Final Draft.

Today, a student asked me for a way to tackle the structure of the rough draft for the Close Reading assignment we’re currently doing. I’ve put together a rough outline below to hopefully help you all keep track of the types of things that should show up in your draft, as well as give you a sense of where they should be. Remember that you should be working in conversation with the author- you should tell us what they say, tell us how you’re responding, and then respond continually throughout the text. Initially, keep things a little more general, but still focused--- then, when you get to the body paragraphs, instead of working through big/main ideas, get down into more specific arguments. I’ve color coded things again to help you keep track of how the author’s ideas and your own can sit alongside each other throughout your work.

Red= your words

Purple= a mixture

Blue= the author’s words

1. Introduction

   1. Give your reader some general background information

      1. What text are you introducing them to?

      2. Who wrote the text?

      3. What’s it about?

   2. Begin setting up your conversation with the author (complex claim)

      1. What do they say (in general)?

      2. How did you react to those words/ideas (in general)?

      3. What response do you have to those words?

2. Body paragraphs (each of your body paragraphs should have roughly the same info)

   1. Topic sentence/opening moves

      1. Which of the arguments from the author are you responding to?

      2. What are you doing with that info?

   2. Get into what specifically about that opportunity (word/phrase/line) lead you to have that reaction (help them see the text without having to read it in full)

   3. Work through your explanation in a way that helps the reader understand by directly referencing the text piece by piece, but also thoroughly explaining your thought processes.

   4. Tell your reader why all of this matters, and what they stand to gain by trusting you and taking your arguments seriously.

   5. Explain how this specific argument supports your greater claim.

3. Repeat body paragraphs until done

4. Conclusion

   1. Rephrase your main idea, and your supporting points- try to really choose new words to explain what you’ve told your reader.

   2. Help the reader understand what benefit they’ll get from trusting/agreeing with your overall claim

   3. Tell your reader why they should care about that benefit.