Instr:                  Jane Gallop
Office:               CRT 496,   229-6402
e-mail:                jg@uwm.edu
Office hours:    by appointment

Course Information:                   M 3:30-6:10pm     CRT 466
 

Course Description

This course concentrates on revision rather than composition of first drafts.  The assumption is that in revision the writer is working more on expression than on the ideas, more on the actual writing than on the thinking.  Learning to revise is learning to see the difference between what you write and what you meant to write.  Learning to revise is  learning to read your writing as if it were written by someone else, not relying on your sense of what you meant.   To that end, students will learn to comment on each other's writing and
then learn to apply those comments to their own writing.

Texts (available at People’s Books; 2122 E. Locust St., 962-0575):
Peter Elbow, Writing with Power
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
William Strunk and E. B White, Elements of Style, Fourth Edition
Ralph Keyes, The Courage to Write

Assignments: Papers:
In the course of the semester, each student will revise 3 papers (of 1-10 double-spaced pages) that were originally written for other courses.  The last paper will be revised twice.  Each
student will have a chance to have 2 of his/her papers workshopped in  class before they are revised.  Commentary: Each student will write comments on another student's paper and on one of her/his own. These comments will be graded.  Response papers:  During the course of the semester we will be reading four books about writing to help us think about what we do when we write.  Each student will write response papers on two of these books, papers which will be read in class and provide the basis for class discussion of the readings.  Writing journals:  Each student will keep a journal, writing down reflections about her or his experience writing or thinking about writing.  The student should write at least a paragraph a week, try to write regularly (even if only once a week).  Twice a semester each student will read from his/her writing journal in class.  Then the student will turn the journal in to be read by the instructor.