English Final :  Rhetorical Reflection Essay/e-Portfolio

Overview:  Becoming a good writer is, in every case, a process of becoming.  Writing well—communicating in meaningful ways—always depends on the rhetorical situation and how audience, context and purpose shape what, how and why you are communicating.  We’ve moved quickly through this course, and you have undertaken a number of assignments designed to enhance your understanding of rhetorical situations and your repertoire of strategies for addressing them.   In this assignment, it’s time to slow down,  critically reflect on the reading, writing, and thinking you’ve done this year, and to analyze the ways your awareness of the rhetorical situation has shaped your writing and learning processes. 

Purpose:   This essay gives you the opportunity to critically reflect upon the writing you have done this year and your understanding of key rhetorical concepts, such as the rhetorical situation, audience, context, purpose, collaboration, evidence, appeals (ethos, pathos, logos), incorporating sources (fairly paraphrasing, quoting and using citations), etc.  You will review your writing to gain insight into the ways in which your understanding of central rhetorical concepts has developed and has influenced your writing.  Consider the following questions:

•  Which rhetorical concepts do you consider most important as you are writing?
• Which are most important when you are critically reading?
• What have you learned about rhetoric and writing this semester that has been most striking or useful to you?
• What aspects of your writing remain a challenge in light of rhetorical issues, such as writing for specific audiences, using effective appeals, etc.

Using the writing you have produced this semester as evidence, your rhetorical reflection essay engages these and other questions about rhetorical issues and encourages you to mull over your writing processes and rhetorical knowledge.  You must include three extensive writing pieces that are three different genres. These writing pieces must be works you  have created this semester. The works can be from any course in which you produced a significant writing project. Example: History Essay, Music Review, and your Argument of Evaluation.

Audience: Your audiences for this assignment are yourself and your instructor.  Because this is a reflection on your rhetorical knowledge, you are writing in large part for your own benefit.  Your audience is also your instructor.  Although your instructor has read and is familiar with the work that you’ve done throughout the semester, remember that it will be important to demonstrate that you understand specific rhetorical concepts and can analyze the ways those concepts have influenced your writing.  Offer your audience very concrete evidence, such as quotes and paraphrases from your writing, which support your insights and illustrate that you have critically read and reflected on your own work over the course of the semester.

Author:  Your author role and voice will reflect your position of expertise; after all, you are writing about your own writing, something you know very well.  Be sure to enhance your credibility by providing strong evidence for your insights and by carefully selecting which rhetorical issues that you’ll discuss in depth. 

Texts to Examine and Questions to Consider

Strategies:

• Start by reviewing the central rhetorical concepts we have addressed in our class: The rhetorical situation, audience, context, purpose, collaboration, evidence, appeals (ethos, logos, pathos), incorporating sources (fairly paraphrasing, quoting and using citations), etc.
• Now consider these rhetorical issues in light of the actual writing you've produced over the course of this semester.  Take a look at:  1. Your in-class writings, including your journals, group work, and focused free-writes, 2. your final versions of your writing projects (Rhetorical Analysis, Research 102 & Argument of Eval and or Ethnography)
• Drawing from the evidence in your body of writing from this class, reflect upon the ways in which your understanding of central rhetorical concepts has developed over the course of the semester. Which of these concepts do you consider to be the most important as you are writing? Which are most important when you are critically reading? Which have been the most challenging to address in your critical thinking and writing? 
• As you review your body of work, select pieces of writing over the course of the semester as evidence of your understanding of, need to learn more about, or interest in specific rhetorical concepts and over different genres of writing.  The evidence should be hyperlinked right into the reflective essay.  Everything that you want me to look at, and thus evaluate your progress, should be linked.
• Required Links:  Final Persuasive Essay, Two extensive writing pieces (in different genres), your presentation uploaded/link provided and any extra credit.  

Reflective Essay Length: 1500 words

Due: Day of the Final

Worth: 100 points of your final grade.