Bringing it all Together

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Project #5: Course Reflection Memo

The purpose of this project is to review your work from the semester and to evaluate how you worked towards your goals. You’ll review your Course Goals Memo from the beginning of the semester. Then, you’ll look over your projects, revision letters, and any reflective writing you’ve done for information about how you worked towards and met those goals. You will organize your findings in a memo to your instructor.

Completion Requirement: Your Self-Assessment Email should be 500-750 words.

Project Steps

To get started, gather your materials for the major projects, including rough drafts, final drafts, and all feedback you received in peer review and on Blackboard. If you also wrote work logs or writing journals, have them in a place where it’s easy for you to refer to them.

Next, remind yourself of your personal goals for the semester by rereading your Course Goals Memo from Week 2.

Then, review your materials for Major Projects 2-4 (Career Documents, Problem Primer, Community Research Report). As you do this, take notes about how your work on these documents shows work towards your goals. These notes will help you create the “evidence” for your Course Reflection.

Once you’ve assembled your materials and made some notes, decide which evidence relates most convincingly to the goals you set for yourself in this course.

Questions for Drafting:

•  How would you evaluate your progress towards your goals this semester? Where did you succeed and why? Where did you fall short and why?
• What actions did you take this semester that helped you meet your goals?
• What “evidence” from your major projects supports your assessment of each of your goals? For example, does your Problem Primer (Project #3) show how you learned to manage time during a research project? Does your Community Research Report (Project #4) show that you learned new document design skills?
• What skills will you continue to work on after this course?
• What skills or information did you learn that will be most helpful for you as you continue in your major or career path?
• What do you know about technical writing now that you didn’t know when the semester started?

The next step is to write your course goals in memo format.

Note 1: You can find more information about writing memos in your textbook. Refer again to Chapter 3: Setting Your Course Goals.

Note 2: Below is a quick checklist of the parts you need in this email, in order. You can use it to help you make sure you have all the components:

• Subject (Gives a clear idea of the email contents)
• Salutation (Dear…)
• Introduction (Give your name, discuss your goals, preview your conclusions)
• Goals: (Give each goal you want to talk about its own paragraph and provide evidence from your work this semester to show how you met your goal or extended your skills.)
• Conclusion (talk about your takeaways from the semester)
• Closing line (Sincerely or Cordially are good choices for formal writing or people you don’t know well. You could also choose less formal options like “All the best” or “Thanks.”)
• Signature (your name or initials)

Due Dates

Final Submission Checklist

[Give instructions to students on how to format their assignments here.]

• Self-Assessment Email
• • I have briefly reviewed the goals I chose for myself in the Course Goals Memo.
  • I have evaluated my success at accomplishing each goal, using evidence from the major projects I did this semester.
  • I have used memo formatting.