Week twelve reflective writing

COMPOSITION IIWEEK TWELVE

TursdayNovember 10, 2016DUE TODAY:-Annotated Bibliography to Drop Box-APA Short Essay Rough Draft to Drop Box

BE WORKING ON:-APA Final Draft-Group Projects-Final Paper Thesis and Outline

About Your APA Short Essay• Use the essay you selected as a primary resource

• You must introduce this article and the author in your introduction• Explain whether you agree or disagree

• Double space your abstract and cover page• Have a very specific title• Employ all proper writing mechanics

Quiz Over Joan Didion’s “On Keeping a Notebook”

Joan Didion• American writer• Best known for her novels and literary

journalism• Writes on American morals, the cultural chaos

of the 1960s, and the fragmentation of self and society

• A key writer in new journalism• New journalism- communicates fact through

narrative story telling and literary techniques

On Keeping a Notebook• “Why did I write it down? In order to remember, of course, but exactly what

was it I wanted to remember? How much of it actually happened? Did any of it? Why do I keep a notebook at all?”

• “So the point of my keeping a notebook has never been, nor is it now, to have an accurate factual record of what I have been doing or thinking.”

• “I imagine, in other words, that the notebook is about other people. But of course it is not…Remember what it was to be me: that is always the point.”

• “I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.”

Writing for SelfWEEK TWELVE

Writing for Self• Reflective writing is the process of writing for self• Many people write for their own purposes and have no intention of

showing their work to the pubic• Reflective writing can be very creative or very rigid• Types of reflective writing:

• Journaling/ keeping a diary• Writing lists• Jotting notes• Creative writing

Journaling and Keeping a Diary• These regular entries act as a chronology of events or observations• Collectively, these can be studied through different lenses• Many historical, philosophical, and sociological discoveries and

observations have been made by studying journals and diaries• Useful types of journals/diaries:

• Personal• Dream diaries• Food diaries• Exercise journals• Observational journals

Writing Lists• A very simple and useful form of self

reflection• Make lists about personal matters or for

organizational reasons• Example: Writing a list of foods you are not

going to eat after New Years• Example: Making a grocery list

• Pro/Con lists are helpful in making decisions • Also, in researching!

Jotting Notes• Jotting notes is an easy and noncommittal form of self reflection• Types of things to note:

• Quotes• Funny situations• Awkward situations• Important dates• Interesting facts• Names• Jokes

Creative Writing• Often people write creatively to create a conversation with themselves• Poems, short stories, and creative non-fiction can all be exercises in

self reflection• By creating worlds where anything is possible and characters that can

do anything, writers are free to explore topics without boundaries or real-life consequences

Creating an Argument with Yourself• Reflective writing often forces us to recognize aspects of ourselves

that might have been left unrealized• Often, reflective writing becomes an argument we create with

ourselves• We may be direct about it or ambiguous• Sometimes an argument is created over time or theoretically