PURPOSE
This quarter has focused on the writing process from developing ideas with pre-writing to drafting papers in stages to receiving feedback throughout the process. The writing process also asked that you consider how to offer feedback as well as how to interpret that feedback and incorporate it into revisions. This writing process may have varied from the writing process that you use in other courses (writing courses or courses that have a writing component). This final exam is asking you to consider your previous experience with the writing process and compare and contrast it with the writing process you learned for this course to create a clear narrative reflection. This reflection should consider what you have learned about the writing process and how you might use that process in the future. The audience for this reflection is yourself and your instructor.
SKILLS (LEARNING OUTCOMES)
After completing this activity, you will
- Improve your analytic skills in reading and writing
- Understand the rhetorical context of academic and professional writing
- Consider the audience and purpose of material you have read and work that you have written
- Compose in a variety of non-fiction writing forms
- Identify various styles and consider how to adapt styles for purpose and audience
- Improve your revising, editing, and proofreading skills
Being able to critique and self-reflect are valuable skills. Throughout the quarter, you have critiqued peers’ writing and reflected on how to revise your own work. This narrative assignment askes that you take those skills further by critiquing your writing process and reflecting on what you have learned about your own writing process. In a professional setting, you may be asked to critique subordinates, projects, and proposals. You may also be asked to reflect on your work in a self-evaluation. Additionally, you may be asked to narrate a process, event, or project to others.
TASK
Using readings and class discussions, please develop your own final exam that
- Narrates your writing process and how it has developed this quarter.
- Engages the audience in the reflection.
- Establishes a claim with reasons (thesis statement) about your writing process and how it has changed or not changed as a result of the class.
- Provides reasons why you feel you have learned these skills by considering how you wrote papers prior to this class and how you wrote papers in this class.
- Supports those reasons with specific paper/assignment examples in classes you have taken previously and this class.
- Analyzes how the examples demonstrates the reasons.
- Employs transitional phrases and logical links between sentences and paragraphs to develop flow and paragraph development.
- Chooses words, tone, and sentence structure (concision) to focus on audience’s needs and document’s purpose.
- Limits mechanics errors through editing and proofreading.
- Follows the conventions for the genre and formatting (see Canvas page) and assignment requirements, including word count.
As you develop your claim and reasons in the final exam, please consider some of the questions below. Do not simply answer the questions. They merely offer suggestions to develop your narrative. Provide examples from Canvas activities and major assignments to support your reasons. Use the skills that you developed throughout the course to create a logical, well-organized exam response.
- How would you describe your writing process in another class (this could be a writing class or a class where there was a major written component)?
- For this other class, did you write drafts, complete peer feedback, and/or write revision plans? How many or how often?
- For this other class, how early did you start the process? What steps in the process were required for the class and what steps did you complete on your own?
- How did the drafting process for assignments help you work on a major assignment for our class?
- How has your writing process changed based on our class’s peer feedback and revision plans? Why?
- What did you learn by completing peer feedback and revision plans for our class about providing feedback and critical reading and its role in the writing process? Why?
- How did this feedback impact the type of feedback that you provided for our class? Why?
- How did this feedback impact your writing process in terms of drafting and revising for our class? Why?
- What did you learn by completing revision assignments about how you think about the writing process for our class? Why?
- How do you feel this writing process will impact your writing long term (i.e. what skills do you think you will take with you moving forward to writing for other classes or writing professionally)?
