Underline, List, and Highlight: Improving Drafts in Conference
Purpose: This exercise helps students analyze three essential elements of their paper: thesis, arguments and research. It can be applied to any analytical or argumentative essay. It is designed to leverage one-on-one conference interactions.
Description: In conference, students will identify their paper’s thesis statement, main arguments, and source citations. Teachers can use this exercise to strengthen lessons in argument, rhetorical structure, research, and source citation. Students can use it to improve drafts of their papers for future revision.
Suggested Time: 20 minutes per student
Procedure:
Start with some preliminary questions such as: What do you hope to achieve with this paper? What are the stakes of your argument? How did you find the research you’ve brought today? How do you see your research helping your paper? What did you learn from your research?
Instruct your student to bring the following items to your conference meeting: a copy of their paper, a separate piece of paper, a pen, and a highlighter.
Ask students to highlight their thesis. If the thesis is weak or non-existent, discuss strategies for strengthening or clarifying it. For struggling students creating a thesis: What are some keywords that student could use for their writing purpose? What is the final goal of the student’s essay, and what research do they think would be beneficial? What do they want their reader to get from reading this text? How do they see this connecting to the class readings/activities?
As you move through paragraphs, ask them how they are connecting back to that thesis -- you can make an outline that shows each paragraph's connection.
Discuss areas where they can elaborate their arguments, as well as paragraphs that do not support their thesis and can be cut or edited.
Discuss strategies to supplement and strengthen their research, have them make notes about citations, or have them star strong/weak areas.
Instruct your student to refer to this marked document and argument list when working on their next revision.