Assess your progress over the course of the semester. Reflect back over the semester, and think about the moments that stick out to you.

Description

This assignment is worth 5% of your overall grade.

To close the semester, you will write a 2-page reflection essay in which you examine your experiences and development since the first week of class. This essay prompts you to re-read your previous work and discuss your growth as a writer, reader, and researcher. You will examine the most memorable highs and lows of the semester—your struggles, your successes, as well as those moments of which you are most proud.

Getting Started

Assess your progress over the course of the semester. Reflect back over the semester, and think about the moments that stick out to you.

The following generative questions and activities are a good place to start:

What was your writing (and your perception of writing) like when you first began the semester? How has your writing (and your perception of writing) changed? Look over your previous assignments; what growth or development do you see?

What were the most memorable moments in this class? Which assignments were the most challenging? Which were the most rewarding or engaging? Which reading or writing assignments do you think with “stick with” you?

Review the Learning Outcomes for this course. How has this this class helped you to achieve these outcomes? In which areas have you progressed the most? Which areas still need some work?

Drafting Your Essay

After doing some considerable brainstorming and reflective thinking, you can begin drafting. There is no prescribed structure for this essay. However, you do need to think rhetorically about about your stylistic and organizational choices.

This is a two-page essay, so you will need to compose several paragraphs. How those paragraphs are organized and developed is your rhetorical choice. Some options include, but are not limited to, the following organizational strategies:

Using a closed-form, academic structure, with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Using an open-form narrative structure that builds chronologically from beginning to end. Tell the story of the semester.

Composing a set of vignettes-3 or more brief episodes or themes that work independently as well as together. These vignettes could explain or narrate the 3 (or 4 or 5) most memorable/challenging/successful/etc. moments of the semester.

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