Purpose Statement
I loved this category of our Student Success Grant
discussions because it focuses on the higher level thinking skills a student
needs in order to succeed in a given class. Each discipline has its own ways of
defining and solving problems, and these methods need to be clearly identified
for the students. It is exciting to think about how, exactly, your discipline
organizes information and defines "problems" and their "solutions."
As a composition instructor, I decided that the main problem-solving issue in
my classroom involved evaluating a rough draft and deciding how it needed to be
revised. Many students finish a paper and feel that it is done, that they
cannot possibly change it or do any new thinking in order to make it more
logical, more developed, and therefore more persuasive.
My paragraph glossing technique gives them a place to start to revise their
papers, and a way to add new thinking to something they feel is
"done." This technique would be useful in any class that requires
papers, and you may spend as little or as much time on it as you wish.
Description of
Activity
The handout below lays out the steps of paragraph glossing.
It is similar to making an outline after writing a draft of an essay, but it is
a little more creative and analytical than that. In other words, students do
not simply list what is on the page: they must work to define what they want to
say (or what the writer seems to want to say if the student is glossing someone
else's paper) in each paragraph (often they have not said it yet), and they
must evaluate how persuasively each paragraph makes its points.
Materials Needed
Here are copies of the three handouts I use in order to
teach this revision technique.
The first one provides a rough outline of what a paper should look like. It is
a little abstract, of course: it is important to make it more concrete by also
looking at a sample student paper. The most important concept on the outline,
in addition to the conventional points about a thesis, evidence, and analysis,
involves how students transition between ideas. For me, this is the key
difference between high school and college writing: in high school, students
can get away with three main ideas in support of a rather bland thesis, ideas
that can be presented in an interchangeable order. In college writing, there
are often more than three main ideas, and, even more importantly, the order of
these ideas, how they relate to one another, reflects the depth and complexity
of one's analysis. If students don't have a reason for ordering their points in
a certain way, then they have not, in my opinion, thought hard and long enough
about their topic.
The second one describes the paragraph glossing technique. Its a little dense,
but worth it!
The third is a graphic organizer students can fill out as they do their
paragraph gloss. (In higher level courses I do not spend the duplicating budget
on these handouts, but just put the format on the board and let them copy it
onto their own paper. Many students even type their paragraph glosses, which is
great.)
Conventions of Paper Structure
Introduction
engage the reader
brief vignette or story
a quote
a specific, interesting observation that
relates to the topic
a specific, interesting observation
about the text
etc.
provide context
author and title (if applicable)
information the reader needs in order to
understand the topic
lead up to your thesis (two to four
sentences): the main ideas or concepts
that we need in order to understand your
thesis
thesis (one-two sentences)
specific, states an opinion, not a fact
answers the "how" or "why" questions of
your analysis or interpretation
Body paragraphs (3 or 4, usually; more depending upon the paper's length, of
course)
topic sentence--paragraph must tie back to
the thesis
main idea of the paragraph
transition between or relationships
among ideas: why are your paragraphs in
the order they're in?
evidence or support
direct quotes and paraphrased details
from texts
interviews, if applicable
personal observation and experience, if
applicable
analysis of your evidence--explain how it
supports your thesis
often: end with a clincher or wrap-up
sentence
Conclusion
summary of argument, without sounding
repetitive--think of it as a drawing together
of your ideas
a last observation or thought that deepens
or opens up the paper
Monda
The Revision Process: Paragraph Glossing
Paragraph glossing will help you plan how to revise your rough draft. Think of
paragraph glossing as writing topic sentences after the paragraphs have been
written. Do not, however, assume that your existing topic sentences actually
capture your paragraph's main idea: meaning can change as we write, and our
paragraphs often take off in new directions as we put our thoughts into words.
Therefore, your paragraph glosses usually should not match your existing topic
sentences.
On a separate sheet of paper, make a list of your gloss, or single-sentence
paraphrase, for each paragraph in your draft. You may write specific phrases
rather than complete sentences. Also, you may have more than one main idea in a
given paragraph. Follow the steps listed below.
1. If you have an introduction, read it carefully and locate your rough thesis
statement. Write it at the top of your separate sheet of paper. (You will
probably come back and refine this thesis later.)
2. Read your first body paragraph. Underneath your rough thesis, skip a couple
of lines, write "Body P 1," and gloss, or paraphrase, this
paragraph's main idea(s) in a single complete sentence. Don't worry about the
correctness of this sentence--it may even be a fragment--instead, focus on
being very specific and accurate, capturing the ideas[s] in the paragraph.
