PSAs
Saving:
Save as a movie file
- File menu
- Save movie file
- Next
- Enter a name for your movie / select the shared folder "finished PSAs" from the browse menu
- Choose best quality/hit next
Save in your class period's "finished PSAs folder"
Typing Your Rough Draft
- Your goal is to finish typing your rough draft by the end of class today.
- Please don't spend time playing with fonts,colors, pictures, spacing, margins, etc. We will worry about that later.
Double Spacing Your Document
- Make sure the HOME toolbar is open.
- Highlight/select your whole document.
- Look in the middle at the PARAGRAPH tools.
- There is a box that looks like lines and arrows. Click on it and choose 2.0.
Saving Your Rough Draft
- Please save in your server folder - this is the one with 042last name first initial. Saving here will allow you to access your document anywhere on campus.
Printing Your Rough Draft
- Only print after you have received permission from a teacher!
- Is your name on it?
- Did you double space?
- Did you save?
I printed my draft. What do I do now?
Revision! Big changes! Pick some of the techniques below and try them out!
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· Fold this draft up and put it in your pocket. Without trying to remember the old draft, just try writing it again in a new way.
- · Put boxes around the different sections of your piece. Maybe even cut it into pieces. Decide what parts stay and what parts to cut. Try out different orders for the parts.
- · Draw some part of your piece (or make a chart or diagram) and then try adding some of what you thought as you drew.
- · Get up with some friends and act out parts of your piece. Pat attention to things you notice that you could add to your draft. Talk about how everyone feels doing the acting and what kinds of thoughts and feelings you could add.
- · Change the genre of your piece. Try it as a poem or a memoir or a piece of nonfiction. See what new thoughts come as you mess with the topic that way.
- · Read your piece out loud to someone with who you feel comfortable. Pay attention as you read and imagine you’re the person you are reading to. Notice what is hard to understand and might need more explaining. Notice the places where you might say more. Notice the good little bits that you might be able to do more of.
- · Have a friend read it out loud to you. Notice places where they have trouble saying the sentences out loud. That could be a clue that the words don’t flow well.
- · Take something that you just mention in your piece and write a page about it. Take something that you have a lot about and see what happens if you just say that part quickly.
- · Come up with five different ways to begin the piece. See how it would be different with each of those possible beginnings. You could also do this with endings.
- · Once you have made a draft, try outlining the piece five different ways to see what structures you can find for it.
- · Try changing the way the piece wounds, or the voice it talks in. If it’s plain, make it fancy. If it’s fancy, make it plain. If it’s careful, make it reckless. If it’s stuffy, make it loose and funny.
- · Call someone and tell them about your piece without looking at it. Tape yourself doing this so you can add in some of what you say.
- · Put this piece away and work on something else for a while, then come back to it and see what you think later.
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Strategies courtesy of Randy Bomer
Revision Strategy #2: 11 Ways to Title Your Writing
1. Name a character in your story
2. Name a place in your story
3. Name a thing in your story
4. Quote a line in your story
5. Tell a theme in your story
6. Write a mysterious title (one that leaves the reader wondering)
7. Write a straight forward title
8. Write a one word title
9. Describe the key action in the story
10. Describe the message (or moral) of your story
11. Find your own unique way to title it
Add an appositive!
Adding an appositive is a great way to add detail to your piece.
Reminders:
It’s set aside by a pair of commas.
The appositive can be a short or long combination of words. Look at these examples:
The insect, a cockroach, is crawling across the kitchen table.
The insect, a large cockroach, is crawling across the kitchen table.
The insect, a large cockroach with hairy legs, is crawling across the kitchen table.
The insect, a large, hairy-legged cockroach that has spied my bowl of oatmeal, is crawling across the kitchen table.
Final Drafts
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Make all changes from paper copy to computer. I highly recommend using a pen or highlighter to mark the changes as you make them to keep organized.
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Change back to single (1.0) spacing.
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Put you name is at the top of your first page.
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Use 12 point font for the body text. Up to 20 point font for title allowed.
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Save
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Ask permission to print.
After you print:
Staple your drafts in the following order:
On Friday, you will share your final drafts with your writing group!