Writ 121 Reflecting on Essay 5

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, and of course to help you become better writers.

Please answer the following questions about your fifth essay. For some of the questions you will need to reread parts of your essay, texts, or your discussion board 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 under each question.

1. Besides the change in topics, how is this paper different from your last essay? How were your strategies to give us insight into something significant, interesting or curious about your topic different with this essay? And again, what surprised you about the paper and/or the process of writing the paper?

2. What, specifically, is the best part of the essay? Why?

3. In what ways do you relate this discussion to your audience, this class? How does the fact that we haven't necessarily read any of your sources affect how you present them, compared with articles we've all read together?

4. Choose your favorite sentence from your essay that you wrote (not a quotation), and copy it below this question. Based on WW Ch. 16, "Working Sentences" and Ch. 27, "Concise Sentences," explain how the language choices you made--word choice, emphatic techniques, word order, rhythm, sound, image--create an effective sentence.

5. How did the audience responses you received influence the changes you made from the early draft?  And how did the responses you made to other class member drafts influence (or reflect) the changes you made?

6. What suggestions did you receive from class members that you chose not to follow? Why?

7. What other changes did you make from your first draft to the draft you're submitting to me? (Don't include any mechanical changes, such as punctuation or spelling.) Why did you make the changes you made? What from our readings in WW influenced (or reflect) your revision in this paper? Please note the page or pages you refer to. (And again, telling me that nothing from your reading influenced you or reflects your revision suggests to me that you're not adequately studying the texts.  Hence, not an effective response. Also, let’s assume you looked up stuff for your works cited page and discuss something more specific.)

8. What was the most difficult part of writing this essay? (Please avoid saying, "All of it was difficult--which part was the most trying?) What was the easiest part? Please note specific passages in the paper.

9. How many paragraphs does your paper contain? Explain the  order of your ideas by summarizing each paragraph, around one sentence each. And don't forget to respond to the rest of this prompt after the example below!

Again, here's an example of how Burns might do the same with the beginning of his article "Marilyn Manson and the Apt Pupils of Littleton": First I tell an anecdote about an interview I had with a Detroit radio station reporter wondering if I found Marilyn Manson to blame for the killings in Colorado.  I found the question peculiar since I had not heard it established the killers had listened to Manson; and I still haven't seen conclusive evidence they had. Instead I found more obvious the fact that the date of the killings was Hitler's birthday and the anniversary of the Waco and Oklahoma City tragedies.  I tried to direct the reporter to the wider issue of these anniversaries, even though reporters rarely want to hear a contrary view. Mainstream media in general does little to expose the rightwing culture of guns, militarism, and government and antigovernment violence in the U.S., such as the influences upon the behavior of Timothy McVeigh. I  then show some possible influences on McVeigh, such as rightwing talk radio.

• After you've summarized, tell me why the order of your paragraphs makes sense. (And I ask you to avoid the word flow.) Or does it? Is there a clear reason why you move from one paragraph to the next?

• Now if you chose the order you did because it just "seemed right," that suggests you ordered it subconsciously, which is fine.

• However, now try to figure out how well the order works, consciously, based on the passages from your texts noted below.

• Review WW 108 and 163-65.

• Remember that presenting your essay body paragraphs in a random order--where it wouldn't make much difference whether or not a paragraph were in 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th position--is ineffective. If you find your essay organized so, what might you do to rearrange so that there is a good reason why you move from one paragraph to the next?

10. 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 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 work?)

Where to submit?

1. Paste your reflection onto the end of your essay file.

• Make sure there is a clear separation between the essay and reflection--and place the reflection after the works cited page, not before. 
• You don't have a works cited page? Then you need to write one. I will read and respond to essays only if they include works cited pages.

2. By 4/10/04, Saturday midnight, send your Essay 5 as an RTF file through the digital drop box in Blackboard.

And when you are in the drop box, click on , not . 

Add file is for your use, to store files that you want to access later. If you choose Add File, I will not see it, only you will.

• This essay really needs to be turned in on time.

• You will only have about 11-12 days to prepare your portfolio for submission.

• I plan to have responses to essay 5  returned to you no later than Sunday midnight 4/18/04, but only if they are submitted complete to me by the deadline (well, at least by the end of the grace period--Sunday midnight).