Blog #4

Blog #4: Reading Response and Writing Center Internship Reflection
Due Friday, February 1st, by 11am (or soon after your WC Internship) 
Responses to your Peer Group due the following Monday by 11am (Reminder: Meet Monday, 2/4, in the AML)

Three parts to this blog:

Part 1: Reflection on Writing Center Internship (or begin drafting your Letter to the Editor)

Writing Center Internship: Please describe what you did for your Internship this week: the writing you saw, the students you worked with, the concepts you discussed, etc. As before, you'll need to reflect on your experiences and how they will help you revise your writing.  Below are the guiding questions to help you reflect on what you learn: 

• What you learned as a tutor
• What you notice about other students’ writing
• What you notice about the writing of multilingual writers
• What you notice about your own writing
• The language of tutors and writers
• Insights about language, academic writing, or tutoring
• How you helped other writers
• How other writers helped you

If no students came to the Writing Center during your hour, then use this space to continue brainstorming ideas for our upcoming Letter to the Editor assignment (or a letter of complaint or praise).  As we did in class, read one or more news articles from this past week and brainstorm responses to the issue(s).  Aim for at least 10 minutes of brainstorming.


Part 2: Reading Response to Ch. 4, pp. 19-26 of Style

"[W]e're constantly choosing between active and passive forms whenever we speak or write.  Revision allows us to reconsider these decisions" (p.21)

For this section, paste a paragraph from a previous piece of your writing, and identify whether your verbs are in the active or passive voice.  Then reflect, based on what you learned in the chapter, why your current voice (active or passive) works well for your purpose, or if you need to revise. 

Additionally, how will the concept of active and passive voice help you as you revise your current writing?  Is there any part of this chapter that confuses you?  As always, the more details you can give, the more helpful your responses will be to us and to you.

Length: For your reading response section, again aim for about 250 words or 2-3 paragraphs. 


Part 3: Revision of Last Week's Blog
After reflecting on how the chapter in Style will help you with your writing, revise two or three of the sentences your wrote for last week's blog.  Specifically, try to revise a sentence from passive to active voice (or active to passive) as a way to emphasize your main point, as discussed in Ch. 4.  After you revise your sentences, write a brief rationale of why your revision helped you experiment with the guidelines in Ch. 4.


Response:  For your response, you should 1) continue the conversation the author started in Part 2.  You should also 2) try to comment on their revised sentences in Part 3.  Examples:

• Why do you think the revised sentence is an improvement over the original sentence? 
• Can you suggest another revision?  
• Where is an example of a sentence where the author successfull demonstrates the concepts presented in Ch. 4? 

Due: Respond to everyone in your peer group, including yourself (for your own blog, either respond to one or both of your peers' responses or simply revise another part of your initial post), by Monday morning at 11am.

Length: Again, a paragraph is good.  Try to work on choosing the right verbs and eliminating bulky modifiers in your response AND/OR having a variety of simple, compound, and complex sentences (feel free to use the strikethrough option to show us your revision process).