House of Spirits posts and comments

To begin drafting our essays, I would like to use somewhat the same process as last March. I would like you to post at least two paragraphs of your essays by Wednesday and I would like you to comment on two other students' posts. The purpose of the comment to help the writer improve the draft. You can make editorial comments about content, use and formatting of quotations, organization of ideas, grammar, word choice and other elements of style. It is often difficult for us to see own our errors and so a "second opinion" can be very helpful. Remember that you need to offer your commentary in a gentle fashion. Obviously you do not want to make the writer feel overwhelmed. For this reason it is a good idea to begin with some positive comments, to allow the writer to build from his/her competence.

We will use Tuesday and Wednesday's classes to work on the essay. I have to be away on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, so I will make comments for all of you as well using this blogsite.

Best of luck with the process