As you know, the purpose of this course is for you to
become a better writer. Therefore, for each essay you upload for me to evaluate, you will
have the opportunity to reflect upon the process you went through to produce the piece.
You also should recall that when you turn in your portfolio, you will be
writing a reflective essay that explains why you chose the essays you did and why they
exhibit good writing.
Therefore, these reflections will help you to prepare for this final
writing assignment.
Please answer the
following questions about your first essay. For some of the questions you
will need to reread parts of your essay or audience responses while others you will need only to rethink what
you did.
Also, please, copy the questions,
paste the questions into a blank page of your word processor and
write the answers on a new line under each question.
What surprised you about this essay and/or about the process of writing this essay?
What turned out different from what you initially expected?
Which of the prewriting questions helped you generate
the most ideas or details for your essay? Why do you think this is?
What is the best part of the essay? Why?
What changes did you make from your rough draft to your current draft?
(Don't include any mechanical changes, such as punctuation or spelling.) Why did you make
the changes you made?
Which of the audience responses you received from class
members was the most helpful? How so? Which of your audience responses
was the least helpful? What was lacking in the response?
What was the most difficult part of writing this paper? What was the
easiest part?
If you were to choose this essay for your portfolio, what would you do to improve
it? (And please avoid saying, "I'd take into consideration whatever
Prof. Dan says when he
responds to it." That's obvious. What parts of
the essay do you see where you could make it stronger with a little more
time to work on it?)
Where to submit?
Paste your reflection
onto the end of your
essay.
Make sure there is a clear separation between the
essay and the reflection. You can see an example
of how a student from a previous semester did this in Angel Pages &
Workspaces>Course Files>Samples from Dan.
By 2/6/10, Saturday midnight, you need to send your Essay 1 as an RTF file through the
essay digital drop box (in the week 4 folder).
Do note, though, that you have a 24 hour grace period, so you can submit
the essay and reflection by Sunday midnight (2/7/10) with no penalty.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call me or e-mail me. My phone number and office hours are
right above the Table of Contents on the Online Syllabus. I do have voice mail for my
phone if I'm not in.
