ESSAY REFLECTION GUIDELINES

For each of the four major written assignments that you will complete this semester will write a 1 (one) page thoughtful response to each assignment that focuses on the processes you used in composing your essay.  In this one (1) FULL page (and no less), you should discuss a minimum of five (5) different points listed below.


FORM
These should be typed, double-spaced, 12 point, Times New Roman Font
•      Approach this as you would a freewrite writing whatever comes to mind about your 5 points.
•      Do not number these five points or identify them to me in anyway.
•      Just be sure that the end result is one full-page typed double-spaced.


CONTENT
You should discuss a minimum of five (5) different points listed below:

1.A big problem I had in writing on my topic
2.A risk I took
3.How I tried to make the assignment my own
4.How the audience I envisioned influenced me
5.How my personality did or did not affect an important part of my   essay
6.A paragraph where I was especially aware of pace or syntax
7.The type of comment I expect/want/dread from my reader
8.Where text/instructor/peer most influenced me
9.Where I tried to respond to your criticism from an earlier essay
10.     Where I broke a grammatical/spelling/syntax rule(s) on purpose
11.     Where I surrendered to my intellect/emotions
12.     How I improved on my writing process
13.     The mechanics of the writing process that most interfered with this        assignment
14.     How I picked someone’s brain on a particular topic without them      knowing what I was doing
15.     What most intimidated me about the assignment/topic and how I        fought back
16.     How I would improve this essay if I had more time or one more draft
17.     What I hope my reader(s) won’t/will catch
18.     Where I might publish this essay and what I would have to do to   adapt it to the publication
19.     How I tried to integrate insight from another course
20.     How I hoped to make my essay distinct from others
21.     How I tried to offend/confuse/intimidate/trounce the reader and still          get away with it
22.     Where my gender/family/neighborhood/city/race/century/religion    helped/interfered
23.     If I had time to write a completely different essay, I would…
24.     How childishness/maturity/sophistication/innocence intruded
25.     How I experimented with diction
26.     My best claim to originality/creativity
27.     How I focused and focused and focused until I got it right
28.     Where I fudged/embellished/improved on the truth
29.     Help or hindrance I experienced gathering information
30.     I wanted to mainly inform/convert/wound/heal/etc…
31.     Please don’t miss…
32.     Most researchers discover that the more they learn, the more they
  still need to know about their subjects.  If you had more time to work
  on this essay, which sources would you investigate further? Why?
33      What was the most difficult problem you had to solve during your
         collecting, shaping, drafting, and revising? What helped you most as
         you tried to solve this problem (further reading, additional writing,
        advice from peers)? Explain.
34.    What was the best workshop advice that you received? What did you
         revise in your draft because of that advice?  What advice did you
         ignore? Why?
35.    What caused you the most difficulty with this essay? How did you                 solve the problem—or attempt to solve it? With what parts are you still
        least satisfied?
36.    What are the best parts of your paper? Refer to specific              paragraphs—what do you like best about them?
37.     What was the single most important thing you learned about          investigating a topic or about your writing or writing process as you
wrote this paper?



DUE

The reflection is due at the beginning of class the day the final draft of the assignment is due.

Reflections should be included in the same Microsoft Word file as your final draft. Place it after the presentation of your paper in this single file.

This single file containing your final draft and reflection should be submitted to the appropriate file in Ulearn no later than class time on the date that the final draft of your paper is due (see course schedule).

One full letter grade will be deducted from the final grade for an assignment if the reflection is not included with your final draft submitted to Ulearn.