The Final Reflective Letter is a piece of process writing in which you explain the ways in which your writing and thinking about writing have progressed, changed, or remained the same over the course of the semester. It speaks to your project over the semester and gives a “behind-the-scenes” glimpse of your work. It is, as the name implies, “reflective”–that is, it steps back and makes meaning out of your work. It can also function as a subtly persuasive piece of writing. As such, you should make liberal use of clear and specific information to illustrate and support what you say.
The final reflective letter should include some references to and an evaluation of course activities and resources, especially to those directly related to the development of the process papers and the final researched essay. It might also include references to your textbook, perhaps even to specific chapters or sections. This is your opportunity to evaluate the course. Tell me what is and isn’t helpful. What would help you learn more in future semesters?
Your reflective letter should also address what your semester’s work and project says about you as a thinker and writer and what it says or does not say about your writing and thinking development (or lack of development) over the course of the semester. In addition, you should consider where you plan to take your writing in the future. How do you plan to continue to develop as a writer and thinker?
Length: Two pages, typed, single spaced.
Format: Letter
Dear Ms. blank,
(enter)
(enter)
Begin typing your letter . . .
Make sure to use tabbed paragraphs when shifting ideas.
Sincerely,
(enter)
(enter)
Your Name
Your Personal Email
Contact Phone Number
The Specifics—Discuss how you got from the blank page to the essays that you completed this semester as part of your overall project, how you went about doing your prewriting, drafting and revision.
The letter must:
Demonstrate self-assessment; provide evidence of the writer’s ability to be reflective.
Point to specific examples from your essays that proves your assertions about your writing.
Help me see your work as you believe it should be seen.
The letter should include the following:
Examine your writing both before taking this course and during this course. Talk about how this course affected or did not affect how you write.
Examine a section of writing in some detail; discuss the strengths of your writing, for example, or acknowledge your weaknesses but show how you worked to overcome them.
Explain the relationship between your process and your product—between what’s on the page and how it got there.
If you had more time, what revisions would you make? For example: What other research would you consider? Are there points in your argument that you feel are weak or underdeveloped?
Demonstrate what the work you’ve done this semester illustrates about you as a writer, student, researcher, and critical thinker.
Discuss the writing/thinking risks you’ve taken this semester, the experimentation in which you’ve indulged, and the results of those ventures.
The concluding paragraph should speak directly about the class and the instructor (me). I am the only one who will see this letter, and I do not hold grudges. I am still learning too.
background info: online class, 3 essays in total: personal essay, summary and an argumentative essay. There was no activities and it was pretty bland. make sure to include that it would of been effective if she gave us a graded rubric based on how we did on the essays.
