Inkshed on Essay Conference
Name:
Today’s date:
Date of conference:
This inkshed is to be completed and submitted via email within 24 hours of your essay
conference. Feel free to compose it either as an MSWord document (sending it as an
attachment) or within the body of the email itself. 500 words is the expected length (in
addition to the text of this template, which is 356 words).
The first few paragraphs of this inkshed need to cover the following issues specifically,
after which you are free to reflect or comment on anything else you want to bring up about
the conference (or that you forgot to mention during the conference). Please number your
responses to each question below (the numbers can be inserted after the fact and do not
have to be in order; your responses do not have to be in list form, as long as the inserted
number clearly indicates where you discuss each of the following). You are of course free
to simply insert your comments in order after each item in the list below (a minimum of 15
minutes of nonstop, unedited writing is required).
1. What positive reactions/comments did you receive (verbal or non-verbal—i.e.,
laughter, amazement, grimaces, sadness, etc.)?
2. Describe the strengths of your essay (whether or not you agree, describe what
your instructor identified as strengths or things to keep—make sure to identify
particular passages and to comment on ideas and organization, not just stylistic
features or matters of correctness).
3. What major changes (deletions, re-organization, addition of new material) might
you make in your revision? (be as detailed here as possible)
4. What quick changes do you plan to make right now so that you don’t forget about
them?
5. Where there any recurring technical or stylistic problems or patterns of error that
came to your attention? If so, describe one or two of them. Will you be able to
notice this pattern in your next essay at the proofreading stage?
6. Do you still have some questions remaining about your essay and/or your writing
(NOT about marks) after the conference? If so, mention them here.