Evaluation Draft and Author's Note

Author’s Notes

 Submit an Author’s Note with each rough draft and revised draft of the formal essays. Write a sentence or two about each of the following components. You can format it just like these instructions–see the example below. Please use complete sentences, though.

Be sure to write a new author’s note with each draft of your essay. If you’re truly revising, at least some of the answers to the questions below will change with each draft.

Goals: What are your main goals for your writing this semester? (Think about what you’d like to leave the course being able to do.) What are your more specific goals for this particular essay?

Message: What is the main point or central insight of your essay? What do you hope readers will learn? This should be an assertion expressed in a complete sentence, not a question or topic. Be as specific as possible. 

Audience: What specific group of people are you writing to? Be as specific as possible  about their age, attitudes, education level, etc.

Purpose: What do you hope to accomplish by sharing this message with that audience? Express it as a verb: “to help readers make informed choices about …” “to overturn readers’ prejudices about …”

Persona: How you want to come across through the essay? What personality or style do you want readers to associate with you?

Drafting process: How long did you spend writing your first draft, and how did you go about doing it? (Don’t include time spent distracting yourself with texs or snacks!) What parts of that process worked well, and what do you want to change next time?

Revisions: (Omit for the first draft.) What did classmates, your professor, or other readers tell you about your draft, and how did you revise? How long did you spend revising your essay–making substantive changes, not just correcting the wording or punctuation? Describe your revisions in detail, since substantive revision is required to pass any draft except the first.

Editing: (Omit for the first draft.) How did you go about improving the sentences and correcting the wording of this draft? How long did you spend doing this editing? Describe your editing in detail, since careful proofreading is required to pass any draft except the first.

Strengths (include even for final drafts): What are you most proud of about this draft? What seems to be working out like you planned?

Weaknesses (include even for final drafts): What do you think still needs work in this draft? 

Request for Feedback (include even for final drafts): What kind of feedback would be most helpful to you? If you feel insecure about your writing, this is the place to say, “Please, mainly tell me what I’m doing right!” Include at least one specific question you want readers to answer. 

Sample BEGINNING OF an Author’s Note (no need to double-space)

Goals: My main goal for the semester is to overcome writer’s block and stop procrastinating. I have a lot of anxiety about writing, so I procrastinate until the last minute. My writing goal for this particular essay is to capture my grandfather’s voice and mannerisms so perfectly that readers feel like they met him. I want my siblings and cousins to read this and feel like Granddad is in the room with them again.

Message: The main point of my essay is, “My grandfather’s love of reading, arguing, and traveling made him a successful preacher, even though he never finished high school or made much money.” The word I’m focusing on is “preacher.” In the South, “preacher” is a very different kind of religious leader than a “priest” or a “pastor.” In the Primitive Baptist church, being a preacher was an unpaid position–even though it was the focus of my grandfather’s life.

Audience: I’m writing to middle- and upper-class people with a college degree, particularly people who might look down on others with less money, less education, or strong religious beliefs.

Purpose: To interest readers with a sense of my grandfather’s unique personality and also to weaken prejudices they may have toward the poor and those with little formal education.

Persona: I want to sound honest and objective, even though I’m also presenting myself as a loving granddaughter. I also want to incorporate some of the informal, Southern dialect that my family used to use. This will show that my grandfather’s language is as valid as my college-educated academic voice is.

BE SURE TO INCLUDE THE OTHER COMPONENTS!!!!!