Technical Details

For this assignment, describe your theory of writing. Using the key terms and strategies, describe what you believe it is important to know about writing. Then, describing your writing process and your writing for this semester, describe how what you believe about writing shapes your writing. Use examples from your work for this class, for other classes, or, if useful, your non-academic life to demonstrate this relationship between theory and practice.

Frame your theory of writing as a narrative—what did you believe about writing coming into this class, and how has that theory changed with each assignment? If there were any significant events that had an impact on you—a certain assignment, comments from peers and instructors, or something else—use that event as a way to shape your narrative. What is different about how you write now? Be sure to describing writing that took place outside this classroom—your theory of writing should be expansive enough to shape your writing across multiple contexts.

This final reflection is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your increased knowledge in writing—the practices of writing, the key terms, and any specific skills you’ve acquired.

Goals

Through your application of key rhetorical terms—rhetorical situation, audience, author, tone, purpose, genre, medium, stance, and language—you have been developing your theory of writing and exploring how it informs your practice of writing. We have also engaged in several writing strategies—brainstorming, peer review, and revision. As a result of your work with these rhetorical concepts and writing strategies, you have had the opportunity to create a knowledge base of writing and its practices.

This assignment gives you a chance to reflect on what you know about writing, and how what you know shapes your decisions about how you write. Reflection gives you a better understanding of what you know about your subject. This semester we have used reflection in this way on several occasions.

Requirements

• A digital portfolio including, at minimum, all major writing assignments from this semester—the source-based essay, the research essay, the composition in two genres, and the theory of writing. You are also encouraged to include additional writing, both academic and non-academic

No requirements or word counts apply to the theory of writing, though citations should be included if necessary.

Timeline

• Weds, 4/29 — First draft due
• Weds, 5/13 — Final draft & final portfolio due

Evaluation Rubric

• Narrative — 20%
• Development — 20%
• Inclusion of rhetorical terms — 20%
• Portfolio — 30%
• Sentence-level concerns — 5%
• Formatting — 5%