eek 16: Reflection & Journaling (Expressive) Section
To do:
Reflect on your time and work this semester
Go over the Reflective Essay directions. (It’s Expressive.)
Complete and Upload your Reflective Essay – no later than Noon on Thursday, 5/2
Give Advice to Future Students
English 111: Reflective Essay Explanation
Goals:
To help you see how you’ve grown and changed
To allow you to gather your ideas to take with you when you go
To get you to realize your successes!!!!!
Directions:
Answer all of the following questions as a pre-writing step.
Create an expressive essay from your information. (Remember the “rules” about expressive essay writing?)
Make sure the final draft you submit is longer than 2 full pages.
Questions:
What sort of student were you at the beginning of the semester? What did you do well? (attendance, assignments, active in class, good listener, leader, conversation starter, thinker etc) What were you weak at?
How has that changed? Why? Why not? What did you do to become a better student?
What sort of reader were you at the beginning of the semester? What were your strengths? (desire, comprehension, active annotation, note-taking, willingness to discuss interpretations, etc) What were your weaknesses?
How has that changed? What did you do to become a better reader? If you did nothing, why not?
What sort of writer were you at the beginning of the semester? What were your strengths (desire, completeness, experience, flow, source use, introductions, transitions, academic voice, researching, creativity, etc.) What were your weaknesses?
How has that changed? What efforts did you make? Which worked? Which didn’t? If you had to do it over again, what would you change?
During the semester, your essays received a great deal of feedback from peers, the WRC, and your instructor. What did they suggest you work on? (Be specific.) Did you? Why or why not?
What did you do outside of class to become a better writer? When were you a self-directed learner, what did you do? What more could you have done?
Are you happy with the choices you’ve made? Have you reached your goal/s in the class?
What can you do with your self-discoveries to help yourself in future classes and life?
Grading:
**** If you address all the questions and have a draft over 2 pages long, you earn full credit. Because this is an expressive essay, feel free to include pictures or graphics, change font colors and sizes, play with margin size, etc. to help make your point.
