Questions We Can Help You To Answer

Paper instructions:

Why This Assignment? 

This 2-3 page reflection is an opportunity to demonstrate rhetorical sensitivity, writing skills, and knowledge that you've been practicing throughout the semester. It is also a chance for you to put in writing and consider critically how you might use what you've learned in this semester to meet the challenges of other writing situations. 

Rhetorical Situation

Audience: Your Instructor

Purpose: To demonstrate that you have achieved the learning objectives outlined for this course.

Genre Conventions: Assessment Essay: 2-3 pages; standard MLA format (double spaced, 12 pt. font, heading and header, etc). 

Stance: Semiformal, academic, serious

Medium: Electronic Submission



Assignment Guidelines

A sufficient reflection for this assignment will include approximately 6-7 well-developed paragraphs. Be sure to take a close look at the samples provided at the bottom of this page in your writing toolkit. 

Introduce the Topic: In your introduction, you might begin with an appeal, perhaps an anecdote about your attitude toward writing at the beginning of the semester, a previous experience pertaining to writing, etc. then move to making an overall claim.

Be sure to demonstrate what you’ve learned in this class about building strong thesis statements- “Concede and Complicate.” It might read something like this: "Although I was not very confident about my writing when I enrolled in this course, I feel ready to take on just about any writing situation," 

Or, you might prefer to include a two or three-point thesis, which would read something like this: “In this course, I have achieved a number of goals outlined in the “Outcomes Statement,” including using rhetorical strategies, referencing a variety of readings from across disciplines, and participating effectively in peer review.

To make and support your claim that you've achieved many of the outcomes for the course, you will want to refer to the outcomes statement provided below. 

Supporting Your Claims

Use what you've learned about providing evidence and using rhetorical appeals that you have practiced this semester to engage in a detailed discussion of your achievements in the two or three learning outcomes you have chosen to write about. You may not have mastered them completely (or even as completely as you would like), and that's fine. Writing is a process, as is the development of writing skills. What you want to do is show the progress you've made over the semester in each area. 

To support your each of your claims that you have achieved particular outcomes, you will provide examples from your work. Be sure to demonstrate what you've learned about building well developed paragraphs. Make a statement about the goal and then provide the evidence/support/grounds from the work that you've done this semester as evidence (you will be quoting yourself and taking excerpts from your assignments).

You can reference the M.E.A.L plan to ensure that you are writing well developed paragraphs. It’s important to not only include evidence from you papers, but also analyze and focus your evidence. In other words, conclude each of your body paragraphs by stating why the evidence you cited is indeed an example of accomplishing a particular outcome.

For instance, if you were to choose the objective, “To understand and use a rhetorical vocabulary to identify and make informed choices about writing within multiple contexts and for a variety of audiences,” and you decide to focus specifically on the “rhetorical situation,” then in the paragraph demonstrating that you have met this goal, you would cite an example from one of your texts as your evidence, and then comment on how exactly this example is a demonstration that you achieved the goal. For instance, you might discuss how you revised your introduction to better meet the conventions of a particular genre, such as the introduction to your proposal versus the introduction to your research report. Additionally, you might discuss how--in your revision process--you actively thought about your audience and paid attention to word choice, omitting slang or clichés that might undermine your credibility.


Discussing the Implications: 

End your letter by considering what knowledge and skills are transferrable. In other words what have you practiced in this course that you will apply in other situations. In other words,

What other writing situations might require you to use some the information learned in this course?
What have you learned and done that might be transferable to writing in your major, your career field, your personal endeavors?
What questions might you ask that will help you meet the challenges of an unfamiliar writing situation?