I chose to write my textual analysis on "Shooting an Elephant," a popular essay written by George Orwell. I chose to write about this essay rather than anything from the Lunsford text because it deals with issues more deeply rooted in biased political viewpoints and the destruction of personal/private identity. I thought these issues went a little beyond some of the Lunsford pieces and would generate better, more fulfilling class discussion. I also had my class read the article before I presented my example/model of the often misunderstood assignment, so they would have a better understanding what I was talking about in the discussion--they needed to understand the connection between the essay's subject matter and the points I was making.
I'm an outliner, and I always have been. I read tables of content for fun. Therefore, I offer my experience in this particular drafting method to my students in hopes that it will at least help them generate and structure their papers with a little more ease. As many of you know, I also work at the MSU Writing Center, and of all the problems I come across, the most consistent is probably paragraphs that really have no meaning; students view writing a five-page paper as one whole, nearly-impossible task, which is much harder than logically breaking it down into predetermined points and sub points. Students have a very difficult time making concrete transitions from one topic to another if they view the paper as one whole chunk of information; this makes their research findings and criticisms harder to wade through, and nothing--from beginning to end--seems to connect. So, in my textual analysis, I made an outline: I said what I wanted to include in the intro, I included a concrete thesis statement that prompted the four points I wanted to make in my body (excluding a paragraph for summary), and I included room for a conclusion. I asked the students, after having read the article, to help me think of main ideas that should be addressed, and they had some great ideas that I had already included in my own outline and also some that I had looked over. Together, we created a great outline for the textual analysis, then I took that outline and wrote a draft.
Actually, I wrote three drafts, the second and third with only minor revisions necessary. The class was comforted by this project that we all "did together," and I think it gave them a sense of accomplishment and more self confidence.
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I agree that planning is one thing that never occurs to most beginning writers, and the degree to which they do it (once they see it helps) varies widely. One thing you can suggest to those who just can't see their argument in advance (some really can't, and writing to learn has its benefits also), is to take that rambling "down draft" and in a separate file, make a sentence outline of the thesis and points made. Typically, there will be gaps and perhaps some minor points over-labored. The beauty of this technique is that it makes it very clear what changes and additions need to be made. People who simply can't outline in advance CAN do this and it is just as beneficial.
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