This assignment is intended to help you reflect in very specific detail on how your writing, critical thinking, critical reading, and visual literacy skills have developed over the course of the semester. Your audience for this project is me, your classmates, and the NAU
community.
For this assignment, please both inform your audience on what you have learned and also demonstrate your learning with specific examples-in other words, cite your own work. The evidence for your thesis (main idea) comes from these experiences and the writing you constructed. Your argument needs to support or reveal your experiences to your readers-which you do by citing your own work, or pointing to specific examples in the papers you wrote for the class.
Remember that you can draw on the in-class reflections that you wrote. In effect, this reflective letter will be an argument: here
is what I learned about writing, and here are some examples I can point to, in my portfolio, that exemplify
and show what I mean.
The "Outcomes Statement" (at the start of your ENG 105 syllabus) includes five broad categories, so your reflective letter will be read based on how you demonstrate your knowledge about: Rhetorical Knowledge Possible questions for you to focus on, in your reflective letter:
- What examples in your portfolio demonstrate that you can focus on a purpose?
- What in your portfolio demonstrates that you can respond to the needs of different audiences and rhetorical situations (including using conventions of format and structure appropriate to the rhetorical situation)?
- What can you point to that demonstrates your use of appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality? Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing Possible questions for you to focus on, in your reflective letter:
- What in your portfolio demonstrates that you can use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating?
- What can you point to that shows how you understand a writing assignment as a series of tasks, including finding, evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary sources?
- What examples can you cite where you integrate your own ideas with those of others?
Processes
Possible questions for you to focus on, in your reflective letter:
- How can you demonstrate that it usually takes multiple drafts to create and complete a successful text?
How can you show that you are able to develop and use flexible strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proofreading?
What examples can you point to and/or cite to show that you've learned to effectively critique your own and others' work? Knowledge of Conventions Possible questions for you to focus on, in your reflective letter:
- What can you point to where to demonstrate the appropriate means of documenting your work, as well as controlling such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling? Composing in Electronic Environments Possible questions for you to focus on, in your reflective letter:
- How can you demonstrate that you can effectively use electronic environments for drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing texts?
- What can you point to in your work that demonstrates that you can effectively locate, evaluate, organize, and use research material collected from electronic sources, including scholarly library databases; other official databases (e.g., federal government databases); and informal electronic networks and internet sources?
- What can you cite that shows your effective use of visuals in your texts? Your project should include the following parts:
- Introductory information: this is where you tell your readers what the reflection/argument is about. Provide a space that focuses your reader on the specific aspects you will discuss. In essence, you are going to create a statement of central focus
(thesis) that tells your readers why you are going to discuss this specific aspect of your English 105 experience.
- Body: this is where you provide specific detail to illustrate the importance of your educational experience. You can write (visually enhanced) about a specific reading, an essay, a collaboration, a lesson, an exercise you did in class, using BB Learn, peer review comments (and what you did with them), etc. Make sure that each of your main ideas in this reflection is supported by examples
(written and/or visual) or descriptive detail. For each skill or piece of knowledge that you include in your assertions, provide evidence that you have learned what you claim to have learned. The "evidence" that you provide will, of course, come from the writing and other activities that you do this semester; use examples from those texts and activities to show what you learned.
- Conclusion: this is where you round up your reflection and make connections to the larger world. With this, you give your readers a sense of completion.