Reflective Writing

I want to start this post with some of the reasons for reflective writing.

“First, reflection provides the reader of your e-portfolio with a much better understanding of who you are because you share how you feel about or make sense of the experiences you have been involved in. Reflection allows you to analyze and interpret your artifacts for others.

Second, the reflective process itself, whether you share your e-portfolio with someone else or not, is a constructive way to think about your own growth and development. Reflecting allows you to explore alternatives and consider future plans.”

---PennState’s website: http://portfolio.psu.edu/reflect

Some things to consider as you write your own reflections:

For quality reflective writing, you must do more than simply describe your writing experience or the assignment’s end product (in this case, your syllabus for an imaginary course). Reflective writing requires you to contextualize your experience and the end product.

You should explain the choices you made in creating this text:what influenced your decisions, what effect did you want to create through this product, why you wrote it the way you did. Essentially you should critically analyze your own writing, using specific references or quotes from your assignment to support your analysis. While reflective writing doesn’t require you to evaluate (literally, to place a value on) your own writing or experience, you do need to think about what worked well, and what didn’t. As I read your reflection, I will be looking for you to show an awareness of your own rhetoric. Show me that your writing was purposeful.

But I am not the only audience for your reflective writing; you are as well. By thinking about your work, its objectives, and the skills and considerations that went into composing that work, you can expand that experience into other areas of your life. Your reflection, therefore, should attempt to think beyond the assignment itself to how it connects to other areas of your life and to future applications.

Some Other Thoughts on Reflection

Working with Google Docs

Okay, so I have been playing around and I definitely think using google docs is the way to go for linking work to your blog. UCFileSpace will require you to create a webpage that you can upload documents to and then link us to that webpage. It's more work for you as an author and more work for anyone who wants to read your documents.

How to use Google Docs:

First sign into your Google account. Since you all have a blog through Blogger, you all have a Google account--just use the same email and password. If you are not automatically taken to your account page, click the "My Account" link located in the upper right corner. On the My Account page, click "Docs" (this will probably be down the page under the heading "Try Something New"). From the main page you can create new documents, sort your files, and upload files from your computer or flashdrive.

How to upload documents:
Click Upload. Click Browse. Find your file and click Open. Click Upload File. The document should appear in the main window.

How to link documents to your blog:

1) First you must make the document public:

• Option A: If document is in the main window, use the drop down menu for "Share" (in the upper right), Click "Publish as Webpage."
• Option B: If you are on the main Google Docs page, select which document you want to link. On the top toolbar, use the drop down menu for "More Options." Click Publish.

On the next screen, click the first option, which is "Publish document." If you click "Post to Blog, then the document will be formatted as a post to the blog, not as a linked document.

Once the document has been published, you should take note of the URL and copy it. (I make a list in a Word file of all my documents' URLs so have them for quick reference. You can, however, always find a document's URL through Google Docs after you have published it.)

2) Now you can create a link on your blog:
As you write or edit a post, you will see a word processing toolbar on the top of the main window. Type the name of the assignment (example: Molly's List of Assignments) and select that text. Click on the "Link" button--it looks like the Earth with a single chain link in front of it. Paste the document's URL in the box and click "OK." The link will be active as soon as you publish your post.