The Writer’s Memo

When writers send their writing to a publisher, they always send a cover letter introducing it. Comment on the choices you made as a writer (think of it like an instant replay on your writing process with color commentary).  When you hand in final versions, you will also be asked to include your rough draft, your invention writing, any sentence-level revision exercises, your skills checklist, and your peer review sheets.  The Writer's Memo should also address these stages in the writing process, detailing what you have done to improve the writing.  A good Writer's Memo assesses what you see as the strengths and weaknesses of the piece, and a thoughtful, well-written memo, because it accounts for things we might have missed, can improve your grade. Use this as a planning worksheet, but type your final memo and put it on top of what you hand in.

Purpose and Audience: Does your paper have a clear sense of purpose? What did you want the paper to do for a specific audience? What were you trying to understand or have them understand? What’s the “resonating concern” in the piece?

Organization / Specifics: Is there analysis, or some sense that the specific examples have further implications? What did you do to develop your examples? Why did you organize the paper the way you did?

Skills / Influences: What specific skills do you need to work on (fragments, comma splices, spelling, word choice, wordiness, paragraphs, organization, etc.)? Which readings influenced you?

Process and Revision: What did you go through (freewriting, last minute?) What are you learning about writing and the writing process? What kinds of feedback did you get in peer review. And, what did you focus on in revision? Reflect on at least one writing problem and they way you recognized and solved it.

Risk taking: Did you explore uncharted territory in the paper or take a risk in some way, to approach the topic from a new angle or perspective, or to write about something difficult? Did you attempt to fulfill the assignment in fresh way? Take risks in revision?