For this assignment, first read Glenn Lester et. al’s article “We Write Because We Care: Developing Your Writerly Identity.”
In this class, we will focus on strategies that help you develop a writerly identity and increase your confidence in your writing. Glenn Lester et. al state, “In addition to learning about self-expression and strong communication, writing teaches you to go out of your comfort zone and reach tangible goals and offers proof of self-growth.”
One way to increase self-confidence as a writer and develop a writerly identity is through reflective writing. In my class, we will reflect on our writing at the beginning and end of the semester, and in between writing assignments. These assignments, leading up to your final reflection, will be part of your engagement grade. The final reflection constitutes its own learning unit and will be counted as a major assignment. We will read another article on reflection and build on our knowledge of reflection as the semester progresses.
To begin the class, we will take a writing inventory.
For this assignment, you will reflect on your academic writing process, mental checklist, and mindset. There are no right or wrong answers. There are answers that are too short because they lack detail. So, use plenty of details and examples in your reflection. You should compose this reflection in the form of a letter to your reader (me, your professor). See also: Reflection Criteria (in course documents) for further explanation of why we are reflecting on our writing in this course.
Writing Process: A writing process is the steps that you take to complete, in this case, academic writing tasks. In your reflection on your academic writing process, do the following:
• Describe the steps that you took to complete prior academic writing assignments.• Explain why you took those steps—what was the goal of each step?• Evaluate your process—what do you think works well with your process and why and what you need to modify and why?
Writing Checklist: A writing checklist is the items and terms you use to make sure that you have produced quality writing. In your reflection on your mental writing checklist, do the following:
• Describe the items in your mental checklist, or checklists, that you used to complete prior academic writing assignments. Define, in your words, key words in your checklist.• Explain why you used those items and terms.• Evaluate your checklist—what do you think works well with your mental checklist and why and what you need to modify and why?
Academic Writing Mindset: A mindset is what you think, feel, and believe about something—in this case, academic writing. In your reflection on your academic writing mindset, explore these questions:
• What did you like and what bothered you with past academic writing tasks?• What value do you place on being able to write successfully in college?• How confident are you that you can learn how to write successfully in college? Be sure to discuss the why for the above questions. You can also discuss anything else that you think, feel, or believe about academic writing.
Writing Identity
Guidelines
