EN 101 Reflection Letter and Portfolio
Dear EN 101 Student,
It has been a long semester, and now you have one final project in English Composition 1 – to create a portfolio of your work from this semester and to write a letter reflecting on your growth. Your instructor and the GRCC English Department ask you to do this because reflection helps you recognize and remember what you’ve learned. It comes at the end of a learning cycle and prepares you for future writing.
Here is your specific task: write us a letter about your growth as a writer – the series of before-and-after moments during the semester. Sometimes growth looks like an “aha moment” where you suddenly understand something more clearly; other times, growth comes when you do less well than you’d hoped and have to figure out how to improve.
Please address your letter to your instructor and the GRCC English Department. As for length, we recommend about two pages for single-spaced letters and about four pages for double-spaced letters; consult your instructor to see whether they prefer a business letter, a friendly letter, or a different style of letter.
Along with your letter and in the same Word or PDF file, include the unchanged full text of six assignments from this semester; these will form the portfolio part of this assignment. We want to see a variety of pieces that reflect different stages of your writing process. We recommend including at least one rough draft and final draft of the same major writing project; the remaining four items could include a combination of short assignments, another final draft, or another rough draft.
Keep in mind that a key element of any good writing is backing up ideas with evidence. For this letter, that means including evidence from each piece of writing in your portfolio at least once in the form of paraphrase, summary, or quotation. Be sure to make connections between the specific examples and your claims about your learning and growth.
Here are some prompts to help you craft your reflection. Pick as many as you need to write a coherent and focused letter:
When you re-read the five course outcomes on your syllabus, what phrases caught your attention as areas where you’ve improved or learned something new?
What “aha moments” can you recall from class sessions or while working independently?
What were your biggest writing challenges and what did you do to address them?
How has greater attention to your audience, purpose, or genre shaped your texts? (see outcomes 1 & 2)
Describe how a reading assignment from this semester influenced your development as a writer. (see outcomes 2 & 3)
How has a greater attention to the writing process changed your writing? (see outcome 3)
How have the three audiences you’ve written for in EN 101 (academic, professional, and community/civic) helped you to better reach similar audiences in other writing? (see outcome 4)
How have the skills you practiced in EN 101 helped you to succeed in the writing you do for other courses and/or outside of school? (see outcome 4)
Describe how your information literacy skills have changed this semester. (see outcome 5)
