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WeekFour

Page history last edited by Roshi7 14 years, 8 months ago

tag of the day: perd (for "peer edit rough draft")

1101 Rough Draft Workshop

Welcome to Prose Activation Station

Connect, cut, and reconnect words, sound, images, and ideas.

tab this tabla

and listen as you read and remember

a simple one-two: agent-based prose

Select any paragraph from the peer draft you are reading. As you read focus your attention on the voice of the language. Do you find active configurations? Or passive constructions? This week, when we review each others' drafts, we have to be free to critique and open to suggestions. Identifying shifts in voice--from active to passive, and back again--can help you begin a conversation about the effectiveness of a peer's writing. If you find a paragraph in a peer's draft that "just doesn't seem right," read it aloud. Does the voice seem to shift randomly from active to passive voice, or does the writer seem to use voice to shift emphasis and direct your attention in order to amplify a particular argumentative pattern or point?

Experience grammatical voice as a rhetorical choice. Ask and answer these two questions:

who's the agent? Place this main character in the subject position (the beginning of your sentence)

what is the primary action performed by the agent, or main character? Place this verb immediately following the character performing the action

Perform this algorithm on your most recently composed paragraph in your definition, or on a portion of your narrative, or peer narratives and blogs. Then, read the results aloud. Finally, shift your attention to the paragraph's specific purpose, imagine it in a larger argument or final project. Revise back into the passive voice when it helps emphasize your paragraph's overall rhetorical purpose.

Now, look for transitions...will your readers see your sequence of ideas?