Step by Step Checklist: Crafting the Personal Narrative Begin by brainstorming e

Step by Step Checklist: Crafting the Personal Narrative
Begin by brainstorming experiences in your life that you think may be a good fit to showcase a story where you experienced gratitude.
Once you settle on an experience upon which to write, begin to imagine the experience as a story. Use the storytelling graphic organizer to brainstorm the sequence of events.
Next, imagine the characters who will appear in your story. Of course, you will be in this, but who else plays a role? Imagine you are a character in the story, as well as those who share in the experience. By imagining you and others as characters, this will lead you to appropriately characterize those involved as well as build conversations between the characters. Internal or external conversations or dialogue between characters allows the reader to really see the story unfold. We call this showing vs. telling.
Start Writing! As you begin to draft your first draft, focus on using vivid details and sense imagery. If the story becomes too detailed or too long, you can always edit what is necessary. As well, share details that are specific and relevant to this experience.
Organize your story by using a clear and logical order, with a strong introduction and conclusion.
Incorporate dialogue to show a character’s personality and propel the story forward.
Show that the experience had a definite impact on you–in other words, has a point or thesis.
Select various words and sentence structures to create tone and voice–focusing on your audience will help you focus on the tone you use.
When you’re done writing the draft–read it to yourself and make sure that the story illustrates a strong point, vivid characters, and a clear beginning, middle, and end structure.
Correct errors in spelling, usage, mechanics, grammar, and sentence formation. As well, be sure your story has an original title and that you properly label your draft using MLA formatting.
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Step by Step Checklist: Crafting the Persuasive Letter
Choose your topic–your reader and their belief. Start by making a list of three, and live with them for a few hours, imagining the letter you’d write. The topic that produces the most developed letter–a thesis and the subjects of the body paragraphs would be ideal–is the one you want to go with.
Make a good faith effort to see matters from your reader’s eyes. Try to do so without judgment. What feelings, concepts, and rationalizations underlie your reader’s belief or behavior? Note them. Developing a clear, accurate understanding of your reader’s belief or behavior in your efforts to move them from it, and this exercise will help you to avoid a potentially fatal pitfall: Little is more lethal to the efforts of a persuasive writer than a mistaken assumption about what their reader thinks.
Assess the rhetorical situation, and if necessary, research your subject. Our aim is to write a letter that balances its appeals. Because you know your reader, the emotional appeals you’ll make will likely come more easily to you. Be sure to consider your letter’s logical aspects, and assess to what extent your letter might profit from research. We research for two reasons. We research to strengthen our support. Also, we research simply to achieve the sort of command of our subject matter that is needed to write credibly about it. If you need to brush up on your subject, now is the time.
Develop your thesis/main claim. The thesis is the central point of your letter, the point that unifies all the material within it. Succinctly and clearly, it needs to transact two tasks. 1. It needs to communicate what you want your reader to change. 2. It needs to communicate the major reasons why they should change it. (A smart strategy for structuring your argument is to make each “why” the subject of a body paragraph.)
Outline your letter, This is a document for you. It can be as complex or as simple as you wish. Minimally, nail down the thesis/main claim and subjects for the body paragraphs. During outlining, listen to what your outline tells you about your project. The places in the outline that fill you with uneasiness are the places in your letter that are asking for your attention. Resolve as many issues as you can before starting the draft. The time needed to fix a problem during prewriting is usually far less than the time needed to fix the same problem during revision.
Write your draft. Try to hear your words as you type. Imagine that you’re in a conversation but can freeze it in order to choose the words you like best. Your language should be mindful of the rhetorical situation and your ethos, or your credibility. Consider your relationship to the reader and to the subject matter, and pitch your language to be taken seriously.
Put your draft away before you revise. Step 7 is: do nothing for a while–literally. Step 7 wins “Best Step.” To revise is to re-see, and after drafting, when we’ve spent so much time looking at a project, we experience a kind of eye fatigue that stops us from seeing it clearly. Avoid skipping this step. Put one sleep between the end of drafting and the start of revision. And whatever you do, do not submit your draft now. A certain perspective afflicts developing writers that sees the final period on the rough draft as the end of the process–few attitudes are more harmful to the grades that papers earn.