Also, don't leave out any main ideas: you may need two sentences (which might
mean you two paragraphs instead of one--but do not try to answer this question
until you have finished glossing each paragraph).
Then, ask yourself:
a. Does the paragraph need more evidence?
b. Does the paragraph need more analysis or explanation of its evidence?
c. Does anything seem repetitive? unnecessary? unrelated?
3. Repeat step number 2 above for each of your body paragraphs, labeling each
one "Body P 2," "Body P 3," and so on.
4. If you have a conclusion, write "Concl." and paraphrase its main
point(s). Go back and reread your rough thesis: does it seem similar to your
paraphrase of your conclusion? If not, which seems more specific and interesting?
You may be able to make your thesis more thoughtful based on the ideas in your
conclusion.
[over please]
5. Here comes the hardest, and most important part: examine your list of
paragraph glosses, and ask these questions:
a. Is there a reason for your paragraphs to be in the order they're in? In
other words, do your ideas unfold logically? Or, could you move your paragraphs
around in order to make your thinking more clear and persuasive to the reader?
(There is no single right answer in terms of paragraph order: if you have a
reason for putting your paragraphs in the order they're in, and have made this
reason clear to your reader, then your paragraphs are in a logical order.) Some
writers order their paragraphs from the least to the most important point.
Others focus on cause and effect: the idea in paragraph one leads to the idea
in paragraph two which leads to the idea in paragraph three, and so forth. Some
papers are ordered chronologically, others spatially. Still others order their
ideas from smallest to largest or largest to smallest (for example, individual,
family, society; or society, family, individual).
b. Do your paragraphs support a specific, thoughtful thesis? Now that you have
listed the main ideas in your paper, have you discovered a way to refine your
thesis statement?
c. Do you need to add any new paragraphs in order to prove your thesis?
d. Do you need to cut and/or combine any paragraphs in order to avoid being
redundant?
6. Finally, summarize what you have learned. For some writers, paragraph
glossing confirms that their ideas flow in a logical order, and their body
paragraphs are all well-developed, with concrete examples and clear analysis.
For most, however, paragraph glossing reveals several areas for improvement. At
the very least, writers usually discover that their thesis statement could be
more analytical. At the end of your gloss, list at least three goals for
revision. These goals should be based on what you learned from your paragraph
glossing.
Paragraph Glossing
Paragraph Glossing
Your Name:
Paper:
Date:
Rough thesis:
Body P 1:
more evidence? yes no
more analysis? yes no
anything to cut? yes no
Body P 2:
more evidence? yes no
more analysis? yes no
anything to cut? yes no
Body P 3:
more evidence? yes no
more analysis? yes no
anything to cut? yes no
Body P 4:
more evidence? yes no
more analysis? yes no
anything to cut? yes no
[Note: if you have additional body paragraphs, continue on the back of this
page]
Concl.:
Three revision goals:
1.
2.
3.
Application
Ideally, one takes time to model this process with either a
rough draft volunteered by a student in the class, or a draft from one's files.
The trickiest part of paragraph glossing involves defining the main idea of
each paragraph: students usually just take the paragraph's topic sentence,
which often does not contain the true main idea, or list a main idea that is
too vague or general. This list of main ideas must show the writer's thinking,
or interpretation: every main idea should reflect the point the writer is
making. (In a research paper, however, some paragraphs might be more factual,
with less original thinking, but even in a research paper the main idea of each
paragraph should be specific and focused, supporting a clear overall point.)
Students need practice with this skill of clearly and specifically labeling a
paragraph's main idea. It's a good idea to have students read out a gloss of a
given paragraph, and then ask the class if it seems specific and analytical
enough.
After we have practiced as a group, I like to have students exchange rough
drafts and do paragraph glosses for each other. This can be done during class
time (and takes about thirty minutes), or as homework that you later collect
with the paper's final draft. In subsequent papers, I require students to do
their own paragraph glosses of their rough drafts, and turn them in with their
final drafts.
Related Student
Services
The Writing Lab in Learning Support Services would help
students analyze their rough drafts using this paragraph glossing technique.
Students who are in DSPS or in EOPS also have access to writing tutors who are
hired by those programs.
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and modified on 6/9/99 at 4:39:55 PM