Spring 2004

English 101.10 -- Language and Composition I

Paper 6: Reflecting on Yourself as a Writer
An Analysis of Your Writing this Semester

You've been writing throughout your life, sometimes for school, sometimes on your own. Even though some of you may have more or less background experience with writing than others, generally members of this class have had experience with types of writing including class papers, letters or email to friends, class email, poems, short stories, Young Author's books, school newspapers, year books or literary magazines, personal web pages, and journals. While not everyone has done all of these types of writing, and some people may have done types of writing not listed here, these are some of the background experiences you should keep in mind as you work on this next assignment.

For this assignment, you will write a Reflective Analysis that creates an overall portrait of yourself as a writer, with the bulk of attention paid to what you have written in English 101 this semester. The goal is to closely examine the thinking and strategizing you have done as part of your writing process, as well as to explore your overall relationship with writing and who you are as a writer. As such, you are invited to talk about your previous experiences with writing, as well as how those previous experiences influenced your writing this semester; however, do not let the past eclipse the present: Your primary task is to discuss your writing for this class in detail.

Also keep in mind that this reflective essay is your opportunity to highlight the work you have done this semester and will be used in evaluating your portfolio because it demonstrates your awareness of your decisions and skills as a writer. Where possible, please quote examples of peer responses questions you have written, revisions you have done, parts of your work you are proud of, or problem areas that you have thought about and worked to resolve.

Getting Started
Re-read your papers, revisions, responses, and process writings; these will be your research data for this assignment. Then, in a 5-7 page essay, reflect on several of the following topics and questions. Depending on how much you have to say, you may not be able to cover all of these in 5-7 pages; that's okay! Use these questions to help you get started, but do not feel locked into them. Rather, let your essay reflect your own experience and growth as a writer. Topics/issues you may choose to consider include:

• Your earliest memories about writing-- What type of writing did you do? How did you feel about writing? Did you write for yourself or for someone else? Did you ever show your writing to anyone, and if you did, what type of feedback did you get? What were your goals and/or purposes for your writing?
  Issues in writing-- What does it mean to be a writer? What does the term "good writing" or "effective writing"mean? How do audience and forum affect whether or not writing is effective? How have your views about "good" or effective writing changed?
  
  
• Writing as a Process-- Think about the idea of writing as a process of invention, drafting, sharing and response, and revision (Please note that the stages in the process are not necessarily always in the same order, and that revision often involves additional invention, drafting, and response work). How is this different than your previous views on what writing involves?
  
  
• Invention-- Reflect on several of the strategies introduced in this class for discovering ideas (free-writing, the strategies on pg 15 of the Mercury Reader, discovery drafts, email, peer feedback, browsing or reading various sources and topics, etc.) How did your own interests and purposes inform the topics you chose? How did you use these methods to try to get yourself unstuck when you ran into difficulty figuring out what to write about? How is the idea that a person can write to discover what s/he has to say different than the idea that people only write what they already have figured out or know? How is this distinction likely to change the end result of the writing, as well as the way the person writes?
  
  
• Drafting-- Consider your drafting process. How much time did it take you to write each draft? Which invention strategies seem to be the most productive for you? Where are you most comfortable writing? Do you need special items or settings to write well (such as always needing a can of Dr. Pepper, or always doing your best writing after midnight, or preferring to be outdoors sitting under a tree while writing?) Do you write directly on the computer, or do you write out a draft or notes by hand first and then type them? Do you write in one sitting, or do you need to take frequent breaks to move around? Do you feel anxiety when you write, or does writing seem relatively easy for you?
  
  
• Collaborating-- Have you ever written a paper or other piece of writing with someone else? If so, what was that experience like? What were the benefits? What were the challenges? In this class, what have you discovered about giving and receiving peer feedback? About the types of response questions that work best for you? Did your response group develop any of its own methods for doing responses? How did you use email to interact with others about your paper topics and works in progress? What is the role of interaction, feedback, and conversation in the writing process? How does this make writing different than the writer just doing everything in isolation?
  
  
• Revision-- How is Global revision different than other types of revision you have done (we will talk about this next week)? Describe how you revised your papers leading up the first final draft, as well as how you will revise them for the portfolio. What changes did you make between rough and final drafts? What aspects do you commonly need to revise for most?
  
  
• Using Technology-- Discuss how you have used computers in your writing-- this includes word processing programs, using "track changes", bold, italics, or different colors or fonts for peer responses and revising, and using email, IM, or WebBoard for collaborating or getting ideas or feedback.
  
  
• Level of comfort-- Overall, what is your level of comfort with writing? Has it gotten easier to write 5-7 page papers? To pay attention to audience, forum, purpose, or arguments? Why?
  
  
• Audience and Forum-- There are many different types of and reasons for writing. For example, the type of writing done is school is very different from fiction or purely autobiographical writing, or from the way one writes to friends and family members. Even magazine writing is different from the writing in school (although once people graduate and leave school, they are more likely to do public types of writing (magazine and newspaper articles, business writing, web pages, and/or essays than "academic" writing). What difference do you see among these different types of writing, and which are you more likely to use in the future (perhaps beyond school)? For each of these types of writing, what determines whether the writing is appropriate for its audience or forum? How does paying attention to issues of audience and forum affect your writing? How is different than previous writing you have done?
  
  
• Papers-- Which papers did you like the most or are most proud of? Why?
  
  
• Strengths and weaknesses-- What are your overall strengths and weaknesses as a writer? What are your future goals in regards to these? Yourself as a writer-- Based on your previous experiences, as well as the writing you have done this semester, what is your view of yourself as a writer? How has your writing changed over time? What are your personal goals for your writing and for yourself? Where or how do you see writing fitting into your future goals?
  
  
• Goals and purpose-- For the papers that you wrote this semester, what were your own purposes in the writing? How do the topics and messages you dealt with fit with who you are and what you feel you have to say to the world (or other specific audiences)? Imagine that suddenly you were transformed into your vision of a really great writer-- what message would you want to share with the world, or with a certain group of people? (Perhaps even if it takes some work and persistence, you can begin to put that message in writing and get it published someday!)

In your reflective analysis, please quote parts of previous papers and responses from others when discussing them, especially if you are talking about specific changes you made in revision, or the peer responses you received or gave.

The paper should be 5-7 pages, double-spaced, in a 10-12 point font. See the Course Requirements page for more information about what needs to be turned in with your project in order for it to be considered complete.

The final unit draft of this paper is due on Friday, at the end of the twelfth week of class. Bring your rough drafts with you each day to class until then.