Phase H—Compelling Communication

Goal

“My writing and other products grab the attention of the readers or audience, orient them, move them along in steps, so they appreciate the position I've led them to.”

Background

When you prepared your Work-in-Progress Presentation, you should have highlighted the key steps in getting your intended audience to appreciate the position you want to lead them to. Through feedback and fleshing out the presentation into a Narrative Outline, you have a firm basis for Phase H, in which you complete a draft report then revise it in response to feedback.

Tools and Processes

GOSP
Direct Writing and Quick Revising
Drafts (Narrative and Complete Draft, Final report)
Sharing of Work to Elicit Responses
Sense-Making Contextualization
Responses
Revising
Reverse Outlining

Sequence

Note: You should not expect to work out your ideas in one attempt—every writer needs to revise! Revision should be proactive, that is, do not wait for your advisors to slog their way through a rough draft and do the work for you of identifying problems in your exposition.

In session 12
Direct Writing and Quick Revising for 90 minutes with the goal of completing a narrative Draft (say 4-5 pages), which, as in the Narrative Outline, focuses on the explanatory sentences that indicate the point of each section (and subsection) and interconnections among sections. Then read section III of Elbow (1981) to get you into the mood for revising.

By session 13
Building on your Narrative Outline or Draft, and taking stock of comments received on them, prepare a complete Draft of your research report. For a Draft to be complete you have to get to the end, even if you only sketch some sections along the way. An incomplete Draft usually leaves readers (and yourself) unsure if you are clear about the position you want to lead them to and the steps needed to get them there.

In session 13
Sharing of Work to Elicit Responses: After the draft is completed, pair up with a peer and comment on each other's draft. A variety of forms of Response can be requested. Including Sense-Making Contextualization at the start of the Draft also helps elicit insightful responses.
Reverse Outlining may be needed if a draft report does not GOSP readers well.

After session 13
Revise the complete Draft with a view to submit a final report soon after session 14. This report should GOSP the readers, that is grab their attention, orient them, move them along in steps, so they appreciate the position you have led them to.

Follow up

Writing and revising can seem like all-consuming activities. However, you should factor in time away from the text when solutions to expository problems can percolate to the surface. During that time you can also invent new avenues of classroom, workplace, or public participation, the goal of the Phase I.