First off, the "Shape of the Thing" exercise worked pretty well. It would have worked better with more samples of each genre though. It was hard for the students to draw the shape of a proposal or conference paper because they only had one of each type to look at--more samples would have made the shape easier to see. But it was a real success in that they were able to see how the parts/shapes were all related, how a proposal became a conference paper became an article. I'm thinking when I do this next time I will provide more samples of the genres OR I will use it to help students understand process, getting them to draw, for example, notes and outline and rough draft and revision. That should be interesting and successful. Speaking of things that worked but could have worked better, the grad students worked collaboratively on a research project, documenting the local histories of the English department, the college, and the university. Collaborative grades are always a bit tricky, I think. Or at least I think that because I remember my own educational history, growing up as the hyped-up, over-eager, anal-retentive dweeb who ended up doing all the work because I was so obsessed with grades. So the problem I have with any kind of group grades in the classes I teach is what to do about that dweeb in my own classes and also what to do with the total slacker. In other words, I've always struggled with the issue of giving a group a grade but making sure that grade reflected individual as well as group effort. I thought I had the answer. I had each group member turn in an individual group report in which she or he reported on the group dynamics and thus in which he or she also had a chance to report anyone in the group who didn't do the work. I figured this would be an equalizing mechanism; if everyone reported that Student X didn't do any work, then I could factor that in to Student X's grade. I've tried this before in my undergrad classes, a web authoring class specifically. It worked like a charm. But now I'm not so sure. I fear I haven't taken into account the extent to which group and peer pressures prevent an honest evaluation from any individual. Specifically, I was meeting with someone from one of the groups about her final project and she mentioned some problems she had with someone in the group and the work that someone did but none of that made it into her individual report, which was all glowy and "Yay group!" and stuff. So, Bitsters, on the one had I have this suggestion about group grades. On the other, I don't know that it works. So, on yet another hand I'm wondering how to handle group grades. Do people live and die by the final work of the group? Is there some way to factor in individual effort? ... View more

Ask students to choose a step in the writing process and then design a print or radio ad that sells the benefits of their choice/“product” to the public. ... View more

Have students review the material in the handbook on drafting and revising. Because students often see a published piece of writing as always-already perfect, ask them to imagine earlier and earlier drafts of the essay they’re currently reading. How do they think the author started? What areas do they think needed the most revision? And how can they take these lessons back to their own writing? ... View more

Have students review the materials in the handbook on voice, tone, and argument. Have them summarize the argument of their current draft or the current reading and then reword that argument to be sent as a text message on a cell phone, as an instant message online, as a blog posting online, and as a note to their parents. How does medium change message? ... View more

Ask students to review the material on sentence types in the handbook. Then have students take a copy of their current draft (or a portion of it) and revise each sentence down to a subject and verb. Ask students to discuss their condensed drafts in groups: What’s missing when a sentence is reduced to just a subject and verb? Can they make the same argument? What sentence elements are needed for analysis? ... View more

Knowing your audience is a crucial factor in the success of any piece of writing. Have the student review the section on audience in the handbook. In groups, ask them to deduce a series of audiences: the audience for the current reading, the audience for the textbook, the audience for the handbook, the audience for their papers. Crucially, have each group identify how they know each writer has each audience in mind—are there clues in the text? Is the audience explicit? Are there assumptions in the writing that make them think of this audience versus another one? ... View more

Have students review the section of the handbook on outlines. For the next peer review day, have students bring in a “post-draft outline,” composed of a single sentence that summarizes each paragraph of the paper. In peer groups, have each peer commenter do the same post-draft outline. The author of the paper should then compare his or her own understanding of what each paragraph does with that of her or his peers. Use these collected post-draft outlines to work on organization in revision. ... View more

Bring in sentences from drafts that have errors or are syntactically strained. Put the class into groups and have each group work on first identifying the error, then finding the section of the handbook that addresses it, then correcting it. The group with the most correct answers (and corrections) gets a prize (chocolate is a good motivator). ... View more

Ask students to use their word processor to first convert all text to lowercase and then to replace all periods with a space. Have them review the section on fused sentences in the handbook. In class, have them work in groups on one of the “period-less” drafts to restore the proper punctuation. ... View more

Have students review the section of the handbook on topic sentences before class. Ask them to bring in a copy of their current draft with all of the topic sentences removed. In peer revision groups, share these drafts and have the peers craft topic sentences that would work in the paragraphs. The student should then compare these to her or his original sentences. This exercise has a number of advantages: students get practice identifying the topic sentences of their own paragraphs (or learn to recognize when their paragraphs do not have them), they get practice writing these sentences for peers, and finally they get a sense of whether or not their paragraphs are clearly focused, based on whether or not the topic sentences they get back accurately reflect what they feel is the content of the paragraphs. ... View more

Locate a section of the handbook that describes a common problem or error for the class. Ask students to come in with examples of the error from their own writing; then have them correct the error and add their example to their own handbook by writing it either in the book or on a sticky note. It may be easier for students to remember how to fix an error when they refer back to their own examples. ... View more