Questions to Help You Compose Your Stage 5 Reflective Essay

Your Stage 5 reflective essay is the place where you will show me the need for your document--the need for the message and for "packaging" your public text the way you have chosen to. It is in this essay that you will need to discuss the research you did and how that played into the making of your argument.

 

To help you compose your reflective essay (around 4 double-spaced pages; see sample essays), here are ten questions to ask yourself about the overall experience of the creation of your public text:

1. What is my Stage 4 theory? Would the public agree with me? If not, am I aware of all opposing opinions? How has what the audience already knows and what they value affected the choices I made about how to make my argument, what pictures to use, etc.?
2. How would I describe my public text? How is it helping me raise awareness to my Stage 4 theory?
3. How did my public text grow out of my previous work in class?
4. How am I ensuring that my public text is rhetorically effective? Who is my audience, and what have I done with my public text to make my argument for my particular audience?
5. Is my public text the best way to reach the public, including those who do not agree with me?
6. What resources (articles, interviews, websites, construction paper, etc.) have I used in the construction of my public text? How easy/difficult has it been to use these resources?
7. What specific difficulties/successes have I experienced in the construction of my public text?
8. Besides the current form I have chosen for my public text, could a different form have worked just as well/better? Specifically, how have other existing public texts helped me construct my own public text?
9. Are any of my classmates working with similar theories/public texts? How are they constructing their public texts, and how would we benefit from collaboration/sharing information?
10. What have I learned in the construction of my public text? What specific connections can I make between the construction of my public text and the readings/discussions from class?