Week Four

From the Week Four, you do not have a discussion assignment. Instead you will spend the week drafting, revising and editing your 4.1 Writing about Writing Reflective Essay and preparing your 4.2 Learning Reflection. Both are due at the end of the week.

4.1 Writing about Writing Reflective Essay

Instructions:

Thinking about your own writing processes and experiences, write a short reflective essay of 600-700 words in which you share your experiences as a writer. Think about the following questions as you brainstorm and begin drafting your reflective essay:

  • What kinds of writing have you done in the past?

  • How does your writing process compare with what you have learned about the writing process since this class began?

  • What are your goals for improving your academic writing?

  • What do you hope to gain from this course?

Do not ask these questions in your writing, but rather use them for brainstorming purposes.

Although this is a short essay and does not require source material, you may use a short quote or paraphrase from the Irving article (“What is Academic Writing?” or the Bakke piece (“Quality Academic Writing is a Process”). If you do include a short quote/paraphrase from one of those pieces, be sure to cite the source material in the text of your paper (i.e., in-text citation) and on an end-of-paper source list (i.e., works cited entry) using MLA Documentation and Format (see chapter 53).

Your essay should be well-organized, polished, and formatted as an academic paper in MLA style, which has rules for headers, margins, spacing, etc. (see chapter 53 again).

You should share the Google Doc containing the final version of your 4.1 essay with me by Sunday of Week Four. Be sure your permissions are set to "can comment." Name your Google Doc as follows: 4.1 Reflective Essay <Your last name> (replacing <Your last name> with your actual last name). Share to shwilliams1@ualr.edu.

The rubric below will be used to grade your 4.1 Writing About Writing Reflection Essay.

Reflection Essay Rubric.pdf

4.2 Learning Reflection

Instructions:

Learning reflections give you the opportunity to think about what you have read, written, and learned leading up to and during a writing project. The exercise of reflecting on your learning, linking it to your own experience and prior learning, will help ensure that you are able to recall and use the information later, in future projects. Having these learning reflections after each project will also help you prepare your semester reflection at the end of term.

Address the following questions in your learning reflection for this project:

  • What did you learn about writing leading up to and during this project?

  • What course goals and objectives (see syllabus) were applicable to your learning and this project?

  • How might you use what you have learned in the future?

Do not ask these questions in your writing, but rather use them for brainstorming purposes.

Your learning reflection should be 1-2 paragraphs, well thought-out, and polished.

You should share the Google Doc containing your learning reflection with me by Sunday of Week Four. Be sure your permissions are set to "can comment." Name your Google Doc as follows: 4.2 Learning Reflection <Your last name> (replacing <Your last name> with your actual last name). Share to shwilliams1@ualr.edu.

The rubric below will be used to grade your 4.2 Learning Reflection.

Learning Reflection Rubric.pdf