Writing a Draft of the Personal Document
Revising your writing provides you the chance to ensure your ideas are clear and effective prior to submitting the final draft. At times it can be challenging to see problematic areas in your own writing; this is where peer feedback can be very beneficial.
Prepare: Complete the assigned Unit 4 Reading and Learning Activities. Preview the Unit 4 Assignment details.
Review the topic ideas and prewriting you posted to the Unit 3 Discussion Board as well as the feedback you received from your classmates. Make any necessary adjustments to your topic, audience, and main point. That will prepare you to write a rough draft of your blog post.
Post: Post Your Draft
Using your prewriting ideas and feedback that helped you to choose one topic, audience, and purpose, write a 2–3-paragraph rough draft of your Unit 4 Assignment and post it to the Discussion Board. This is going to be a rough draft, so do not worry if it needs editing and revision. All drafts need work.
Include a bit of self-reflection as well so the class knows how to best help you:
Reading
Good writing follows a similar process: Prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing what you have written. At any point along the way, you can return to a previous step to add to what you have written. The Unit 4 Reading will help provide you with the knowledge you need to understand the writing process. You will then apply the writing process on the Unit 4 Discussion Board and Assignment this week.
- What aspects of your draft do you think could use development?
- What aspects of your draft do you think are strong?
- Which areas of your draft are you still working on?
- Include an open-ended question about any issue your initial post raises which your classmates can help you with.
Respond: Respond to classmates’ postings
Make comments and ask questions about two classmates’ drafts. Be sure to address the following points:
- What was the purpose of the document?
- Who is the intended audience?
- If you were the audience, would you be helped by the writer’s points and use of personal experience? How so?
- Are there places where more needs to be said?
- Using your knowledge of the revision process, what suggestions could you make for revising this draft?
Review a sample student Discussion Board post.
Discussion requirements
Initial post should:
- demonstrate effectively developed paragraphs
- be on topic
- be original
- contribute to the quality of the discussion
- make frequent and informed references to the unit concepts
Participation posts
- Demonstrate effectively developed paragraphs
- Show evidence of active engagement in the discussion (e.g., asking questions, answering questions posed by peers, and making further connections to course readings)
- Advance the discussion
- Demonstrate active engagement in the discussion and familiarity with the unit concepts
- Go beyond agreement or praise
- Students are also encouraged to respond to instructor follow up posts and questions and to respond to the questions their classmates have posted in their responses
Find out how to write effective posts by reviewing the Discussion Board Rubric.
Discussion
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