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ICC1 Project One: Your Writing Process

Metaphor
In this project, you will be creating a metaphor as a method of articulating and
reflecting on your writing process. To help you with this, you will be using two
readings by professional authors that will act both as examples of writing
metaphors and as viewpoints to compare to your own writing process. This
project will help to create mindfulness about your process as you develop
specific academic writing skills.

Learning Outcomes
While all of the Core Values of FYW apply to all ICC1 assignments, this assignment in particular is
designed to create a greater self-awareness of your writing process (Core Value I) and how it relates
(or not) to published accounts (Core Value II) of writing and the writing process by two popular,
prolific writers.

Students will increase their understanding of their own writing process.

Students will develop awareness of how learning to write is a life-long process.
Students will experience writing as a multi-step, interactive process.
Students will reflect on and critique their own and others writing.
Students will engage with important ideas from composition theory.
Students will draw on their own experiences and perceptions to interpret
composition theory.

Skills Developed in Project #1

Reading comprehension & active reading
Using identification sentences/lead in sentences
Using signal phrases for quotes
Using quote sandwiches
Practice using templates for agreeing/disagreeing from They Say, I Say
Summary writing
Synthesis writing

Readings
What Writing Is by Stephen King (PDF on Blackboard)
o King, Stephen. "What Writing Is." On Writing. Simon and Schuster, 2000. Print.
Chapter One of The Writing Life by Annie Dillard (PDF on Blackboard)
o Dillard, Annie. Chapter One. The Writing Life. Harper Perennial, 2013. Print.
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Project Components
1. Summary + Critical Engagement Assignment (guidelines below)
a. Each reading summary should be one paragraph of approximately 200 words
for each reading; use APA for bibliographic information.
2. Writing Process Analysis Essay drafts + feedback + revisions (guidelines below)
3. Reflection (separate guidelines in Blackboard)

Summary+ Critical Engagement Assignment for Project #1

The Summary + Critical Engagement Assignment

is a form of practicea process that writers go
through as they prepare to write for an audience.
While the assignment is rather structured, the
goal is for you to develop/modify the writerly
practice to use in the future. The critical
engagement assignment is not an essay, but will
help you to write your essay.

The Summary + Critical Engagement Assignment helps you achieve multiple goals in
service of the Core Values, including

Engaging in close, critical reading that encourages reflection, analysis, and

evaluation of texts and their ideas;

Synthesizing ideas to understand them and place them in conversation with each
other;

Developing a practice of writing that fuels invention and idea development;

Discovering your own ideas about a topic and connecting your ideas to those of
published writers.

The ultimate goal of the critical engagement assignments is to allow you to develop your
ideas on a topic and participate in a written conversation (in the form of your essay) on that
topic. To do so, though, you need to identify the other speakers and conversations that will
inform (but not drive) your own essay.
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Critical Engagement Assignment Instructions

This assignment will be provided for you in a packet, but it doesnt hurt to have the instructions in
more than one place.

1. Contextual Introductions
For each reading, list the following:

The title of the composition

The date of publication
The medium: article/chapter/essay
Author name and background
The authors relationship to or experience with the issue
The purpose of the composition
The audience: age/race/class/interests/needs
The major points the author makes (use bullet points).

2. Summaries

In paragraph form, explain each texts main purpose, key points, and most important
evidence for the key points. Summaries must be accurate, thorough, and concise.
About 200 words each. Include bibliographic information at the top of each
summary using APA format. Rely on your notes from class for summary writing
advice.

2. Your writing process metaphor

In whatever form works best for you bullet points, drawings with labels , paragraphs, etc.
explain your writing process metaphor. The more detailed you are with this part of your
Critical Engagement, the easier this part of your essay will be to write.

3. Critical synthesis/dialogic

For this part of the assignment you are putting the articles/authors in a
conversation with each other and yourself in order to compare your ideas on writing
and the writing process. To do this, you will be using a Dialogic Matrix, which is
included in your Critical Engagement packet.

Consider where they agree, disagree, and/or have differing basic

assumptions, have completely different interpretations, and/or offer different
evidence for their assumptions/conclusions.

Write so that someone who is not necessarily familiar with these articles or
authors can understand and follow it.
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Identify which author is saying what with signal phrases.

Quote and paraphrase correctly (so you can reuse part of this for your essay).
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Instructions for Essay #1

Your pre-writing and work in class have prepared you to write about your own writing process
metaphor. As weve discussed in class and seen in the readings, writing is [both physical and
cognitive.] In this essay, you will be both describing and analyzing your current writing process
through metaphor as a way to better understand and possibly improve it.

The first part of your essay should discuss the readings that we have done for the assignment,
namely the short pieces by Stephen King and Annie Dillard. Describe Kings and Dillards ideas,
using at least one quote each and being sure to thoroughly and accurately explain what each author
is trying to say and why they are trying to say it. Give each author their own full paragraph of
summary and analysis.

The second part of your essay is where you talk about your own writing process metaphor. In this
part you should refer to your typical writing process when assigned an essay in high school (since
you probably havent written an essay in college yet). Begin with what you think, plan, or do when
the teacher assigns the essay and then follow through with as many details as possible until handing
in the final draft, explaining each step through one overarching metaphor. Be sure to include all the
details and examplesdo not worry about someone judging your poor writing habits. As you
know from our discussions in class, all writers have different processes and all writers can improve.
This is about self-awareness and recognizing the productive and unproductive parts of your process
by exploring that process through some other kind of imagery. This section should be one or two
paragraphs. The more detailed you are, the better your paper will be.

Finally, once you have introduced the ideas of King, Dillard, and yourself, it is time to put those ideas
into conversation with each other or synthesize them. How do you recognize yourself in these
published accounts? Alternatively, how do you differ from the accounts? How are they similar or
different from each other? How do the readings help you to understand your processor your
feelings about writingin new ways? This section should be at least one paragraph, and can make a
good conclusion to the paper.

Nuts and Bolts:

Essay Title : The title is important and provides an indication of the meaning of your essay
Length : About 1100 words; discussion of each author should be 200 words (400 total), followed
by 400 words about your own writing process metaphor, followed by 300 words of synthesis.
Presentation: header and page numbers are requiredno cover.
Your Name
Professors name
Course name/number
Date
Citations: use informal citation to reference sources in your essay and include a works cited page in
MLA or APA style.
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Due Dates & Check List

Final Due Dates

Critical Engagement & Peer

Review Draft: ______________________
This is your first draft of the essay. This draft should be good enough for you to be able to
get useful feedback from your peer review group. This is also when you turn in the
Critical Engagement Assignment, which will be handed back to you by the end of class.
First Instructor Draft:
________________________________
This draft should include any changes you needed to make based on your peer review
session.
Second Instructor Draft
(Conference Draft): __________________________
This draft should include any changes you needed to make based on your returned
feedback from the first instructor draft.
Conferences:
___________________________
During this week, class is cancelled, and you will make an appointment to meet with me
for about fifteen minutes, so that I can hand back your second instructor draft and we can
discuss it.