Writing+Toolbox

This toolbox is to help you gather, understand, and develop your writing skills. You will hone the skills you are already good at to make them better. You will correct any bad habits you may have. You will learn some new skills that will be expected to know at the work and college level. Your final product will be fully developed, clearly worded, and well-written. These skills are UNIVERSAL in writing and can translate for EVERY class for which you write a paper.
 * __ The Writing Toolbox __**
 * The purpose: **

__** The evaluation process: **__ Every writing assignment you receive will be evaluated using a rubric which covers these four domains:
 * FOCUS
 * ORGANIZATION
 * FORMAL STYLE
 * CONVENTIONS

A separate rubric will be added to include a CONTENT domain that will be catered to each individual writing assignment.

All the points of the four larger domains will be discussed, reviewed, and/or taught over the first month of school.

__** The drafting process: **__ All major writing assignments will be handed in using a draft system. There is no such thing as a ROUGH draft in this class. Every paper will include at least a 1st DRAFT and a FINAL DRAFT. (BEWARE – there may be more than two drafts!) However, ALL drafts will be graded on the same rubric; THEREFORE all drafts need to be the best possible version of the final product. In this way, papers can only get BETTER and BETTER.

EDITING VS REVISING SEE APPENDIX A FOR DETAILS
 * For every draft you hand in, two sets of eyes will need to look at your draft.
 * You need an editor’s eyes and a reviser’s eyes.

__** The No Tolerance process: **__ As a senior in high school, there is a list of skills you should already have in your writing toolbox. They are writing skills you mastered over the last eleven years. We will discuss these skills BRIEFLY in class. These skills will be graded on the rubric every time you write. Everyone makes mistakes and typos, and the rubric will give a small amount of leeway for this, but these categories are there to help reinforce the need for drafts and proofreading!

SEE APPENDIX B FOR DETAILS

__** The Rubric Domains: **__ Every paper will be graded on the same domains. These are sections that, once put together, create a fully cohesive, well-written paper. If you are aware of all of these domains when writing, your papers will have better flow, will be easier to understand for the reader, and will fully express what you are trying to say. The only domain that will change is CONTENT. The content domain will be specifically catered to each individual writing assignment.

SEE &  FOR DETAILS

__** The Teacher’s Role: **__ Every paper you hand in will be read and graded in its entirety by me. Because of this, it may take a little while for you to receive a graded writing assignment back. Your papers contain marks. I will circle grammar and mechanical errors, but I will NOT tell you what those mistakes are. You have to make those corrections yourself. I will also leave you notes. I might underline a section of the paper and ask you questions about what you’ve written. These questions are to get you thinking about what you’ve written and how I understood it as your audience. The rubric is built so that every time you see something written on your paper, there are points deducted on the rubric. Your goal by the end of the school year is to be able to read your own papers, ask and answer your own questions, and make sure I don’t need to mark anything on your paper. I use shorthand to help me write faster. Be sure to have your list handy to ensure that you know what all my marks mean.

SEE APPENDIX E FOR DETAILS