Homework answers / question archive / The Reflective Letter (200 points w/ Portfolio)   Before you can feel truly confident about your readiness for ENGL 102 or 103, you need to be able to articulate and prove your ability as a writer, critical thinker, and editor in this Reflective letter assignment

The Reflective Letter (200 points w/ Portfolio)   Before you can feel truly confident about your readiness for ENGL 102 or 103, you need to be able to articulate and prove your ability as a writer, critical thinker, and editor in this Reflective letter assignment

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The Reflective Letter (200 points w/ Portfolio)

 

Before you can feel truly confident about your readiness for ENGL 102 or 103, you need to be able to articulate and prove your ability as a writer, critical thinker, and editor in this Reflective letter assignment. As the document that discusses your learning in this class and reviews your recent accomplishments and struggles, what do you want it to say? What do you want your professor or any other reader to think/believe/understand when he or she reads about your development as a writer?

 

Once you compose this letter and compile your ENGL 101/A Portfolio folder, I will review your portfolio and elect to share your work with another English professor to help me determine your readiness for the next English course.

 

 

By the time you write this reflective letter, you should already have 12-16 pages of your own writing complete for this course. That’s quite an accomplishment—an accomplishment that most likely resulted from a combination of sleepless nights, hard work, stress, caffeine, dedication, and maybe a few tears. As you begin compiling your portfolio, read through the pages of your old drafts and finals and take note of the positive comments and constructive criticism you received over the semester. Pay attention to a few trends:

 

• Look for the positives:  Both your peers, your professor, and maybe even a tutor or two provided you with praise and positive feedback during in-class drafting days as well as in the margins of your papers. What are a few of the common praises? 
• Look for the constructive criticism: Your peers and professor also helped you identify a few error patterns or points of confusion in your writing. Identify your repeated errors. How have you tried to address them?
• In what areas did you struggle the most?
• In what areas did you make the most dramatic improvement?
• What aspects of these essays make you the proudest as a writer?

 

 

Try to develop a helpful list of ideas during this process. Don’t simply scan your papers without thinking about them. Collect information, write down keywords, and formulate some possible responses. After doing so, revisit the course objectives for ENGL 101/A. They can be found in your syllabus and in the blue Portfolio Q&A Brochure Prof. Decker distributed on the first week of class. 

 

• Read through each objective and identify 2 specific objectives that you feel you have mastered.
• You could also highlight 1 objective that you are struggling to achieve as a writer. 

 

 

Finally, please do not forget that this reflective writing piece, while designed as a letter, can still employ traditional essay structure. As a student that has spent three challenging months learning the necessary mechanics of essay construction, you should know that your ability to build an essay effectively is a crucial part of this capstone letter and your grade. What do you think you need to prove that on a structural level?

 

Final Thoughts and Words of Wisdom:

 

• Your letter’s introduction should engage your reader. Remember to hook your reader with the first few sentences. Use narrative, figures of speech, and/or an underlying theme or analogy to inject creativity into your letter!
• Refer to your essay drafts, finals, tutor’s comments, conferences with me, my feedback on your essays, and your textbook for specific examples to support your thesis. Don’t simply state that you have met an objective. Take the time to explain how you have done so with examples from your writing as well as an analysis of your experiences in this class. 
• End on a good note. Provide a solid conclusion paragraph that highlights your main points and summarizes what you believe you have learned this semester as a writer as well as what you are taking with you to ENGL 102 or 103.
• Treat this letter as your calling card. This significant document represents you as a budding writer. You want it to make an impression, especially if I elect to share it with another English professor at MC.
• Proofread, proofread, proofread.

 

 

Brief Outline for Reflective Letter:

 

1. Introduction (the hook):

 

 

 

1. 1. Blueprint Thesis (previews three objectives):

 

 

 

 

2. Body:

 

 

 

1. 1. Paragraph 1 (Objective #1):

 

 

 

 

 

1. 2. Paragraph 2 (Objective #2):

 

 

 

 

 

3. Conclusion: