Thursday's Workshop on Reflective Essay

The plan is for everyone to have a draft of the reflective essay portion of your researched project finished by this afternoon. I don't give page length requirements for this because that would be somewhat arbitrary, but if you're not writing 4+ (double-spaced) pages, you probably aren't doing some part of it justice (if yours isn't this long, don't freak out or pad it; I'll give you feedback about how you might develop it). When you're done, post it to the "Researched Project Drafts" folder in Google Docs (if you have trouble, send it to me via email--what's most important is that you get some feedback on it so you can revise this weekend). Then, I'd like you to read your partner's essay and respond to the following things, being as specific as you can and providing suggestions for revision when appropriate:

1. What context does the writer provide for the discussion surrounding his/her research question? What problem or misconceptions are at the root of the question? If the writer doesn't provide a discussion of the context, make note of that.

Pay close attention to the writer's discussion of his/her sources for these next three questions.
2. Organization of Source Discussion: How does s/he present what s/he's learned from the sources--Does she relate a story of finding the sources and present them in the order she found them (almost like a story of her research process? Does he discuss one source per paragraph, or does he organize the discussion more synthetically--by issue, rather than by source?

3. Source Analysis: Does the writer provide an analysis of her source's arguments, or does she just present the source information as "facts"?

4. Documentation: Does the writer document her source ideas correctly--using parenthetical documentation, even when ideas from sources aren't directly quoted? To what extent does the writer incorporate those ideas smoothly and meaningfully into his own writing (introducing a source, discussing the source ideas and its connection to his/her own point, etc.)? For this, you may want to take another look at the meaningful incorporation of sources handout I posted a few days ago).

5. Works Cited: Is there a works cited page? If not, make note of that as the writer will need to create one. If there is one, check it for accuracy. Only sources actually cited in the paper (check what's been parenthetically documented for this) need to show up on the works cited page. Are there sources mentioned in the essay, but not listed on the works cited page (or vice versa)? Also, do the citations include all the necessary info? Is it formatted properly according to MLA (or APA if the writer has chosen a different format)?

Now I'd like you to look carefully at the writer's discussion of the rhetorical choices she made regarding the creation of her "thing."
5. Has the writer focused his/her project on a single audience (teachers OR high school students at X school, parents of kids at Y elementary, etc.), or has s/he tried to reach too many audiences?

6. What claim has the writer decided to make to this audience?

7. What genre did the writer choose in order to reach this audience with this claim? Is there a good match between the claim, the audience, and the genre? In other words, if the writer has chosen a website to convey his message, but his audience isn't likely to have access to the internet, then there's a mis-match there which you'd need to point out.