Final Reflection

Due: Tuesday, 12/15

Assignment

We have arrived at the end of the semester and are nearly done! Now it is time for you to pull all your work together, look at it as a whole, and reflect on what you have done over the course of the semester.

Final Reflection:

Reflect on the three questions below. Then create a reflection of a minimum of 1,000 words to accompany your portfolio. Make sure to quote from yourself to support your thinking. You must quote yourself at least three times from three different assignments.

1. What have you learned about yourself as a reader, writer, and scholar this semester? What have you learned about yourself from the solitude of quarantine? From the world events that have occurred in the last year?
2. Which ideas this semester have intrigued you? Which ideas will you continue thinking about past this semester? How do you wish to change and develop as a thinker, a reader, a student, and a person?
3. Discuss what you learned in this class and how you might apply this learning to other situations. Discuss what you learned in quarantine and in the past year and how you might transfer that learning past this moment.

Look back through all your work: writing exercises, homework assignments, blog posts, earlier reflections, essays, projects, and so on. As you browse through all you’ve composed, ask yourself about (and take notes on) the following questions as a way of generating ideas for your reflection:

• How would you compare/contrast work done early on in the semester to now? How have you developed as a writer?
• What was your favorite/least favorite assignment and why?
• What are some notable lessons that have stuck with you after completing certain assignments?
• What were your early assumptions/beliefs about yourself and writing? Have they since changed? Explain.
• What was particularly challenging for you this semester and how did you overcome it (or attempt to)?

Things to keep in mind for the reflection:

• Don’t simply answer the above questions in your final reflection. In fact, you do not need to answer them all. Instead, use them as a guide to help you brainstorm ideas.
• Think about all of the texts we’ve read —some of them certainly hooked your interest while others did not. Keep in mind the importance of engaging your reader and use any author who inspired you as a model for your own writing.
• Remember: this reflection is a finished piece of writing. Be sure to leave yourself time to shape your ideas and revise the piece. Treat yourself as a respected author who has something to say!
• Make sure to include an MLA heading with your name, my name, our class information, and a date. Also, make sure to give your reflection a creative title.

Here’s what I will be looking for in, and how I will be grading, the reflection:

• Attention to audience. You need to have a “so what?” Don’t just list a bunch of random opinions about your writing—write an article about what you’ve learned. Imagine that you are writing this for an audience beyond me (future students, family members, anyone interested in taking a writing class…).
• Attention to organization. This does not have to be a traditional organization, but you should have paragraphs and some rationale for how you’ve ordered them.
• Evidence and analysis. If you tell me you learned something about yourself as a writer, show me proof! By proof, I specifically mean quotes from your own writing. It is really important that you don’t just drop those quotes in there and expect your readers to figure out why you’ve chosen them. Give context for your quote by using the “quotation sandwich” technique (or some other strategy) so your readers understand how the quote you’ve chosen relates to the paragraph and your ideas.
• Care. Make sure you proofread carefully and fulfill word count and guideline requirements.
• Timelines. Make sure to get this done on time because my grades are due, and I need to carefully consider your work.