WRIT 1133 Matt Hill

Spring 2011 May 23, 2011

Revision Exercises for Final Drafts

 Thesis/Main Claim: For any of your pieces, revisit the main argument or claim
that you’re making on focus and clarifying and refining it. There are a few things
you should focus on here:

 First, somewhere near the beginning of your paper (likely in the first or
second paragraph), do you state your main claim clearly and concisely?
Does it summarize or characterize the entire scope of your discussion? In
other words, do you let your reader know what material will follow in
your paper? If not, how could you address this problem?

 Second, when you refer to the work of others, e.g., the review of literature
for your qualitative paper, do you discuss both WHAT the writer(s) argues
and then HOW the writer persuades her or his reader? Challenge yourself
to move beyond a thesis that provides a list of three examples to support
your point (or a thesis that argues that a writer supports a claim by
appealing to ethos, pathos, and logos). Push yourself to generate a claim
that establishes relationships between the various points or examples that
you discuss in the body of your writing.

 Finally, in your conclusion, you should revisit your main argument, but
rather than just summarizing what you’ve already written, remind your
reader briefly of the main point of your piece and then discuss more fully
the significance of the argument you just analyzed. That is, you might
consider answering questions like the following: Why is the argument
that I’ve made in this paper a significant one to make? Is there anything
unique or significant in how you make the argument? What should readers
take away from your analysis? (Look to my article as an example)

 Analysis: When you are discussing the credibility of another source in your
writing, do you describe how the author develops her or his credibility, or do
you just mention that they are credible. For example, if you’re discussing an
author’s appeal to ethos, it isn’t enough just to say the writer appeals to ethos
and then provide a quotation that shows us how he or she establishes ethos.
Once you cite the example, you need to explain HOW it specifically works to
strengthen a writer’s character, credibility, expertise, or goodwill with the
audience. Then, and perhaps most important, you need to take one step further
and connect this particular example/explanation to the overall argument that
the author is making. That is, explain HOW this example makes the author’s
argument more persuasive. Tell the reader how this appeal develops or moves
the argument forward persuasively.