English 

It’s been a long semester of rhetorical analysis, controversy research, public writing, and Google Drive. Now it is time to reflect on your work (particularly, your Public Argument Project), and record these reflections in a Final Reflection Paper. This paper has two purposes:

• (more general purpose) to demonstrate your progress as a writer and critical thinker.
• (more specific purpose) to rhetorically analyze your own Public Argument Project.

OVERVIEW: Write an essay that performs rhetorical analysis of your own Public Argument Project. Structure this paper similar to the Rhetorical Analysis of a map that you wrote earlier in the semester.  In the intro to this paper, identify the public audience(s), message and purpose of your project (whether blog, map, or video). In body paragraphs, identify particular critical decisions you made as you created the project, and explain the strategies behind these decisions. Overall, you should focus on how you tried to make your project persuasive to your audience(s).

It is a good idea to review the Rhetorical Analysis assignment sheet for general guidelines on how to structure this essay.

Additional Requirements:

Your essay should include at least one quote from our textbooks (Student’s Guide or Writing Public Lives.) This quote should come from sections that we were assigned to read during the Public Argument Unit. Your quote(s) should include guidelines or advice that you followed as you created your Public Argument Project, and you should explain how particular features of your project follow the advice within the quote.

In order to identify specific decisions you made as you created your project, you should give detailed description of some key features of your project. If you wrote a blog, this will probably involve quotation of important passages. If you created a video or map, you will probably provide concrete detail of some scene or visual element of the text. These quotes and concrete details will give you material to analyze in the paper.

For  the conclusion, you will take a different approach. Find the document labeled “ “eng102intro” on Drive. Select one of the four skills listed under “Essential Tasks of English 102” listed on this document, then explain:

• How you used this skill during the Public Argument and Controversy Analysis Units
• How you expect this skill will help you, inside and outside the classroom, in the future

Please be specific in your responses to the above points. (You may choose to write a two-paragraph conclusion section)

Finally, be sure to submit a well-crafted reflection. Edit to avoid grammar mistakes that could confuse the reader. Use transitions and other organization techniques.

Reflection
illustration. “Compare” means find similarities; “contrast” means highlight differences.

Plan your answer first; otherwise you won’t get to the point until the last paragraph, after rambling, and “thinking outloud” for the rest of your essay. Many of
these questions are complex , and require thought to arrive at an answer. Avoid easy generalizations; be specific. Don’t say anything you can’t support — with
the text, or your own specific experiences. Be succinct; 2-3 pages does not allow room for “fluff”.

Before you print or upload, revise. Make sure your essay is responsive in both content and form. This requires that you not write the essay at the last minute, but
give yourself time to review it and improve it. Even an hour between first and second draft (and print) will have an impact.

Reflection
illustration. “Compare” means find similarities; “contrast” means highlight differences.

Plan your answer first; otherwise you won’t get to the point until the last paragraph, after rambling, and “thinking outloud” for the rest of your essay. Many of
these questions are complex , and require thought to arrive at an answer. Avoid easy generalizations; be specific. Don’t say anything you can’t support — with
the text, or your own specific experiences. Be succinct; 2-3 pages does not allow room for “fluff”.

Before you print or upload, revise. Make sure your essay is responsive in both content and form. This requires that you not write the essay at the last minute, but
give yourself time to review it and improve it. Even an hour between first and second draft (and print) will have an impact.