all writers. Writers must focus on: Planning Drafting Quality Control (Revise, Edit, Proofread) Vassallo’s article can be found in the "Academic Search Premier" electronic article database in the Kaplan Library. A search for "Protect your R.E.P." will retrieve the article.

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper revision and editing Vassallo’s Quality Control System

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper revision and editing Vasallo asks, "Why, for instance, would we sharpen the quality of a sentence (an editing chore) only later to discard altogether the idea expressed in it (a revising chore)?" Have you found yourself completing writing tasks in the wrong order before? Have you spent hours revising punctuation on a section you later deleted because it was off-topic?

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper revision and editing Vasallo recommends leaving “an appreciable length of time between the planning and drafting steps and the quality-control step. Returning to the document after a hiatus erodes the writer's emotional connection to the message and brings a critical pair of eyes to the content."

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper the final project  A research paper of 4-6 pages on a topic you have developed over the course of the term.  You must include a separate title page and a references page in addition to the 4-6 required pages.  Properly cited sources following APA guidelines. Recall from Unit 1 that this research paper is NOT:  Everything you can find on a topic  One person's view on a topic  Only the material that supports your preconceived opinion  An opinion essay or a personal narrative

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper Instead, this research paper IS:  A paper that makes an argument.  Its goal is to persuade, not simply to inform.  A paper that uses outside research to support this argument, but that contains the author's own analysis of this outside research to make the argument. the final project

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper Sources: Your research paper must directly refer to at least 5 sources (in text). No more than 2 can be Internet-only sources (articles found ONLY on the Web. Articles from "MasterFILE Premier," "Academic Search Elite" or other library databases are not considered Internet-only). At least 2 must be books or academic articles ("Academic Search Elite" allows you to limit your search to scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals). the final project

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper the final project References page: Your final project research paper must include a references page containing all sources used, even those not directly referred to in the paper itself. The references page is in addition to, not included in, the 4-6 page minimum required for the paper. Title page: Your paper must also include a title page. You can view models of the References page and Title page in the Writing Center's reading, APA Manuscript Style.APA Manuscript Style

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper the final project Your final paper must be original work written for this class! You must be the author and you cannot use a paper from another class. Also, you turned in a draft in Unit 6, but please note that you will not receive credit for turning in the same version more than once. Your final project must show significant and substantial revision from the draft: paragraphs must be significantly revised, other paragraphs must have been added or deleted, etc. If you have concerns, please talk to your instructor prior to turning in your final project.

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper the home-stretch … The final steps toward completing your paper do not have to be stressful! This checklist will help you be sure you to include the necessary components of the paper:  Does the title page meet the correct APA format?  Did you include the running header?  Do you have 4-6 pages of text?  Is your text double-spaced?  Do you have 1" margins and 12 point font?  Do all supporting materials have in-text citations?  Does the paper refer to at least 5 sources (at least two books or academic articles, but no more than two Internet-only sources)  Is your thesis statement apparent and appear in the introduction?  Is the body of your paper persuasive?  Are the transitions between paragraphs strong move the reader forward?  Does your conclusion tie your ideas together leave the reader with something memorable?  Do you have an APA formatted References page (or pages)?

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper Good luck on your papers, everyone!

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper a look ahead - unit 10 Please note that there is no Unit 10 seminar for College Composition II, however we will spend a little time talking about: A recent study that found that, even in positions requiring little writing, effective writing is the key to being hired and promoted. You will also have an opportunity to reflect on your achievement in this course and create an action plan to help you continue to build your writing skills over your college and professional careers.

CM226 College Composition II Wednesday, February 24, Unit 9: Polishing the Final Paper Thanks for being with us today!