WR 121: College Writing Section 008

Summer 2015
Essay #4 – Reflection
Due: 11:59pm Friday August 14th
Length: 2-3 pages
This essay has two goals. The first and most important goal is to give you the opportunity to think back to and articulate what you learned in this class and how you will apply that knowledge in the future. The second is to give you the opportunity to tell me anything that you think I should know about any of the choices that you made in your writing or assignments this term.
The assignment is this:
Write a critical reflection on your experiences in this class. A reflection should not be a summary of what you did, but a discussion of what you learned from the experience. Ask yourself what you have learned about writing and about yourself in this class. What, if anything, would you do differently if you could start again from the beginning of this class? How could you have approached the assignments for this class differently, or, what worked, and why? If there is anything that you feel should be explained or justified about any of the papers, your final portfolio, or about your performance as a whole, this is your opportunity to express that to me. Importantly, consider what you can take from this experience to be applied to your future writing endeavors. Your reflection may be in the form of an essay or a reflective letter to me.
In this essay you should:
– Use “I.” Just as with Essay 1, this essay is about you and your experiences.
– Be as specific as possible. Try to focus on the details that you think are most important to articulating your experience.
– Focus on a limited scope. Don’t describe everything that you did in this class. Try to identify the most important or interesting thing(s) that you got out of this course and discuss only the aspects of the course that are necessary to explaining this.
– Focus on the future and why what you have learned matters. Don’t just tell me the story of what you went through in the past 4 weeks, but tell me how this will help you in the future.
– Write honestly and don’t worry about conventions. A thesis statement is not required, but you may find one helpful to keep your writing focused.
– You are welcome (but not required) to refer to any sources from throughout the term that will help you to show what you learned; if you do, be sure to include proper citations and a works cited page.
– As always, use 12 point Times New Roman font and MLA formatting. See page the guidelines for MLA formatting beginning on page 524 of Rules for Writers.
An important note: This essay is not an opportunity to suck up to me or criticize my teaching or this class (that is what course evaluations are for) – this paper should be focused on your performance and experiences within the opportunities that you were given. Nor is this an
opportunity to make excuses for missing assignments or other problems (any problems you were having should have been discussed with me throughout the term). What I mean by explaining and justifying your work is discussing any choices that you consciously made but that you feel I may not agree with or explaining how past experiences with writing caused you to approach assignments in a particular way.
Grading:
Required elements (for a B grade): The essay is turned in on time, uses Times New Roman font and is properly formatted in MLA format (see page 524 of Rules for Writers), is a minimum of 2 full pages, is focused on your experiences in this class, and is edited for basic errors (typos, spelling errors, etc.).
Additional elements for a better grade (higher than a B): The essay goes into great detail and is well focused on an appropriate aspect or aspects of your experience in the class, considers the significance of the experiences being discussed and the implications of those experiences for the future, is an appropriate length for the subject discussed (i.e. longer than two pages if a larger scope is being discussed), is interesting to read and shows honesty and exploration through the writing, is well written and is carefully revised and edited for errors.