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Reflective Essay

Prompts to choose from:
  1. Explain one or two ways my writing has improved (or not). Include a few examples from my posts over time, with analysis and links to the original posts, to illustrate how the improvement(s) happened.
  2. Choose one post. (My favorite? My least favorite? The one that surprises me the most when I reread it?) Analyze it in detail. Explain the "behind-the-scenes" of how it was written, what it truly means, where its inspiration came from, etc.
  3. Explain one or two ways audience feedback helped me grow over the semester. This doesn't have to be stuff Sutherland said; If people wrote response posts about my writing, what did I learn from their reactions?
  4. In what ways do writing response posts to classmates' blogs help me become a better writer, reader, or thinker? Are there other ways in which my classmates' blogs help me learn?
  5. What's my usual revision/editing process? How do I go from rough to final draft?
  6. In what way(s) have I surprised myself this semester on my blog? Have I tried topics I didn't think I'd write about? Approached a familiar topic from an unfamiliar angle? Discovered more "depth" to a topic than I first thought was possible? Explain.
  7. What have I learned from my struggles with writer's block? Why do I tend to get stuck? How do I tend to get unstuck? Notice any patterns?
  8. How do I like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way I write, the way I think, or the way I think about writing?
  9. Has blogging had any other effects on my life beyond strictly my "school life"? Explain.
  10. Where do I get my ideas for blog post topics? What inspires me to write?
  11. How is the open-ended writing I do on my blog different from the more structured academic assignments I write?

Requirements:


Prompts & Length
  • You can choose 1-3 questions to answer.
  • Each prompt you choose should be answered with at least 300 words.
  • Combine them into one post of at least 1,000 words.
Evidence
  • Include links to the posts you write about in your final, so readers can take a "guided tour" of your work.
  • Quote yourself, just like you would quote any other author whose work you are analyzing.
Intro & Conclusion
  • Your introduction should provide a quick summary of the topics you've been blogging about.
  • Take key words and phrases from the prompt(s) you choose to write about and use them to create a thesis statement about the types of reflection/analysis you'll be doing.
  • Your conclusion should focus on what your writing goals are for the next quarter, and why.