When We Write In Class

You'll be writing and re-writing four good ideas this semester, bringing them as near to perfection as possible.  Eventually, four times per semester, we'll write an "inclass version" of each idea.  This is a challenging intellectual task, but if you can do it well, you're demonstrating a significant capacity to write.  And anyone who can do this will be able to write in nearly any situation.  This is the version that I'll grade.

Here are some things we'll do on the days that we're writing in class:
  1. First, you'll write without any notes or drafts or disks in the machines.  And you won't open up any other programs;  don't go into the internet or open up MyDMC or WebCt (at least until the very end.)
  2. Even though you won't be using any notes or drafts, you're not writing off the top of your head.  If you've been doing your drafting and re-writing on your ideas, you'll come to class with a very clear sense of what you're going to write.  You'll know what comes first, what comes last, and what comes in the middle.  You'll have a sense even of much of the language that you'll use.  In fact, you're writing a new essay, but for most of you, it'll probably look a lot like the best version of your idea so far.  In short, when we write in class, your job isn't to create an essay from scratch;  it's to put your idea into good, clear prose.
  3. Come to class with a lot of focus and energy.
  4. Use this link to create the heading of your paper.  At some point, you'll put in a title.
  5. Save the text on the desktop before you get too far into it.  Use your name as the file name.
  6. If you can write, this is the time to do it.  Make the text as good as you can.
  7.  If it were I, I'd take the whole period.  Some people write for 30 or 40 minutes and then leave.  But if you do that you're ignoring one of the most important and basic techniques of writing, going over your text again and again.  Doing so will give you a much better sense of what you're saying and of what the structure is like.  You'll notice things and new things will occur to you.  And you'll have a chance to consider other ways of saying the same thing, some of which will be better.
  8. At the end, be sure to save it one last time on the desktop.  Then you can close all the way out and send the document as an attachment to a WebCT email (not MyDMC).  Send it to me AND to yourself, so you'll have a copy, too.
  9. Then delete it from the desktop.
  10. Good Luck!