Final Reflection

Task

FINAL REFLECTION

• Look back at the work you have completed this past quarter. Review the readings and what you have written thus far: your journal entries and your Current Events assignments. As you do so, annotate your own work, looking for one topic, or claim that you would like to explore in a bit more detail.
• Once you have chosen a topic that you would like to explore further, your first aim will be to report what you have learned about this topic—what you found novel, compelling or new—by beginning with what “they say” (as covered in Graff and Birkenstein's essay in the reader).
  1. That is, you will need to summarize and explain what others have written about your topic and, following Harris, borrow key quotations from your sources that illustrate what they have to say.
  2. You should include at least 2-3 sources from our readings on your topic
• After reporting what others have said about this topic, follow Harris’ lead (Harris' text on "Forwarding"), entering the conversation and attempting to say something new by pushing the conversation into new territory:
  1. Reflect on what what you have learned and how your thinking about this topic has changed or deepened. What tentative conclusions can you come to?
  2. Finally, use Harris to extend what you have learned about this into a new context. How do your readings help you to better understand an issue or topic that lies outside of these readings.

POSITION PAPER

• Alternately, you can write a position paper on a particular issue of interest, using the texts and other source materials related to the issue. For an idea of how to do this if you have not written a position paper before, visit this link: Writing a position paper

A few points to keep in mind:

• When writing, think through the assortment of texts that we have read. Consider how they enter into conversations by introducing the work of others and clearly contextualizing what those authors discuss.
• Use Harris' text on "Forwarding" to use the texts we have read to illustrate, authorize, borrow, and extend. The central move here is to take the conversation in a new direction and extend the conversation into a new intellectual space.
• This assignment should be 4-5 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt font, Times/Arial.