Personal Reflection Assignment

Due:

 

Estimated maximum time required for this assignment:

  • Writing preliminary draft: 30 to 60 minutes.

  • Revising and fixing your preliminary draft: 2 hours.

  • Having it checked over: 1 hour.

  • Total: 3½ to 4 hours.

Value: 10 points (out of 100)

 

Questions to answer before you begin:
  1. What discourse communities regularly use this particular genre of writing (personal reflections) and for what purpose?
  2. What purpose and goals do you want to accomplish by writing this personal reflection assignment?
  3. What audience cares about or would want to see this piece of writing, or might even pay good money to read it?
 

Personal Reflection:

What have they done to you?

Texas Governor Rick Perry has ordered high schools to be sure that all the students who graduate are fully ready for college or a good job. Other states have similar regulations. If you have a brand-new high school diploma or GED and now you can't get into college-level English, someone obviously didn't do their job, and you got the short end of the deal!

Instructions: Be angry!  

  1. Explain who you think is to blame for letting you graduate under-prepared for college English.

  2. Explain exactly what you believe they did or failed to do to properly prepare you to enter college, and why they did it.

  3. Tell exactly what they should have done differently to guarantee that you would be ready for college English when you graduated.

If you feel there was discrimination involved, if you think they were incompetent, or if someone just didn't care, tell it like it is! The only limitations: Don't apologize for them, and don't blame yourself! You were a minor. It was THEIR job to educate you, and not to let you graduate until you were educated.  Somebody messed up, and it wasn't you!

In this essay, describe your feelings.  Use feeling words like: love, happiness (joy), sadness, pain (hurt), anger (fury), fear, pleasure, loneliness, excitement, comfort (safety, relaxation, contentment), shock, pride, scorn (contempt), shame (guilt, regret, modesty, shyness), boredom, fatigue (exhaustion, feeling tired, sleepiness), jealousy (envy, greed, ambition) and interest (curiosity, desire), or verbs describing these feelings.  As you write, own your feelings.  Do not write “there was some anger in the air about this betrayal,”  Write “I became angry because they betrayed me.”  However, do not write anything too personal to be shared with the class.

NOTE: If you are over 25 years old and not a recent high school graduate, explain why you think you entered UTEP under-prepared for college English.  Explain what you, yourself failed to do, and what you should have done before you entered college in order to be ready for college English. 

Questions to answer after you finish the assignment:

  1. How well does your writing serve your intended audience?

  2. How well does your writing your own purposes?

  3. How might you use this type of writing in the future?
OW 05/10

For educational purposes only.

 

 

Owen M. Williamson - Education Bldg 211E - phone: (915) 747 7625 - fax: (915) 747 5655
The University of Texas at El Paso - 500 W. University Ave. - El Paso, TX 79968
Important Disclaimer

Creative Commons License
Open Courseware | OCW |This work is dedicated to the Public Domain..