A Note on Revisions

Keep in mind that the goal on revising your essays should be to make significant changes that affect the overall impact of your argument.  You should not just be trying to fix comma problems and misspelled words.  Though important, those usage problems make up only 20% of the writing process.  Significant changes mean rewriting your thesis (assuming you have one), reorganizing your essay, adding new paragraphs to develop ideas (or deleting ones that get off track), and adding transitions and other aspects of effective style to help the flow of your writing.  Although I have stated that a percentage change in your writing is somewhat arbitrary, it suggests the amount of effort that you have put into your revision.  The goal I have set for everyone is a 15% change, which means you should have an originality report of 85% or less in Turnitin.  Notice how the three reports below show how one person did a significant amount of change (hopefully for the best) whereas the other two did little at all.

The argument can always be made that your essay is as good as it gets, but you should be ready to defend why.  Simply stating that your peer reviewers found no problems, so you did not know what to change, means you are not engaged in the writing process.  You are being a passive writer/student and not systematically going through and looking for problems in 1) purpose, 2) organization, 3) development, 4) language, and 5) usage--all of the things addressed in the self-assessment and the peer reviews.

To get an overview of the rubric which I use to grade or assess you for the assignments, click on the rubric icon in Turnitin.



PS to the Procrastinators: If you missed the deadline for either the essay or peer reviews, your should still submit a draft prior to the revision deadline to avoid missing MORE points (5% of your grade is based on revision--which is equal to half a letter grade)

Assigned Historical Context Reports

Scrolled down and check below to make sure you have been given the correct report; if you thought you signed up for a different report, send me an email immediately (there was some confusion in the 11am Tuesday class).  If you were not in class or signed up for a slot already filled with TWO reports, I assigned you to a different report.  We are pretty much set for the week's reports following Spring Break, so make sure you are prepared before class.  To prepare for your report, see the Guide to Researching Your Topics.
.

Guide to Researching Your Topics

In preparation for the fiction section and the historical context research, you will need to have some basic research skills beyond just going to Google or asking Wikipedia.  You should follow the basic leads given for your assigned report in the Historical Context Assignments to start your research, which includes locating peer reviewed articles through a Google Scholar search that usually must accessed through the college's database. but then utilize the discussion begun in Wednesday's or Thursday's class and then walk through this guide:

• Research Help from Modesto Junior College's Library

This can seem overwhelming at a glance, but if you think of this as a textbook, there are very few pages AND this is your primary learning objective for the next few weeks.  Furthermore, this information needs to be implemented for your final annotated bibliography and your fiction essays.  So take the time to process the information.

Make sure that you scan through ALL sections, including the short, but helpful videos, but pay CLOSE attention to sections that are especially relevant to researching your reports, such as these six areas:

2. What Are the Different Types of Information? in Understand Information
3. What Types of Sources are There? in Understand Information, including the link to Selecting Sources from the University of Texas, Arlington Libraries

2. Find Books in Find Useful Information
3. Find Articles in Find Useful Information
4. Find Web Resources in Find Useful Information

• Note that all the references to databases and catalogs are for Modesto Junior College.  See the links below for Santa Fe Library's links for literary and historical research resources.  If you are NOT sure which resource to use after going through the guide above, come see me.
•  Some of the research assigned topics are based more on the literary aspects of a work, so you should consult the ENC1102 Library Guide for an overview of
• Literary Criticism Databases 
• Literary Criticism Books 
• Many of the research topics are based on US History, so consult the library's guide for AMH2020
• If you have never used any of the online library resources, make sure you view the short video Tutorials

and finally, before you settle on using something, make sure it is credible by reading MJC Library's

Evaluate Your Sources, including the cheesy but useful link to Credible Sources Count! from Vaughan Memorial Library

Although you should have a working bibliography prior to presenting your findings to the class, a formal ANNOTATED bibliography needs to be submitted to Turnitin by the end of the fiction section.  Instructions for what to prepare can be found in the Criteria for Historical/Cultural Context Research.

