Class Handouts

In understanding the needs and expectations of your audience (in this case, an employer) a writer is able to more effectively focus his thoughts and efforts, creating a document that is more distilled in the potency of its relevant content and otherwise free of superfluous information, exposition, or prose that does little to further the point/goal of the text. It is in this way that the packet of information as well as the comments provided on the student's work can assist in understanding the writing process as a whole.

For instance:

-Reading the assignment description gives us a lens through which to better understand the text, as it gives us a very concise look at the goals (both practical and academic) that the writer had in mind as he assembled the text.

-By examining the job ad in this specific instance we are able to understand the audience and requirements the author interpreted in the assembly process of his text, and we can compare the author's thoughts to our own and find certain areas that could be improved.

AUXILIARY ASSIGNMENT:

The "finishing" process of the text hinges entirely upon the peer review comments of the young man's contemporaries and instructor. At this point, he has assembled a text that he finds at least satisfactory, but the final polish is added after direct criticism is supplied from sources outside of the audience. In examining the notes taken during this finishing process, we can begin to understand what aspects of the paper-- in its nearly completed form-- were cut entirely, and what aspects were found to be satisfactory and/or deserved further focus and enhancement.

Example:
Professor Wible's comment on a sentence in which the student discussed a previous internship as well as many hours spent working on a farm-- in the original draft this is a small sentence, after peer review, it is very much expanded and therefore manages to augment the student's "argument" that he is the best candidate and deserving of the position for which he is applying.