After producing your initial draft, the next important step in the creation of your story is to incorporate the elements of the craft of writing.

Assignment: Second Draft

After producing your initial draft, the next important step in the creation of your story is to incorporate the elements of the craft of writing. Who is telling your story and why? What tone of voice do you intend to develop? Who are your characters and what do they sound like? Last week, you used the techniques of development to create a first draft from the outline and opening scene you wrote in Week 1.

In this Assignment, you will apply the craft elements of point of view, tone of voice, characterization, and dialogue to turn your first draft into a second draft.

Questions about this assignment? Post them in the Contact the Instructor area on the left navigation bar. That way, everyone in the class will see, and benefit from, the Instructor’s response.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review the Final Project Introduction and Overview document in Week 1 Learning Resources.
• Review the directions for uploading your assignment into Doc Sharing in the Learning Resources.
• Review “Types of Point of View” from Chapter 3 in Shaping the Story and select a point of view that you will use for your short story. Complete “Progressive Writing Exercise #3: Choosing Your Point of View” on page 44. Decide who is telling your story and how formal or informal the narrator will be with the audience.
• Review Chapter 6, “Characterization,” in Shaping the Story to select the characterizations you will use to create the characters of your short story.
• Complete “Progressive Writing Exercise #6: Building Your Characters” on page 96 in Shaping the Story and present the protagonists of your story in action.
• Review Chapter 7, “Dialogue,” in Shaping the Story to determine how your character will speak. Complete “Progressive Writing Exercise #7: Putting Words in Your Characters’ Mouths” on page 112 in Shaping the Story
• Review Chapter 4, “Tone of Voice,” in Shaping the Story to select the tone you will use to set the tone of your short story.Complete “Progressive Writing Exercise #4: Finding the Right Tone of Voice” on page 63 in Shaping the Story to fine tune the voice you will use in your story.
• Consider the effect you want to have on your audience.
  • What elements of writing will you use to provoke a reaction?
  • How can point of view, tone of voice, characterization, and dialogue help the reader identify with a short story?

The assignment:

• Revise and write 3–5 additional pages to your first draft, culminating in a 5- to 8-page second draft of your short story incorporating the elements of point of view, tone of voice, characterization, and dialogue.

Formatting expectations:

• Indent the first sentence of each paragraph. Block paragraphs are not acceptable for this assignment.
• Your final document should:
  • Be in a 10- or 12-point font, such as Times New Roman or Verdana.
  • Be double-spaced throughout.
  • Have 1-inch margins for top, bottom, left, and right.
• Review the directions for uploading your assignment into Doc Sharing in the Learning Resources.

This assignment will be peer reviewed by one of your colleagues in Week 4.

By Day 7

Submit your Second Draft.In order to receive full credit, all assignments are due on time. Should you encounter an unanticipated and uncontrollable life event that may prevent you from meeting an assignment deadline, contact the Instructor immediately to request an extension. Your Instructor’s contact information is in the Contact the Instructor area on the left navigation bar. For a full description of the late policy, please refer to the “Policies on Late Assignments” section of your Syllabus.

Submission and Grading Information

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

• Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK3Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
• Click the Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
• Click the Week 3 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
• Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK3Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
• Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.