Instructor's Guide

Quizzes, Reflective Questions and Activities

The following assignments are embedded in the Making Revisions and Using Mark-Up Symbols tutorial:

• Activity 1: Quiz - Revising Strategies

• Activity 2: Quiz - Major Composition Elements

Relationship to Other iStudy Tutorials

This tutorial is related to other tutorials on writing, including Writing and the College Experience, and Written Reports. Therefore, it is recommended that instructors introduce this tutorial to students in conjunction with other writing-related tutorials.

Suggested In-class Methods of Presentation

Lecture

• Explain the purpose/intent of the session. Refer to the Purpose section for more detail.

• Provide an introduction and overview of the revision process, starting with a definition of the process:

Revision is a process of re-seeing a written composition. After you have finished the first draft, you re-read it and make changes to it. During the process of revising, you add, delete, replace and reorder ideas and terms. In other words, the process of revision involves complex activities of re-reading, evaluating and making changes to improve your work.

Discussion and Activities

Why Revise?

Small Group Discussion

The purpose of this exercise is to help students critically reflect on the importance of the revision process.

Instructions: Form small (4-5 people) student groups. Assign each group the task of listing as many possible reasons for using a revision process for writing. If students have used the iStudy tutorial on Brainstorming, have them apply brainstorming techniques to the task. Student groups can then share their findings with the class.

Group Editors

The purpose of this exercise is to have students edit a document for revision.

Instructions: Form small (4-5 people) student groups. Assign each group the task of editing a short article (provided by the instructor). Groups must use standard mark-up symbols. Groups can then share their revisions and rational for each requested revision with the class.

Note : This is an excellent opportunity to utilize and reinforce the cooperative learning techniques found in the iStudy Cooperative Learning tutorial.

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Key Points

These points are covered in the iStudy tutorial, but should be emphasized in any discussions.

General Strategies for Revision

The instructor may want to stress the following:

• Do not start the revision process right after you finish writing. Give yourself some time away from the material. A cooling-off period enables you to take a new look at your paper with a fresh view.
• Read your paper through silently several times to see if there are places that make you hesitate or stop because of difficulties in reading. These places may be easier to locate if you stay in touch with your feelings as you read. Your feelings will send you the signal that an idea needs to be explained with more care.
• Read your paper aloud. Reading aloud forces you to examine every word and sentence. Moreover, hearing your own writing helps you detect errors in content and organization.
• Keep the purpose and the audience of your writing in mind. At the stage of revision, you are more of a reader than a writer. Reading your paper from the perspective of your readers can help keep your composition within the context of your readers' understanding.
• Let another reader tell you where the draft is clear or unclear. Get feedback and articulate your ideas to that reader. In doing so, you will clarify ideas for yourself.

Major Composition Elements

Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is the claim that your writing makes. Revision entails rethinking your thesis statement.

Development

The development of the composition should support your thesis statement with explicit explanations and enough examples and relevant details to guide readers to an understanding of your ideas.

Ask yourself the following questions to maintain focus on development:

• Is the thesis statement actually being developed or is it merely being repeated or rephrased?

• Are the supporting ideas clearly explained and logically related to the thesis?

• Are there sufficient arguments in your composition and are they backed up by concrete details and/or examples?

• Are the sources used in the composition comprehensive and relevant to the support of the thesis?

Organization

In order for readers to follow the thread of your thoughts, you have to structure your ideas. If you have great ideas but do not present them in a logical order, you end up only confusing your readers. Structuring ideas in a well-organized way can bridge the difference between confusion and order. Each paragraph should be unified with a central idea, and paragraphs should be logically ordered and connected.

 

Sentence Structure

Make sure all sentences are complete and otherwise grammatically correct.

• Does the sentence have a subject and verb, and is it a complete thought?

• Do the subject and verb agree in number?

• Do the verbs agree in tense?

• Do the noun and pronoun agree in number?

• Can you find the noun that the pronoun is referring back to?

• Do you find any fragments or run-on sentences?

Use of Words

Examine each word in your composition individually. Use a spellchecker and the dictionary.

• Have you avoided slang, jargon and cliches?

• Is the choice of word appropriate for your purpose and intended audience?

• Look up the words whose meanings you are not sure of. Do they mean what you want them to mean?

• Is the word spelled correctly? Punctuation

• Do the sentences end with a period, question mark, or exclamation point?

• If the sentences end with an exclamation point, is it really necessary that they do so?

• If the sentences are too long, can they be broken down into smaller sentences without loss of effectiveness? If not, would the proper placement of one or more commas make it easier to understand the sentence?

• Have you used commas to separate the elements of a series?

Documentation

There are two major documentation styles: MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association). The MLA publishes a style manual used primarily by scholars in literature and the humanities. The most recent edition is "MLA Handbook for Writer of Research Papers," 4th Edition.

To use APA format, you can consult the "Publication Manual of the APA," which provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of citations.

• Are all of the quotations, paraphrases, and summaries of ideas from other sources acknowledged with in-text references?

• Do all bibliography entries include necessary and accurate information in the correct format?

Mark-Up Symbols

In order to communicate textual changes between you and the reviewer, conventional mark-up symbols are useful. See diagrams in the iStudy tutorial.

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Assessment Criteria

Through observing both the group's and the individual's activity, the instructor may assess student performance. Assessment criteria are as follows (Instructors supply the percentage weights):

 

Assessment Criteria

Where	Domain	Activities	%
iStudy Tutorial	Knowledge	The student can identify conventional mark-up symbols by drawing them and writing their function. The student can identify general strategies for revision and major composition elements by listing them.
iStudy Tutorial	Comprehension & Analysis	The student can distinguish major composition elements by giving an explanation and/or important related questions.
iStudy Tutorial	Synthesis & Evaluation	The student can modify and criticize his/her written composition as well as others' by using general strategies for revision and conventional mark- up symbols.
			100%

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