A Note From the NuVu Writing Coach
September 27, 2017
Dear Students,
As writing coach, I’ll be working with you on The Briefs you write for each studio. My aim is to help you encapsulate—in writing that is clear, grammatical, and compelling—all the thought and creativity you put into the projects you work on at NuVu.
In your Outline and First Draft you will focus on content, the conceptual narrative you are trying to tell to someone who has not been in the studio: the motivation, the challenges, the innovations. In revising, you will focus on style: on crafting sentences that are clear, concise, and varied in structure, and organizing them into paragraphs.
Please read over the assignment carefully before beginning: it is your best guide. Then, before posting each draft, read over the “Composition Reminder Sheet” for grammar tips and reminders—these are based on common errors in past Briefs—and make any corrections you can. Before posting the second draft, be sure you are sending a clean copy with none of my bracketed comments, and be sure to proofread each sentence.
If you are confused about any instructions or grammar points, please send me a note asking for clarification. If I feel you haven’t read the assignment or the reminders or haven’t made an effort to proofread, I will ask you to do so before giving detailed feedback on a draft.
What my feedback will look like: I will provide a mix of suggested edits (crossing out wording and suggesting revised wording in bold) and bracketed comments asking you to push deeper or to read a link on a particular grammar point. I will underline words that are misspelled or mistyped for you to look up and correct.
Remember that this is your writing and your project: if you feel I have suggested wording that is inaccurate or that doesn’t reflect your understanding of your project or your own voice, please make the appropriate changes. Stick to the deadlines, so I can respond in a timely way before you have moved on to a new studio.
Last, to quote David McCullough: “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.”
Looking forward to reading about your next projects,
Rebecca