| This week | Schedule | Participation | Readings | Reflections | Project | Exams | Contact |
| TEC 154, 2007S » Reflections | |||||||
Summary: During weeks when we have guest lecturers, Friday will be set aside for discussion. To prepare for discussion and to provide you with feedback on your writing, you will write a short essay reflecting on the technology, its design, and its effects.
Contents:
Your essay should be a reflection of your thinking about some aspect of the technology at hand. Don't just repeat what the texts or the guest lecturer said---I want to see your thoughts.
Consider me and the other students in the class to be your audience. You can assume your readers are already somewhat knowledgable about the current topic, as well as foundational texts and other topics we have already addressed in the course.
The best essays are often surprising. I hope that sometimes you will be surprised by an "A-ha!" that can be developed into an essay---but of course, this is not to be relied upon. To help spark your thinking, I may suggest fruitful questions about particular technologies as the term progresses. In the meantime, here are a few approaches that will apply to many of the technologies we study:
Due to the brevity and genre of the writing, I don't necessarily expect to see "5-paragraph" essays with formal introductory and concluding paragraphs. You may write one long paragraph or several shorter ones, as you see fit. Nonetheless, your essay should have some central claim or theme. Because the reflective essays are about your thinking, you may use the first-person singular pronoun ("I") when appropriate.
If you want more guidance about writing essays, consider browsing the references listed below.
Each reflective essay should be 1-2 pages (double-spaced, 10-11
point font, 1" margins).
Your essay should use standard grammar and spelling. (If necessary, take a credit at the Writing Center or find a proofreading buddy.)
Your essay should include APA-style in-line citations and bibliographic entries for works that you refer to, including the current week's readings and the guest lecturer's presentation. (This should not be difficult, as I am giving you a bibliography for each week.)
Essays must be turned in by the beginning of class on the date that they are due.
Although there are no right or wrong answers for these essays, they will be graded. I will be looking at two main criteria: ambition and comptetence. An essay that exhibits ambition makes a surprising claim or provides valuable insight. The writer has lofty goals, though they may not be fully met. An essay that exhibits competence is concise, clear, focused, and specific; uses standard spelling and grammar; and appropriately cites supporting evidence. The goals of the writer are skillfully carried out.
I will use the following scale for grading essays. I expect most essays to receive checks.
Your lowest grade (including a zero) will be dropped from the computation of your final score.
I hope that my feedback on early essays will help you understand my criteria. In the meantime, some examples: hereis an essay I wrote for another class that would probably earn a minus because it is so unfocused (for example, including several unrelated ideas in a single paragraph), and here is a later essay that would earn a plus. (Note that both are a bit longer than I expect from you.)
Ellerson, P. (undated). Reflective Essays. Retrieved January 10, 2007 from http://www.sci.edu/classes/ellertsen/reflect.html.
Gauntlett, D. (1998). Essay-writing Guide. Retrieved January 10, 2007 from http://www.theory.org.uk/david/essay.htm.
Graham, P. (2004). The Age of the Essay. Retrieved January 10, 2007 from http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html.
Janet Davis (davisjan@cs.grinnell.edu)
Created January 10, 2007