Reflection 3 | Tell Me What You Want

Module 3 Reflection | Tell Me What You Want

When we ask the right questions, we can usually get the answers we want, but when we don’t we may just cause confusion. Look at this example:

Student | I don’t understand the assignment?

Instructor | I’m sorry.

The student probably wanted help understanding some aspect of the assignment, but because their question is too vague, the instructor can’t help. These would be better questions:

• How many secondary sources to I have to use in my paper?

• Can you help me write my thesis?

• When is the paper due?

In 1310, you will be interviewing one or more people, and so you need to think carefully about what questions you should ask to get the answers you need. To help us do that, we are going to reflect on the questions that the boy asked the vampire and the vampire asked the boy in the written excerpt from Interview With a Vampire. Consider these questions:

• Can you identify three questions the vampire asked the boy?

• Were they good questions? Why or why not?

• Can you identify three questions the boy asked vampire?

• Were they good questions? Why or why not?

• How can you use what you learned from analyzing this text to help you create your own questions to use when you interview the members of your community?

How Should You Write Your Reflection?

1.      Give your reflection an interesting title:

2.      Write an introduction that includes

a.      A hook

b.      A thesis—what is your opinion of the questioning skills of the vampire and the boy?

Help!  Not sure how? Read pages 31, and 81 in Steps to Writing Well.

3.      Write your first body paragraph:

a.      Write a topic sentence that summarizes whether the vampire asked the boy effective questions.

b.      Provide personal evidence by quoting from the text to support your opinion.

4.      Write your second body paragraph:

a.      Write a topic sentence that summarizes whether the boy asked the vampire effective questions.

b.      Provide personal evidence by quoting from the text to support your opinion.

Help!  Not sure how? Read pages 203-221 in Steps to Writing Well.

5.      Write your third body paragraph:

a.      Write a topic sentence that summarizes how you can use what you learned to develop your own interview questions.

b.      Provide examples to support your topic sentence.

6.      Write a conclusion that summarizes the main point of your essay.

Help!  Not sure how? Read pages 88-92 in Steps to Writing Well.