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Lesson 3

We will trade drafts with a partner to obtain and provide feedback on how we can improve our writing. We will use the feedback to revise our essays.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I revise my Culminating Task draft to improve clarity, development, organization, style, diction, and sentence fluency, both within and between sentences?

  • Can I edit my Culminating Task draft to demonstrate a command of standard English conventions using a style guide as appropriate?

  • Can I compose expository essays using genre characteristics and craft for my Culminating Task?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, Signet Classics, 1831

Materials

Reference Guides

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

We will work with a partner to revise our work to make sure we fully support and develop our ideas about the task, purpose, and audience. This will help us develop work that is clear and coherent.

Revision is the process of re-seeing your work with fresh eyes. Revision is a challenge for all writers—the art of making writing better is hard work that can feel messy at times.

Share your draft response with your partner, and then ask your partner the following questions:

  1. Is my central claim clearly stated?

  2. Do I sufficiently explain how each supporting claim is connected to the central claim?

  3. Is the evidence I use to support my claims relevant? Is my evidence integrated effectively? Do the integrated quotations use correct punctuation and citations?

  4. Do I use clear and precise language to make connections and transitions?

  5. Are my introduction and conclusion effective?

Repeat the process with your partner’s essay.

Activity 2: Write

We will revise our essay.

Using your partner’s feedback, revise your essay.

Activity 3: Write

We will revise our essays for publication.

Step 1

Conduct a spelling and grammar check for accuracy. When the computer prompts you with a red or blue line, indicating there is an error, what evidence from the text supports that the suggestion is right? Hint: it will not always be the first choice.

Step 2

Trade drafts with a partner. Read your partner’s essay, this time analyzing its usage, conventions, and style. Pay close attention to the following:

  • correct punctuation of quotations

  • use of present tense

  • periodic sentences for emphasis

  • a colon or semicolon where appropriate

  • effective parallel structure

Meet with your partner to review and discuss your observations about sentences and conventions.

Participate in a whole-class debrief to share insights and observations after the review activity.

Step 3

Revise your essay based on peer feedback. Complete your revisions for homework, if needed. Be ready to submit your final, revised essay in the next lesson.