Today in class you will plan and draft a short final reflective essay that documents your work in the second half of the semester, focusing on what you consider your most significant work and the feature or features of the course that have proven most beneficial to your development as a writer and a student. Features to consider include the following:
- Planning, drafting, and revising your final essay and annotated bibliography. Since you recently composed a reflection on this assignment, it should not be the main focus of your final reflection.
- Keeping a journal
- Delivering your group presentation on one of the lessons in the Check, Please! course
- Studying one of the readings examined in the second half of the semester, including “The Case for Writing Longhand,” “Skim Reading is the New Normal,” “Strawberry Spring,” the excerpt from On Writing, or the sample final essay and annotated bibliography.
- Writing for an online audience beyond the classroom/creating and maintaining a WordPress blog
- Collaborating with your classmates on in-class writing assignments
- Playing Scrabble/Collaborating with your teammates on Wordplay Day
- Writing longhand
- Limiting screen time
Include in Your Reflective Essay the Following Elements:
- A title that offers a window into your reflection
- An opening paragraph that introduces your focus and presents your thesis
- Body paragraphs that offer concrete details from your work to support your thesis.
- A relevant quotation from Writing Analytically or a relevant quotation from one of the texts that we have studied in class. Introduce your quotation with a signal phrase and follow it with a parenthetical citation.
- A conclusion that revisits the thesis without restating it verbatim
- An MLA-style works cited entry for your source
Sample MLA Works Cited Entries
Bahr, Sarah. “The Case for Writing Longhand.” New York Times, Jan 21, 2022. ProQuest, https://libproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/case-writing-longhand/docview/2621453011/se-2.
Kay, Jonathan. “Scrabble is a Lousy Game.” The Wall Street Journal, 4 Oct. 2018. ProQuest, https://libproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com /newspapers/scrabble-is-lousy-game-why-would-anyone-play/docview/2116081665/se-2?accountid=11411.
King, Stephen. “Strawberry Spring.” Night Shift. 1978. Anchor, 2011. pp. 268-82.
—. “Toolbox.” On Writing. 2000. Pocket Books, 2001. pp. 123-24.
Lucas, Jane. “ENG 1103: Sample Final Essay and Annotated Bibliography—’Scrabble . . .’” Jane Lucas, 8 Nov. 2023, https://janelucas.com/2023/11/08/eng-1103-sample-final-essay-and-annotated-bibliography-scrabble/.
Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. “Integrating Quotations.” Writing Analytically, 8th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2019. pp. 231-33.
—. Chapter Twelve: “Nine Basic Writing Errors and How to Fix Them.” Writing Analytically, 8th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2019. pp. 341-68.
—. “Writing on Computers vs. Writing on Paper.” Writing Analytically, 8th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2019. pp. 124-25.
Wolf, Maryanne. “Skim Reading is the New Normal. The Effect on Society is Profound.” The Guardian, 25 Aug. 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/25/skim-reading-new-normal-maryanne-wolf.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips,
Jane Lucas 