Organization Revision
STUDENT MATERIALSSTUDENT MATERIALSS-1WRITING – ORGANIZATION REVISIONWORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1750 / LESSON 4.3 ACTIVITYPreparation• Have your Score-graded essay ready to use for annotation and revision purposes. • Download the WHP Writing RubricPurposeWhen you take the opportunity to revisit and revise your writing, you are building editing skills that will serve you in all types of academic and professional writing. While the ‘revision’ stage of essay-writing is often the most dreaded (or, let’s be honest, sometimes skipped over entirely) part of the process, editing using targeted feedback is how you raise the level of your writing. This activity focuses on the Organization row of the WHP rubric and helps you identify areas of success and areas for improvement in you essays. You’ll use these fine-tuning structure and transition skills for writing in class and in life.ProcessIn this activity, you’ll first review the Organization row of the WHP Writing Rubric with your class if you haven’t already done so. Then, you’ll review the Organization Revision Tool and learn how to use it to improve upon the essay’s overall clarity and organization. Finally, you’ll use the Organization Revision Tool to review and revise an essay. If needed, start by reviewing the Organization row of the WHP Writing Rubric with your class. Discuss why it’s important to think carefully about how an essay is structured. Also, keep in mind that a well-organized essay always has an intro, a bod¬y, and a conclusion. Next, take out the Organization Revision Tool and walk through it with your class. First, note the directions at the top, which ask you to review the feedback from an essay. This is a helpful step because it gives you a general sense of how the essay fared in terms of overall organization and clarity and where improvement is needed. Now, it’s time to go through each item on the checklist to make sure all criteria related to organization were included in the essay. Work through the list with your class and be sure to ask questions if you aren’t clear about what an item is asking for. Remember, only check the boxes if the criteria are met. If any criteria from the checklist were not met, leave those boxes blank. The final step is to revise the essay based on all the blank checkboxes. Use the unchecked boxes as guidance for what can be done to improve the organization of the essay. You can also use the Organization Prewriting Tool to help structure revisions. Once you feel like you have mastered how the Organization Revision Tool works, your teacher may have you work on another essay to practice your skills.
Name:Date:Name:Date:STUDENT MATERIALSS-2WRITING – ORGANIZATION REVISIONWORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1750 / LESSON 4.3 ACTIVITYDirections: First, review the feedback for the essay. Look specifically at the feedback on organization to help you get a general understanding of how and where the essay could be improved. Second, go through each item on the checklists below to make sure all criteria related to organization are included in the essay. Third, for any items you do not check off, it’s time to revise. Use the unchecked boxes as guidance for what you can do to improve your essay. You can use the Organization Prewriting Tool to help guide your edits as well.Step 1 – Improve introduction and thesis/major claim.Review each paragraph to be sure you have included a supporting claim for your thesis/major claim. (If you don’t have a major claim, skip to the next section. Everything depends on a clearly stated claim!)oThere is a clear supporting claim early in the paragraph.oThe supporting claim is in keeping with the focus of the major claim. In other words, it is clearly related to the major claim.oThe evidence and reasoning help prove the supporting claim.Think about and review the ordering of the supporting paragraphs.oThe paragraphs are ordered in the most logical way to structure the argument and support the thesis/major claim. (Note: if you do not check this box, we definitely recommend you go back and look at the Organization Prewriting Tool!)Review each paragraph’s transitions.oThere are transition words and phrases that make the organization clear by emphasizing your deliberate choices for ordering your paragraphs.Step 2 – Review and improve structure of supporting paragraphs. Review the introduction. Your introductory paragraph introduces the structure of your argument. oA thesis/major claim is clearly stated. oA quick preview of supporting claims is included in the thesis/major claim statement. oA phrase is included in the thesis/major claim that addresses counterclaims. Step 3 – Improve the conclusion.Review the conclusion for clarity and significance without repetition. oThe argument is recapped (but not repeated) in a way that allows readers to make sense of how all the details and analysis add up.oThe argument is connected to the larger significance of the topic..