Homework: Workshop
Sometimes when you are too close to a project, it is difficult to see its flaws. Pairing your own revisions with feedback from a peer can help with this. As you prepare to write the final version of your story, feedback can help you focus on ways to improve your story that you may not have previously seen. It will also help you produce a final version of your story that is polished and ready for submission to a publisher. For this week's Homework, you will be doing a peer review of a colleague's story, while your colleague reviews yours, providing you with constructive feedback you can incorporate into your Final Project.
Questions about this Homework? Post them in the Contact the Instructor area on the left navigation bar. That way, everyone in the class will see, and benefit from, the Instructor's response.
To prepare for this Homework:
a) Review the Project Introduction and Overview document in the Learning Resources.
b) Review the assigned portion of Chapter 12 in Shaping the Story.
c) Review the second draft of your partner's short story found in DocSharing. Review the story at the paragraph (big picture) level first and then narrow it down to the sentence level.
d) Consider the questions you will ask as you prepare to write a critique of your partner's short story. How effective is your partner's use of creative writing elements in his or her short story?
The Homework:
1) Write a 1- to 2-page critique. Be sure to include answers to the following questions:
A. What techniques of development and elements of craft were used in the short story?
B. "Does your point of view help [the story] or hurt [the story]?" (Shaping the Story, p. 185)
C. "Do the story's characters feel real?" (Shaping the Story, p. 186)
D. "How is the story paced?" (Shaping the Story, p. 187)
E. Is the ending of the story logical? Why or why not?
F. "When you reach the story's end, can you say what it was 'about'?" (Shaping the Story, p. 188)
Formatting Expectations:
1) Indent the first sentence of each paragraph. Block paragraphs are not acceptable for this Homework.
2) Your final document should:
i. Be in a 10- or 12-point font, such as Times New Roman or Verdana.
ii. Be double-spaced throughout.
iii. Have 1-inch margins for top, bottom, left, and right.
Format your homework according to the give formatting requirements:
• The answer must be using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, typed, with one-inch margins on all sides.
• The response also includes a cover page containing the student's name, the title of the homework, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
• Also include a reference page. The references and Citations should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.