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Side-shadowing
This activity will help you analyze your own work, paragraph by paragraph, and then help you see if
the structure of your paper "works." Work with your current draft - the one with 2-inch margins if
you have it. First, remind yourself of the following:
Your audience =

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your purpose or rhesis

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first paragraph - all the way through.

a. Identify the purpose of this paragraph. Does this paragraph exist to introduce or
explain a new idea to your audience, or to give detail or an example? Perhaps it is
providing context-all the necessary background info your reader needs-to
understand something you've said, or your larger purpose?
b. Identify your topic sentence. Does this sentence do its job? Does it clearly tell
your reader the purpose of the paragraph and set the tone? If not (or if it doesn't
even exist), how might you revise it?
Do all the suppofting sentences in your paragraph directly support the topic
sentence? If not, how can your revise? Do you need to move stuff around, or delete

Read through your

something, or add something?

d. Identify the concluding sentence. Does it do its job of wrapping up the
paragraph andlor connecting its ideas to the next paragraph? Does it prepare your
reader to move on without leaving unanswered questions? (Consider this: have you
ever read a paragraph in an text, and you're not quite sure why it's there or what its
purpose is? The concluding sentence can be a nice place to remind your reader why
that paragraph was purposeful; it can be a place to remind your reader how this
paragraph relates to your overall purpose or thesis.)

2.

Repeat with each paragraph.

3. When you are finished with each paragraph, take a step back and look at your paper as a whole,
cohesive piece.

a.

b.

c.

Predicting what your audience needs from you is an impoftant skill to develop. With your
audience in mind, Iook at the purpose of each paragraph. Is all the necessary info

provided? Is any piece missing, such as support for a claim or an explanation of a new
concept? Perhaps there is too much info provided in some places, or you get repetitive?
Look at the organization of the paragraphs. Is evefihing in the best order? What might
you rearrange to fit your need? Would subtitles help?
What are you plans for revision? Why?

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14 October 2014

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I kick my shoes off, stare at my computer screen, and(---- {ftt:,::} ,
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brainstorm a million dif[erent ideas in my head. What is going

be the title of this

paper?

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How can I get my audience to relate to what I am saying?

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kinds of thoughts seem to be never ending. I always write in

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roomithat way$lietrornffi less distractions. I can still hear allof the

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Sometimes, if I cannot concentrate, I listen to music

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to get a good rhythm to write to.

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writer's block. I was given prompts that sometimes I couldn'i
In high school, I was the kind of writer that always had

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relate to; therefore, writer's block consumed me. I would sit at my

desk watching the hands on the clock tick just thinking how

I could

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put my spin on a topic that I really didn't know anything about.

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school hours, so I couldn't really ever get into my groove on paper.

When I wrote papers in class, there was always a time

limit. For

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me to write a solid paper, I need arnple

time. I need to be able to

revise and edit my work as many timos as I feel necessary. In

college, I consider myself a fieedom writer because I have fi161s /freedom as a writer. Yes, I am given topics, but the topics

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writers have different perspectives. In return, other writers'

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interpret it however I want. ln college, I have noticed that I am

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assigned are broad. I can put my own spin on the topic and

more relaxed writer. Writing a paper is actually

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perspectives glve me a different outlook on my papers and what

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I've written about. It gives me brand new ideas that I can use in

my own work. It also reminds me to be more open mindedr h

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experiment with different ideas.

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What is strength? According to Google, Strength is a good

or beneficial quality or attribute of a person or thing. As writer,

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my strengths vary from paper to paper, it just depends on the topicFor instanco, ffiy Literacy Narrative was a paper that was easy to

write because I wrote about softball and memories. {+arr<arrite

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years, so I pretty much know everything there is to know about

Memories are easy to write about if you can remember what

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ahbment of your lifetime. With that said, I am

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strong writer when I write about my hobbies and past

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Grammar is also a strength of mine. I had a really amazing teacher

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my freshman year of high school. Her name was Ms. Simmons,

and Ms. Simmons taught me nothing but grammar. Every single

day, I would come into her class, room number 133, and correct all

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the sentences that she had written on the board. That is how
became an expert in grammar

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As a writer, I guess my biggest challenge is writing about

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myself. So far, this essay has been a struggle. I tend to think so'
negative about myself that I just can't ever think of anything good

to say, or in this case good to write. Writing about my strengths

was a bit of a challenge. I've never had very good confidence in

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anything I do whether it's writing or riding a bicycle. Elaborating

on a specific point I bring up is also a challenge for me.
Sometimes, I just say what I want to say but never actually go into

detail about a specific point. This tends to make my papers

uninteresting to readers. I need to practice more with r,lriting so I
can hook the readers and make them want to read more of my

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work.

Whenlwrite,Iwantto makethe readerfeelwhat I felt 4""*"-[1'-u,'

when I was writing. I try to write with a lot of emotion in n

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papers to make the readers more engaged. I try to make my

points

clear and concise and easy to follow along. I want my papers

to

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have a good

flow and rhythm to them. I want the readers of my

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on the edge of their seats and driven to read

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whether(-=-

you're mad, sad, or happy. I know when I am mad I whip out

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diary and write about all the terrible things that happened that

day

better

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because

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until it's all out of my system. That makes me feel a lot

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t think writing is a good way to express yourself

I can "murder" the page with my words of hatred. I also

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write when I'm really happy. When I'm happy, I write about how

great my day was and everything that happened because I want to

remember every little detail about how awesome my day had been.

I may even doodle or draw flowers on the page.

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When I talk about writing, I mostly talk about grammar

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teachers pushed their students to do. I don't want to say that the
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punctuation. When I was in high school, that's what the English

English teacher didn't care about the content because they did,

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they really enforced grammar and punctuation. I have noticed tha1-.

when we do peer observations in Ms. Ingram's class I have
at other things like the

looked

flow of,the paper. When we wrote the two

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different drafts for our Literacy Narrative, Geena, Olivia, and

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discussed how to combine both drafts together. We helped each

other figure out which paragraphs we needed to take out and the

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order that the rest of the paragraphs needed to go in to make each

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My favorite genrd to write in would probably be romance.4

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Most of my diary is about my boyfriend and I and the dates

him. I love romance. Romance is my favorite

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general. I love to watch romantic TV shows, read romantic books,

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have been on, the places we have been together, and how
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watch romantic movies, and take romantic walks in the park. If

has anything

Speaking of romance, I love weddings, and planning u

wedding can be a lot like writing a paper. When you get

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to someone, that's when your 'topic" is assigned. Your topic is

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wedding, and a wedding is nothing more than a story that the

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To be able to plan a successful wedding, you will need to

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come up with ideas and brainstorm; the same thing has to happen

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writers want to write a successful story or pup"S Wlrere is the

wedding going to be held? Who are the bridesmaids and

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groomsmen going to be? What kind offood is going to be served?\r.,,

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What time is the wedding going to take

and groom going to

payfor

place? How are the bride

the wedding?

All of these are

questions that we ask ourselves as writers when we write a story.

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In otherwordsr what is the setting of the story? Who are the main

characters? When is the story going to take place? How are we

going to make this story came alive? What are the spectfic details
in the story that made everything come tagetker toform a
masterpiece? As you can see, rnniting apaper or a story is not
much diffterentthanplanning awedding.

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