GRADING CRITERIA/RUBRIC
Rating | Criteria |
Great A great final completes most of the tasks by | Telling a focused, detailed narrative about your writing process & its development during the quarter.Engaging the audience with creative flourishes and interesting points.Establishing a thoughtful & engaging claim with clear, well-supported reasons articulating the changes to your writing process.Providing insightful, relevant reasons why the writing process has changed with complete, developed ideas.Supporting those reasons effectively with relevant evidence that has been thoughtful considered & appropriately incorporated.Analyzing that evidence to make clear, focused connections to the reason and overall claim.Employing clear transitional phrases & linking ideas between sections, paragraphs, & sentences (flows smoothly & effortlessly).Choosing words for their precise meanings & uses an appropriate level of specificity (concision) by considering word choice, tone, & connotation with the needs of the audience & the purpose of the document as the focus. Being written almost entirely free of spelling, punctuation, & grammatical errors. Achieving the genre conventions & requirements listed on the prompt & discussed in readings & lectures, which includes word count. |
Good A good final completes most of the tasks by | Telling a focused narrative about your writing process & its development during the quarter with minor missing or underdeveloped details.Engaging the audience with some interesting points.Establishing a thoughtful claim with mostly well-supported reasons articulating the changes to your writing process.Providing relevant reasons why the writing process has changed with mostly complete ideas.Supporting reasons with evidence that is mostly thoughtfully considered, though some evidence is questionable & included without considering its value to the argument.Analyzing evidence to make connections to the reason and overall claim of argument, though occasionally the analysis is unclear, underdeveloped, or unfocused.Employing some transitional phrases & linking sections, paragraphs, & sentences with minimal breaks in flow & focus (contains some abrupt, awkward, or missing links).Using words accurately & effectively, but sometimes having momentary lapses with word choice, tone, & connotation; developing clear, focused sentences that may occasionally be awkward or ineffective (concision).Containing a few errors, which may annoy the reader, but do not impede understanding.Achieving the genre conventions & requirements listed on the prompt & discussed in readings & lectures with 1-2 minor errors, which includes word count. |
Fair A fair final completes most of the tasks by | Telling a narrative about your writing process & its development during the quarter with some lack of focus and major missing or undeveloped details.Attempting to engage the audience, though the focus may be limited to one part of the audience.Establishing a claim with reasons, though the claim may be uninteresting and/or the reasons may be unclear or underdeveloped when articulating the changes to your writing process.Providing reasons why the writing process has changed with some complete ideas.Supporting reasons with evidence that is occasionally thoughtfully considered, though some is questionable & included without consideration for its need or relevance.Analyzing evidence to make connections to the reason and overall claim of argument, though the analysis is sometimes unclear, underdeveloped, and/or unfocused.Employing transitional phrases inconsistently & link sections, paragraphs, & sentences with major breaks in flow & focus and/or relying on listing ideas (first, second, third, etc.) as opposed to using logical structures (contains several abrupt, awkward, & missing links that impact the smoothness & clarity of logic).Being generally correct structurally, but sentences may be wordy, repetitive, or confusing (concision) because of major lapses in focus with the needs of the audience & the purpose of the document. Containing several mechanical errors, which may temporarily confuse the reader but not impede overall understanding.Achieving most genre conventions & requirements listed on the prompt & discussed in readings & lectures with several minor errors and/or 1 major error, which includes word count. |
Poor A poor final completes most of the tasks by | Telling a narrative about your writing process & its development during the quarter that lacks focus and detail.Disregarding the audience and writing for yourself only.Attempting to establish a claim with reasons, but the claim may not be interesting, the reasons may be disconnected from the claim, and/or reasons may seem illogical when articulating the changes to your writing process.Providing reasons why the writing process has changed with few complete ideas.Supporting reasons with occasional evidence that is questionable & included without consideration to necessity or relevance.Analyzing evidence with few connections to the reasons that are clear, developed, or focused or failing to analyzing evidence.Lacking transitional phrases & failing to link ideas between sections, paragraphs & sentences (fails to make connections between ideas & appears to have little organizational structure).Including many awkward or ungrammatical sentences; sentences are simple or monotonous, words are misused, & language may be inappropriate for audience & purpose. Containing either many mechanical errors and/or a few important errors that block the reader’s understanding & ability to see connections between thoughts.Achieving few genre conventions & requirements listed on the prompt &discussed in the readings & lectures, which includes word count. |