Quizzes, Proper Documentation, Revisions & Readings

Drama and Film Quizzes 
Make sure you take the drama and film quizzes located in the Section Quizzes + Syllabus Quiz folder (both due by March 5, see note in post below).  Remember what I noted earlier in the semester; these are not intended to "test" your knowledge of this material as much as they are intended to make sure you are comfortable using the terms in your writing.  Print out all the material you think is necessary before taking each quiz and use it during the test (you have 30 minutes, but it should not take that long if you are familiar with the material); the real goal is that you take the quizzes BEFORE you finish your drafts to make sure you have all the information necessary to fully develop your analysis of your chosen scene and adaptations.

Documentation of Primary & Secondary Sources

As you revise your drafts for your final graded submissions (due Tuesday, March 5 by 11:59), remember to include a secondary source from one of the three article is the Macbeth textbook, as well as an accurate Works Cited page.  For an overview of what will be/was covered in class this week, especially the integration of quotes into your own writing, see these various topics from the University of Richmond Writing Center's page on Using Sources:

• Introduction to Using Source Materials
• Creative Use of Sources
• Effective Direct Quotations
• Incorporating Quotations
• Using Paraphrases
• Sources: Past Tense? Present?
• Titles: Underline or Quotations?
• Quotation Marks

Also see the Research & Documentation Online link from Bedford (or look in your handbook), for models of how to cite your sources.  

Revision of Drafts 

The revision of your drafts obviously should contain both the content covered in the drama and film quiz as well as a substantial use of documented sources from the original play, the adaptations, and the secondary sources; however, that is not the only thing you should be considering.

Keep in mind the five areas that I focused on during the conferences (purpose, organization, development, language, and usage) because this is also what I will be grading you on.  I will have already left some feedback in your drafts by Wednesday evening, mostly concerning MLA format, missing or incorrect documentation, use of at least one secondary source from the textbook, and effective use of titles.

Also remember to address the purple ETS feedback in Turnitin, remembering that it is not always correct.  Your job is to assess if it is wrong or right, and correct accordingly.  If you cannot figure it out, come see me, shoot me an email, or visit the writing lab.

For some quick overall guidelines to revising your drafts, consider the Global (2a) and Sentence-Level  (2b) checklists from the Bedford Handbook (which can also be found in "Writing & Documentation" folder of the Class Readings).

The final minimum requirements for your REVISED drafts is an essay of at LEAST 750 words with an originality report of 85% or less. This means there should be at least a 15% change between your original draft and your revision.  This is easy for those who wrote short, barely developed essays--but you have a lot more to work on.  Those with more developed essays will likely find that 15% is not hard to obtain.  If you are worried or find that you miss the mark, send me an email explaining why it fell short (assuming you feel it is a well-written essay).

If you happen to be someone who fails to submit a draft for the drama essay, realize that if you do NOT give me a basis for revision, you will lose even more points off the final essay grade than just the draft and peer reviews.

Readings for Class and Following Spring Break

For Thursday, read all of the Elements of Fiction and make sure you are familiar with the various topics for the Historical Context Projects, which will be the basis for reports on stories that you have signed up for and done research. We will begin the in-class reports following Spring Break.

If you are NOT responsible for a report on a given day, you WILL be responsible for handing in both the day's story reaction AND at least 1 question for the day's presenters.  Handouts will be provided in class.

Remember . . . Elements of Film

You SHOULD have already read about Film Terms in Chapter 2 from the textbook Adaptation: Studying Film and Literature, but in case you are rusty, make sure you review it.  I EXPECT that your upcoming essays will reflect some basic knowledge of film as we have discussed in our scene analyses in class.  Essentially, you should be using ON AVERAGE one film element from each category of  (1) mise-en-scéne, (2) camerawork, (3) editing, and (4) sound and how it enhances the effect of one or more dramatic elements.  And of course you need to be prepared for the open-book  film quiz.

Use the following list as a refresher:

(1) mise-en-scéne, 
Sets; Props; Costuming; Makeup
Lighting: high-key lighting; Low-key lighting


(2) camerawork, 
Shot: long shot; medium shot;close-up
Camera angle: the high angle; straight-on or eye-level angle; low angle  
Camera movement: tilt shot; pan shot; tracking shot; crane shot


(3) editing
dissolve; fade-in; fade-out; wipe; cut; jump cut; graphic match; continuity editing; crosscutting; establishing shots; eyeline matches; match on action; shot/reverse shot; disjunctive editing; montage 
 
(4) sound
diegetic or nondiegetic
Speech (dialogue); voiceover (narration)
music
sound effects: ambient sound 
silence: dead track