Revise your draft. Revision focuses on the conceptual characteristics of your draft, the ideas your language proposes, the emotions it evokes, the depth, coherence, and order of the world your words conjure–not punctuation and grammar. If possible, engage a trusted reader, a friend, or family member whose judgment you trust, to offer feedback. Two sets of eyes are always better than one.
Edit your draft. Correct usage, spelling, mechanical, and grammatical errors. For the many for whom this is something less than straightforward (How am I supposed to correct the mistakes, if I’m the one who made them in the first place?) you are encouraged to make cautious use of spell and grammar check software, such as Grammarly, to engage a second reader whose editorial skills you trust, and to direct your attention to this courses appendices or any resource you like and trust.
Ensure your letter complies with MLA formatting and if applicable, citation guidelines.
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Step by Step Checklist: Crafting the Compare/Contrast Essay
Begin by brainstorming two topics that might be effectively compared, contrasted, or compared and contrasted.
Once you have settled on your two topics, start to plot out your points of comparison and/or contrast using graphic organizational strategies like a Venn diagram or a compare and contrast table. You can also just create a simple list of these points, if you prefer.
Once you have a robust list of compare and contrast points, you will need to narrow the focus to a select few. Often, three points work well for this paper. You can certainly choose more, but do not choose less than three supporting points, or you may not achieve full development and support of your claims.
Next, create a specific and straightforward explicit thesis/claim statement. The reader should have no confusion about your purpose (to compare, to contrast, or to compare and contrast) or the supporting points that you will be using to prove the similarities and differences between your topics.
Then, start outlining your point-by-point organizational strategy.
As you work to organize your own ideas, you should also begin to carefully collect source material or evidence. While you need to include at least two reliable and credible sources with this essay, your original insight and analysis is still the most important part of this essay. The research should be a complement to your ideas, not the central focus.
Don’t forget to continue to focus on your compare/contrast language and analysis. Readers should never wonder what you are trying to demonstrate with this essay.
Be sure to use third-person perspective throughout the entire essay.
When it comes to your conclusion, remember to remind readers of your thesis and all of your supporting points in this final paragraph, but don’t repeat the thesis verbatim. Instead, summarize all that has come before in the essay, using different language. Be sure to avoid introducing new ideas in the conclusion, as this could confuse readers (and these ideas can’t become fully developed or supported).
Proofread your essay by correcting any errors in spelling, usage, mechanics, style/language, grammar, and sentence structure. Double-check that you are using MLA formatting.
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Step by Step Checklist: Crafting the Argumentative Essay
Keep in mind that argument writing works best as part of a process. You’ll want to plan to create an outline, build a draft, and then put together a polished final version. Time management is an essential part of argument writing success–so, do be sure to plot time out for all of these steps before the writing actually begins.
Once you are ready, begin by brainstorming topics that can support a strong argumentative angle; not all topics will work well for this assignment, so you will want to spend some time narrowing your list to only those topics that will sustain a claim for or against a policy change. Then, choose the strongest one.
When it is time to start writing, you’ll want to create an introduction that offers a hook–something engaging that can grab the readers’ attention.
Make sure to craft a clear thesis statement/ central claim, which you will place at the end of the intro paragraph that includes a strong argument for or against a change, and at least three specific supporting points that can scaffold that claim.
Be sure to build strong topic sentences that are clearly angled towards argument. Ideally, each of your topic sentences will follow-through on one of the supporting points from the thesis. Then, you will use the body paragraphs to prove those points.
As you work to organize your own ideas, you should also begin to carefully collect source material. While you need to include at least four reliable and credible sources (i.e. scholarly sources) with this essay, your original insight and analysis is still the most important part of this project. The research should be a compliment to your ideas, not the central focus. See Appendix D on procuring and citing sources in MLA format.
Be sure to use third-person perspective throughout the entire essay. Staying away from “I, me, we, you, us, our” language will help you to avoid creating assumptions about the reader, inserting biases, relying on hasty generalizations, and/or including logical fallacies.
When it comes to your conclusion, remember to remind readers of your thesis/central claim and all of your supporting points in this final paragraph, but don’t repeat the thesis verbatim. Instead, summarize all that has come before in the essay, using different language. Be sure to avoid introducing new ideas in the conclusion, as this could confuse readers.
Proofread your paper by correcting any errors in spelling, usage, mechanics, style/language, grammar, and sentence structure. Double-check that you are using MLA formatting.
Revisit Appendix D for more information on internal citations and Works Cited citation using MLA formatting.
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