Strategies for Success in WR 100
(information and resources for exiting WR 098 students)
Congratulations on your hard work in WR 098! The following tips will help you do your best in WR 100.
At the beginning of the semester:
· Look back at your old WR 098 writing, notes, syllabus, and assignments: In particular, revisit your previous instructor’s comments on the final paper and portfolio (likely to contain guidelines for future work).
· Reflect on your progress in WR 098: What were you able to improve about your writing in one semester? What are your current strengths and weaknesses with regard to academic writing?
· Compare your old materials to your new syllabus: What do you anticipate being the most difficult aspect of WR 100? When are the assignments due, and how can you plan your workload for the semester around these important due dates?
· Consider the WR 100 topic: How much background information do you have on this topic?
· Preview the books and other readings for your WR 100: What kinds of readings are required? Which seem the most difficult to you, and why?
· Ask your WR 100 instructor for help before problems develop: How much time does your new professor suggest you devote to the reading each week? Can your new professor offer some suggestions about the best way to begin thinking about the themes of the course?
· Model “good student” behavior, as you practiced in WR 098: Come to class prepared, with pen and paper; annotate the readings; aim to volunteer at least one comment or question during every class session in the first two weeks.
· Ask questions in class or in office hours, rather than after class or by email (unless your professor directs you otherwise). Email the instructor to set up an alternate appointment if the posted office hours conflict with your schedule.
· Make sure your WR 100 instructor knows you plan on working hard and doing your best.
When you start working on an essay assignment:
· Read the assignment sheet carefully: What is this assignment asking? How is it both different from and also similar to your WR 098 papers?
· Relax: Although the specifics of each assignment will vary, rest assured that your WR 100 instructor is not asking for a drastically different kind of essay than you have already written. In WR 100 you must write clear, coherent, argument-driven essays which use multiple sources, just as you were doing by the end of WR 098.
· Note which source(s) you must use and which you have the option to use. Be sure you have fully read and annotated the required sources. Can you summarize each source in one paragraph, and then also in one sentence? These summaries will help you as you begin to write your paper.
· Free-write on the essay prompt without the pressure to generate a claim (thesis statement) yet.
· Consider seeing the professor early on, before you are right up against a deadline. It’s generally more useful to see your professor than a tutor when you are still in the early stages of pre-writing and drafting, since the professor can help clarify the assignment and/or the readings, whereas the tutor does not know the particulars of your course, topic, reading, or assignment.
Before you turn in an essay assignment:
· Spell-check. Do not turn in an assignment (even a draft) with spelling errors.
· Proof-read and edit for basic grammatical errors. While professors do not expect 100% accuracy in your essays, they do want to know that you have checked, as best you are able, for basic grammatical errors. Rather than merely reading your essay over again, use focused editing techniques (from WR 098) to find and edit at least the following sentence-level errors. Add or subtract things from this list depending on your individual needs. Here is where a tutor may come in very handy, as the tutors can help you notice your own patterns of error.
o Subject-verb agreement (especially third-person singular present tense “s”)
o Verb tenses and sequence of tenses
o Verb forms (gerund vs. simple form, etc.)
o Sentence boundaries (comma splices, run-ons, and fragments)
o Possessives
o Plural count nouns with no articles when discussing things or people in general
o Non-count nouns (evidence, advice, vocabulary, grammar, etc.)
o No articles in front of abstract nouns (happiness, democracy, freedom, culture, etc.)
· Check for the mechanics and accuracy of quotations and citations. What citation style does your WR 100 professor require? Be sure you understand the mechanics of that style (MLA, etc.), and implement these in your essay (even if it is a draft). Be sure that you have quotation marks around all of the author’s words. Double-check all your quotes, making sure you transcribed them accurately and have a page number/reference for each quote in your essay. If you consulted any additional sources that your professor might not be aware of (any web pages, any outside articles, etc.), list these as best you are able at the end of your essay.
· Return to the assignment sheet, which typically lists the requirements of an individual essay, and use it as a final check-list to be sure you completed everything necessary for this paper.
· Be sure you understand the submission policy for your particular section of WR 100 and this particular paper: electronic or hard-copy? One copy or two? Blackboard or Digication? Check the syllabus and assignment sheet for these details.
· Be realistic about strengths and weaknesses. Reflect on the process so far: what did you struggle with? What would you work more on if you had a chance? Which paragraphs are not quite what you wanted to say? Communicate these concerns to your instructor, either in an introductory note on the essay (if the instructor allows/requires one) or else in a conference.
When you get feedback on an essay:
· Re-read your essay. Sometimes the gap between when you finished the essay and when you receive the feedback means that your essay is not fresh in your mind.
· Return to your own reflections on and assessment of your essay: How well do the professor’s comments match up with your own sense of the strengths and weaknesses of this essay?
· Divide the professor’s comments (if they are not already divided this way) into categories and consider each set of comments separately to better make sense of them:
o Comments on essay requirements
o Comments on your claim and argument
o Comments on your use of sources
o Comments on your sentences/word choice
o Other comments
· Consider what you need to do with this particular essay now. If this feedback comes on a draft, you must, at a minimum, address everything that your professor commented on in a revision. You should focus on these things in order from large to small: do not address syntax concerns, for example, before addressing a weakness in your argument. Consider seeing your professor for help with the larger issues and a tutor for help with the sentence-level ones. If this feedback comes on the final, graded version of an essay, make a list for yourself of things to focus on in your next essay as a result of these comments.
Throughout the semester, remember that WR 098 and WR 100 are designed as a unified course sequence; ask your current (or former) instructor for any help that you need in the process. Good luck in WR 100!