Rewriting Assignment (All Classes) Autumn 2022

 Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Assignments"

On this day in Round and Square History 
17 November 2014—China's Lunar Calendar: 2014 11-17
17 November 2013—China's Lunar Calendar: 2013 11-17
17 November 2012—Structure, History, and Culture: Electoral College Politics (k)
17 November 2011—Lectures: Scholarship

[a] Fire Write RF

This special Tuesday-before-Thanksgiving assignment has a number of functions. It is meant to highlight the importance of writing drafts and rewriting as part of the ongoing writing process. It is also a realistic approach to the confusion of Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. Take a look at the assignment and follow the instructions precisely. Please note that this assignment replaces class. It does not involve extra work (you get to choose when you do it, as long as it in by Wednesday afternoon).

 All Classes

Letter Rewriting Assignment

[1] Make sure you have the following materials. They will be handed out in class on Thursday, 11/17.

If you were not in class on Thursday, 11/17, you may pick up the items outside of my office door (MI 206).

          *An index card.

          * A paperclip (seriously)

          *A copy of John McPhee's New Yorker essay, "Draft No 4."

             (these are attached with the paperclip, which you should not lose)

          *Your copy of "Writing, History, and Culture" (my writing guide, which you have)

[3] In place of a class meeting on Tuesday 11/22, do the following things.

          *Read the blue writing guide that you already own, pages 31-44, on the complete

            process of writing a truly exceptional paper (as you read, just imagine doing it).

            This should take about thirty minutes.

          *Read John McPhee's essay (about thirty minutes).

          *Think about it; really reflect upon it.

          *Mark up your previous letter draft—really mark it up.

          *Rewrite the letter you wrote for the first assignment of this course.

          *Reread it carefully one more time (on-screen or as a print-out).

          *Print the letter.

[b] Rewrite RF

[4] Take your unstapled, printed letter and make sure that the pages are in order.

[5] Take the index card and write out the full address of your reader. Then put your name on the index card, too.

[6] Put the index card on top of your letter, and attach them with the paperclip.

[7] Bring the paper-clipped materials to the MI administrative assistant, Becky Moffet (MI 219). From our classroom, walk all of the way down the hall, past the copy machine and the kitchen, and keep walking all of the way to the very end of the hallway—the office will be on your right). If you have problems, ask anyone in the building. If no one is in the office, gently slip it under the door.

Due No Later Than 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 22.

[c] リライト RF

Styling Culture (1)—Revise

Click here to read the introduction to the Round and Square series "Styling Culture." 

[a] Tales of Yore  RF

In the next few weeks I will be posting the text for a "volume" that I have been distributing for the last fifteen years. Back in 1997, I handed out a two-page set of instructions that I called "Rob's Style Sheet." I quickly learned that it could be a useful teaching tool, allowing me to describe the practicalities and esoterica surrounding grammar and style in the higher education classroom (and beyond). It also became apparent that it could be a useful tool for writing comments on student papers. Instead of trying to explain in the margins of a paper that s/he was using "number" in problematic ways (we'll get to that), I could write "#19," and have her know exactly what I mean. The most impressive students learned the material very well, and some of them have already gone on to be successful writers—in and beyond academia and the corporate world.

I will be posting the manuscript that I have provisionally entitled Styling Culture on Round and Square during August and September. As you will quickly see, it is meant to be a grammar book for the anthropologist of American English. It has its prescriptive elements, to be sure (this is all explained in the introduction to the series), but it is meant far more powerfully to be a genuinely useful guide to the culture wars surrounding grammar and usage. In particular, I have great venom for both the annoying critics who always seem to be correcting people and (this is important) for the "good guys" who tell you that it doesn't matter. They're both wrong, and they will hurt you if you listen to them. I'm here to help you, so read on. 

1—Write, Reflect, Revise (Repeat)

All good writing is rewriting. Write good.                       

All good writing is rewriting. Write well.

***  ***

Really, not much more needs to be said (but I will, anyway). Ever since I began teaching two decades ago, I have repeated these phrases—"All good reading is rereading; all good writing is rewriting." Period. There is a reason that this item is first in my style guide. It is the foundation for everything else.

NEXT
Write Serious (Formal, Academic) Prose

This is not as onerous as it sounds, and it in no way gives the writer permission to slather a text with jargon and incomprehensibility. To see what I mean, check out Friday's post.