The College English I students are becoming familiar with their Writer's Inc. style manual.  They have studied the traits of effective writing and have written their first narrative essays.  We focused on showing vs. telling details and bringing their essays to life using dialogue, action, and sensory details.  They were also introduced to using a rubric to evaluate their writing and the need to create multiple drafts to improve their essays.  We are just starting the short story unit from their literature text book and are focusing on close reading and using textual evidence to support their analysis.