Rhetorical Strategies

A Four Full Page (minimum) Reflective Essay that examines what you have learned about your writing, critical thinking, and critical reading with evidence from these essays and others to support your claims.  Reflective Analysis Assignment: Reflective Writing can sometimes bring out our tendencies to flatter our readers, or to tell someone what they want to hear. You might find yourself tempted to say things about your professor, but I want to encourage you to focus this reflection on your own work. This Reflection is no less difficult than any other essay we have written this semester, and it must clearly explain what you have learned about your own writing and provide evidence from your revised essays and other writing in the course to support your discussion. Thesis and Organization: you might wonder if a Reflective essay like this one has a thesis. In this essay, your thesis needs to express what you feel you have learned about your writing through your work this semester, and you will need to support this thesis with body paragraphs that provide evidence that backs up your claims.   Genre and Audience: Your audience is, as it has been all semester, your classmates and myself, and the genre of the reflection is organizes as a narrative, one that tells the story of what you have learned about your writing while also presenting evidence of what you have learned.   Required Responses: The following two questions are required, but those below are options that you might pick and choose from. 1.     What have I learned about my writing, analysis, and critical reading through the process of substantially revising the essays for this final project and through working on my writing this semester? 2.     How will I challenge myself to develop my writing in the future?   Other Options to Explore: you might also consider the following questions, though you will not be able to cover all of them in a single essay: v  What was the experience of writing my first essay at the university like? How did it compare to earlier writing? Looking back on the experience, what do I know now about college writing that I did not know then? v  What have I learned about analyzing texts and reading them critically? v  What have I learned about the processes of writing—coming up with ideas, organizing my work, writing multiple drafts, revising my work? v  What have I learned about the importance of receiving feedback on my work from my peers and others? v  What have I learned about developing my ideas in more depth and providing evidence to support my ideas? v  What have I learned about the research process and finding sources to support my work? v  What have I learned about rhetorical situations and rhetorical strategies? Developing a Successful Reflection: there are a few keys strategies to keep in mind for this final project. v  The more fully you revise the essay you choose, the more you have to discuss in your Reflective Analysis. Revising fully gives you more opportunities to reflect upon insights you have had about your writing. v  Remember that the Reflection is Narrative in Form: take your readers through the process of your experience, reflecting upon what you knew about your writing when you entered the course, what you learned throughout your work in the course, and how you will continue to develop as a writer and reader in the future. v  Focus on Your Own Work: keep the focus on your work and the insights into your writing process you have made through the process not on the professor. v  Provide Evidence: back up your discussion of what you learned with discussions, quotations, and examples from the essays you have revised.