Writing Conferences: Hitchhiker Outlines

Since today's main objective was for students to have one-on-one time with me to discuss the outlines that they are developing, I didn't want to spend a lot of time on peer editing.  

So, I collected and redistributed the papers (to ensure that friends didn't get each other's) and I gave them two simple jobs -- to see if their peer had set the outline up correctly AND to see if the body paragraphs, as outlined, passed the "So what?" test.  In other words, if your paragraph is done correctly, yet nothing you say is of any significance, you need to take a step back and think about the purpose of the paper.  

I tell students that writing a paper is like zooming in and out with a camera.  To fine-tune, you need to zoom in and work on the details.  But you also need to pull back and make sure that your paper is accomplishing its purpose.

Note:  When students got to me, I was impressed with most of the peer editing.  They took their jobs seriously.

Basically, I wanted a chance to meet, face-to-face, with every student.  So, I called them up, one by one (alphabetically.)  It took forever, and at times, I found myself losing focus.  However, I do think doing this is about a million times more valuable than writing comments..and it actually takes less time.

What I learned:

• They still need help with structuring paragraphs.  Topic sentences were not a given.
• Most couldn't talk about their outline without looking at it.  This seems to suggest a lack of connection with the work.
• If you give students an option to NOT meet with you, many won't.  After I gave one person that option and they took it, I did not offer it again.