Saturday, December 3, 2016

10 Questions to Help You Write Your Reflective Essay

To help you compose your reflective essay (3-5 double-spaced pages), here are ten questions to ask yourself about your overall ENG 3352 experience and your development as a creative nonfiction writer. Your primary audience for this reflective essay will be me since I will be using this piece of writing as a guide to your portfolio. Your essay will offer me a way of reading the work in your portfolio and should help me understand what you have learned from your entire body of work for this class.

  1. What is your “English 3352” story? Where did you begin? What happened along the way? Where have you ended up?
  2. Check out the course syllabus again. What are the goals for this class? Which goals do you feel you’ve accomplished this semester?
  3. What were the challenges you faced this semester? How did you deal with those challenges?
  4. What do you see in all the work you’ve completed for this class? Discuss each assignment individually, if you wish. What was difficult/easy? How has all the work in this class helped you develop as a writer?
  5. What do you know about yourself as a writer now that you didn’t know before the start of this class?
  6. What strategies have you learned to use to make your writing more effective?  What were the things that helped you learn in this class?
  7. What were some of the important questions for you this semester? What important questions about creative nonfiction do you plan on investigating after this class is over?
  8. In terms of your development as a writer, what do you still need to work out in your mind to reach your goals?
  9. What do you still want to know more about? After all of our readings/discussions in class, what do you plan on investigating further?
  10. Overall, what have you learned in this class? What have you learned about the craft of creative nonfiction, revision, about yourself? Do you consider yourself a more confident writer now?

Final Portfolio Guidelines

A writing portfolio is a collection of REVISED writing assignments that are representative of a student's work throughout an entire semester. 

Your Google Drive shared folder will count as your final portfolio for this course. As discussed at the beginning of the semester, your final portfolio is worth 50% of your final course grade. Bear in mind that I will grade your final portfolio as a whole--not as the average of different project grades. Also, incomplete portfolios may not receive a passing grade. 

YOUR FINAL PORTFOLIO IS DUE ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 12TH BY 5PM. No late work will be accepted.

Below is an up-to-date list of all the files that you should have in your shared Google Drive folder by the assignment deadline. I have also included the correct file names. Finally, I STRONGLY encourage all of you to visit the UTRGV Writing Center (STAC 3.119) prior to the deadline for assistance with any grammar-related issues in any of your assignments.

ASSIGNMENT FILE      NAME IN GOOGLE DRIVE
Travel/Nature Nature/TravelEssay_YourFullName
Memoir                               Memoir_YourFullName
Reflective Essay Reflection_YourFullName

Week 15 Agenda [Tentative]

Monday, December 5th
  • Final Portfolio Guidelines & Reflective Essay
  • On Publishing & MFA Programs
  • Homework
    • continue revising ALL assignments in Google Drive
    • compose Reflective Essay for Final Portfolio
      • in Google Drive, title file like this: Reflection_YourFullName
      • 3-5 double-spaced pages
      • Primary audience for this essay is Dr. Moreira

Wednesday, December 7th

  • WRITING/REVISION DAY [NO CLASS]
  • Homework
    • continue revising ALL assignments in Google Drive
    • continue composing Reflective Essay

Monday, December 12th
  • FINAL PORTFOLIO DUE BY 5PM

Monday, November 28, 2016

Reading Response #20: Ferguson, Chs. 22 and 23; Karr, Ch. 19 (Writer’s Block)

Post your reading response to the two readings below. 

Here are the guidelines:
  1. Reading responses must be AT LEAST 250 words.
  2. Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
  3. From the "Comment As" drop-down menu, choose Anonymous, then click "Publish."
  4. Reading responses are due by 10pm on the day PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Week 14 Agenda [Tentative]

Monday, November 28th
  • Mayela Montenegro / Monica Casanova: Ferguson, Chs. 20, 21 & Karr, Ch. 24 (Revision)
  • Homework
    • Read Ferguson, Chs. 22 and 23; Karr, Ch. 19 (Writer’s Block)
    • post Reading Response #20 on course blog before start of class on Wednesday

Wednesday, November 30th
  • Alejandro Sanchez: Ferguson, Chs. 22 and 23; Karr, Ch. 19 (Writer’s Block)
  • Homework
    • Continue revising ALL writing assignments

Monday, November 21, 2016

Reading Response #19: Ferguson, Chs. 20, 21 & Karr, Ch. 24 (Revision)

Post your reading response to the two readings below. 

Here are the guidelines:
  1. Reading responses must be AT LEAST 250 words.
  2. Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
  3. From the "Comment As" drop-down menu, choose Anonymous, then click "Publish."
  4. Reading responses are due by 10pm on the day PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.

Week 13 Agenda [Tentative]

Monday, November 21st
  • Workshop #7: Memoir Essay
  • Homework
    • Revise Memoir Essay in Google Drive
    • Workshop Memoir Essay via email and/or Google Drive Share

Wednesday, November 23rd
  • NO CLASS [WRITING DAY]
  • Homework
    • revise Memoir Essay in Google Drive
      • REVISED Memoir Essay due for instructor feedback by 5pm on Friday, 11/25
    • Read Ferguson, Chs. 20, 21 & Karr, Ch. 24 (Revision)
    • post Reading Response #19 on course blog by 10pm on Sunday, 11/27