Writing 5: Comments

Image: Typescript page of T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland, with comments by Ezra Pound. Original in the British Library.

For this assignment, I’d like you to do exactly what you did for Writing 3—which was to read the posts of several of your classmates and to write some comments in reply. I’ll create new groups for this week, and you’ll of course be discussing a new section of Odell’s book, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same activity.

For the “theory” of this assignment, then, please reread Writing 3. Allow me, though, to reprint the technical requirements here:

Each of your comments must be at least 75 words long. Don’t worry if they run longer.
You must quote directly from the post you are commenting on—even if you’re only repeating a key word or phrase the writer uses.
You must quote from a moment in Odell’s book that the writer you’re responding to does not discuss. In other words, you need to take us to a different place in How to Do Nothing.
While the tone of comments is often very casual and chatty, you still need to be professional. Proofread your comments before you send them.

Grading your first set of comments was simple enough: If you met all of these requirements, you earned 2 points. If you met most of them, or your work was late, you earned 1. If you did not post comments, you did not receive credit.