This morning 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 benefited your development as a writer and a student. Features to consider include the following:
- Studying one of the texts we have examined in the second half of the semester, including “The Case for Writing Longhand,” The Competition, “Scrabble is a Lousy Game,” “Skim Reading is the New Normal,” or the sample final essay and annotated bibliography (“Scrabble as a Game Changer in the College Classroom”)
- 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
- 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
Focus on two, three, or four features of the course (but no more than four).
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 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.
Lucas, Jane. “Scrabble as a Game Changer in the College Classroom.” Jane Lucas, 9 Apr. 2024, https://janelucas.com/2024/04/09/eng-1103-model-final-essay-and-annotated-bibliography-scrabble/.
Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. “Arriving at an Interpretive Conclusion: Making Choices.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp.111-12.
—. “Integrating Quotations into Your Paper.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 343-46.
—. “The Idea of the Paragraph.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 307-313.
—. “Two Methods for Conversing with Sources.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. p. 325.
—. “Ways to use a Source as a Point of Departure.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. p. 326.
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 posts on my blog devoted to Scrabble tips.
Jane Lucas 