Select a writing project to work on for this workshop.  Your profile or analysis of a literacy event will work particularly well for the approach here.

[ Begin by writing answers to these two questions.   Be absolutely specific. 

1. What is the main theme or impression that you want your reader to get from this text?
2. What is the most important moment in the text, and why?

Keep these in mind as you work further on your revision.

[ Without looking at the text you have written already, consider HOW the text should take the reader from the beginning, to the most important moment, to the end.

Write your answers to these questions.  Be absolutely specific.  Don't look at the text you already wrote.

1. How should the text begin?  How should the beginning suggest the main theme or dominant impression?
2. How should the text carry the reader to the most important moment? 
3. How should the reader be guided by the text?
   How will the reader know that the most important moment has been reached?
4. How should the text end? 
5. How should the text carry the reader from the most important moment to the end?
   How should the ending reinforce or confirm the main theme or dominant impression?

[ Now look at the text you have already written.  Use your answers to the questions above to help you decide how to revise this text as a whole. 

Do as much revising as you can, right here right now in class.  For what you can't get done in class, make sure you have notes, so that you can pick up where you left off.

[ A few notes on paragraphing.
Paragraphs have two main purposes: 

1. To make space for the reader to pause and reflect on what you wrote. 
2. To give the reader a sense of shift and/or emphasis in the structure of your text.

Genres such as profiles and letters often have fairly short paragraphs, although very detailed descriptions may be written in longer paragraphs.  Long paragraphs are tiring for readers, so writers must work extra hard in longer paragraphs to make them readable.

Review the paragraphing in your text carefully.  Mark changes in paragraphing, particularly based on these considerations: 

1. Where will your readers need to pause, to take a break? 
2. Where do you want them to pause, to anticipate something that's coming up, or to notice something before they move on?