Write a reflection paper (3-4 pages, double spaced, course guidelines) to document your experience with the texts we read for class after we discuss them. This reflection paper should cover the process of exploration you took as an affective reader, as well as thematic and analytical connections you make as a close reader. Your paper may include things that come up in class discussions and your reading notes. Put differently, in your paper should think through key textual ideas, but also elaborate on what these ideas mean to you and the course themes. You must incorporate important evidence (MLA guidelines for in-text citations) and then reflect on how it relates to other parts of the texts, as well as to you as a reader. Make connections.
Exploration as a reader
I want you to consider how you relate to the texts. What was it like to read them? Did the events resemble things you recognize about the human experience? Were you able to connect with characters, events, places, or other details? Expand on your answers to dig deeper into your reading experience. You should cite specific examples as you elaborate on your experience. While you should cultivate a well-considered prose in your writing. these papers are open to different forms and organization, so take some risks in how you develop ideas. Remember that good writing is always personal, critical, and creative.
Thematic and analytical connections
The goal for these papers is to actively consider ideas in writing. You’re working through different texts, so structure can be varied. However, in your paragraphs, you do need to attempt levels of analysis, cite specific quotes, and consider the relationship between other things we’ve discussed this semester. Consider how the course themes show up in characters, actions, images, symbols, dialogue, settings, narrative structure, etc.
Writing these reflective essays will help you pull together what you’ve encountered. You know more than you think you do, and a little bit of critical thinking about it all will help you realize how deep your understanding and ideas go.
