Preparing for your conference

Next week, each of you will meet with me for a one-on-one conference. To prepare, you'll write a complete draft of Essay 2. 

Composing that draft consists of writing (roughly) 2-3 new sections of your paper, based upon the historical the historical themes you discovered via the pivot points exercise, decided were most interesting to pursue, and started researching.

Here's how to put your draft together:

Decide at what specific points in your small picture story you want to pivot out to tell the larger historical stories you've been researching. It's negotiable, but for most of you there will be 2-3 such points. What is not negotiable is that you pivot out to full sections: i.e., not a paragraph or two, but several paragraphs that together make up a complete historical story -- whether that story is a single specific anecdote, a wide overview of a broader historical topic, or a scene from a longer historical narrative that you develop completely over a few pivoted sections. What's also not negotiable is that these sections be stories: though you might quote a historian making an argument, you yourself aren't in thesis-making mode; you're in storytelling mode. 

Mark each section break with a few asterisks, compose the big picture sections after that mark, and close eacb big picture section with a few more asterisks at the end.

Again, plan for two or three big picture sections totaling up to around 1,000 words. 

Aim to draft at least TWO of these sections by your conference time. Three is even better, but the minimum's two.

Know that the writing and research process for this essay ain't over: the more you say, the more you'll decide you need and want to say. We'll come up with a plan for how to do that in our conference, and you'll have the rest of the week to do it.