English 2X1

Joshua Geist - Spring 2018

Writing Project 3 - Phase 2

Entering the Conversation

Draft Due

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Length

1-2 Pages

Note: for Writing Project 3, we’ll be taking a slightly different approach than we have for Writing Projects 1 and 2. Specifically, we’ll be approaching this paper in phases. The idea of this approach is that all of these phases will eventually combine to form a larger, more formal essay, which will incorporate writing from all of them, but will build on them in such a way as to make something new.

As we discussed in class today, reading and writing aren’t just activities we do in isolation—they’re part of a conversation. Each of the books we read isn’t just a slab of paper and ink; it’s a person talking to us. And they’re talking about ideas that they’ve heard from other people. By reading and writing about what they’ve said, we’re becoming a part of that conversation. As we continue reading our Book Club books, we’ll begin to get a sense of both the story the writer is telling and the argument they’re making. With all of these books, I suspect we’ll find that we can tell where the writer is headed long before we reach the end of the story. We’re listening in on their part of the conversation.

Today, we started using Talking to the Text as a way of engaging more actively in conversation with what we read. We also began listening to another voice in the conversation about our books. The articles we read today are talking back to the authors of our books—sometimes extending, sometimes challenging, sometimes asking questions—and engaging our writers in conversation.

In Phase 2 of Writing Project 3, we’ll “put in our oar”.

Your Task

For Phase 2, please write 1-2 pages in which you do the following:

  1. Introduce the article we read in class in response to your book. (The articles are posted on Canvas, and links to the online versions are posted below.) As with Phase 1, remember that your readers may not be familiar with the article.

  2. Summarize the writer’s argument. Explain what the writer is trying to say about your book. As always, feel free to use quotations and specific examples to support your ideas, and remember to cite your source.

  3. Talk back to the writer,1 using examples from the book to support your idea. As in our Talking to the Text strategy, there are lots of ways you can do this. You can extend their argument and find additional support, challenge their argument by providing counterexamples, or ask questions about ideas in the book that perhaps their argument doesn’t cover. You can even make connections to other texts we’ve read—if, for example, something the article says about your book reminds you of something similar in Mistrial.

The third part, talking back to the writer, should take up most of Phase 2.

Articles

  1. Remember, we’re entering a conversation—so even though we’re talking back to the writer, we’re also sharing our ideas with a wider audience. Don’t think of this as a letter to the writer; rather, we’re responding to them in a public setting. (So, “So-and-so is write when she says that X,” rather than “You’re right when you say X.”) ↩