Bring to class on your MacBook. During class, we will upload it to Turnitin.com.
Class ID 4353095, password “revise”
A discovery draft is an exploratory first attempt to address an idea.
What’s the value of a discovery draft?
Frequently, when writers sit down and start churning out words, their good ideas only develop a little later. Thus, in three-page paper, it’s common for a first draft to begin without any sense of purpose.
Jones makes several interesting points about healthcare his essay, and I agree with much of what he says. For instance, on page 37 he is right when he says…
Only after a page or two of this kind of general response does the student hit on a solid idea, such as
While Jones is right when he says that increasing funding for cancer research will improve the quality of life for many older Americans, the sad truth is that millions of Americans who will die from automobile accidents or gun violence will never make it to old age. Jones’s plan to “help protect older Americans from the effects of cancer” (35) does not benefit as many people as would a plan that uses the same amount of money to educate younger Americans about the dangers of smoking, the importance of wearing seatbelts, and the importance of stricter gun laws. While it is important for a society to protect its elders, we also have an obligation to protect youths who will, if they don’t die young, will grow up to be elders. For this reason, Smith has the superior plan, in which she argues against giving pharmaceutical companies a medical cancer research tax break, and for the federal government to “invest the same amount of money in educational programs designed to dissuade young people from high-risk actions” such as smoking, driving without seatbelts, and participating in a culture of violence.
That would be a great claim for a paper.
To get there, however, the student author would need to know what Smith says, and what Jones says, and how their ideas work with and against each other.
For Paper 1, I do not intend to assign a topic. You will choose a topic, in which you explore two readings from unit 1 (that is, reading 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4), and explain why an idea in one reading is a better solution (or explanation, or refutation, or justification, or whatever) than an idea in a second reading. For you, what makes X better than Y may be that X is realistic, while Y is unrealistic; maybe you think X is better than Y because X is bold and daring, while Y is reactionary and unimaginative. Do you value logic? Sensitivity? Economic security? Freedom? What you consider “good” differs from what somebody else considers “good,” so the reasons you choose to support your argument will make your paper uniquely yours.
Goals:
- Demonstrate that you can identify a point of disagreement. (They don’t have to be yes/no, black/white disagreements; for instance, you might feel that one author writes a sentence that suggests race is more important than gender, and you might feel that a different author feels that gender is more important than race.) There is no one “correct” answer, but you can explain why you feel that author 1 is more persuasive (or more practical, or more compassionate, or more logical) than author 2.
- Demonstrate that you can develop a single idea across several pages. (I’m not asking a paragraph-lengh essays on author 1, a separate paragraph on author 2, and a third paragraph on who you think is right. I’m asking for a single essay that develops a single idea. For this discovery draft, I’m interested in seeing what you can do, and once I see your draft, I will provide the guidance you need to improve. I’ll evaluate you on your improvement, rather than what you can do on your own in this first draft.)
- Demonstrate that you can identify specific quotations in the assigned readings that help you make your point. (Avoid phrases like “Some people say” or “Anyone can see.” Instead, introduce specific sentences or phrases from the assigned readings, to help you make your points.
- Demonstrate your willingness to revise. Writing at the college level means rewriting. Everyone — even the best writers, and even your instructors — revises in order to improve. If you have the opportunity to revise, don’t consider it a punishment — it’s an expected, important, and necessary part of the course.
- Write 2-3 pages (about 500-750 words), following MLA format. Bring to class on your Macbook; during class we will upload it to Turnitin.com.
- Before you start writing, read…
- …your chosen readings, carefully and in great detail.
- Thesis Statements: How to Write Them
A thesis statement is the single, specific claim that your essay supports. A good thesis statement is not simply an observation, a question, or a promise. It includes a topic, a precise opinion, and reasoning. - Researched Papers: Using Quotes Effectively
If your college instructor wants you to cite every fact or opinion you find in an outside source, how do you make room for your own opinion? - MLA Style Papers: Step-by-step Instructions for Formatting Research Papers
Note: Your “Discover Draft” submission does not require a Works Cited list; it does, however, require the spacing, pagination, and title block as described in the handout.
- Remember, the purpose of a “Discovery Draft” is to open up your mind to possibilities that only present themselves after you’ve focused on an issue for long enough to write a few pages. Your engagement with this topic is just beginning; students who are doing this assignment properly may end up totally changing their mind about the topic they choose.
- If you pick a “safe” topic (such as “sexism is bad” or “cancer makes me sad,” your paper won’t be very surprising — or interesting.
- You have a better chance of interesting your reader if you pick a topic your reader might actually disagree with (such as “Jones is being too harsh when she says “a man who holds a door open for me is being sexist,” or “Jones is being unnecessarily alarmist when he begins his essay by warning that ‘[a] new study warns that coffee can cause cancer.’”)
- Balance your desire to write about something you care about…
- …with the requirement that you use the materials at hand (the readings from Unit 1) to support your claims.
- For this exercise, you are permitted (but not encouraged) to use outside sources.
- Balance your desire to write about what you care about, with my desire to give you feedback on how well you can use material from your two chosen Unit 1 readings.
Discovery Draft Tips
I’m not asking you to complete the exercises in your textbook, I’m jut referring you to pages in your textbook that will help prepare you to write a synthesis.
- Review Greene and Lidinsky (1-14)
- Academic Writers Make Inquiries
- Academic Writers Seek and Value Complexity
- Academic Writers see Writing as a Conversation
- Academic Writers Understand that Writing is a Process
- Greene and Lidinsky, “From Summary to Synthesis”
- Skim pages 139-152
- Look more closely at how to identify the author’s main idea (pages 146-148)
- Note that the pages you just read describe how to write a summary; this assignment does not simply ask you to summarize, but rather explore two different essays in order to help you explore your own ideas; you synthesize your sources, while adding your own special take.
- To learn about synthesis, see pages 152-179.