1. COMPOSITION II
WEEK TWELVE
Tuesday
November 8, 2016
DUE 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
2. 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
4. 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
5. 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.”
7. 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
8. 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
9. 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!
10. 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
11. 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
12. 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
13. Class Discussion
Answer the following questions on a piece of paper. Be prepared to discuss these
topics in class.
1. How can we use reflective writing when creating an unbiased opinion?
2. How can we use reflective writing when researching?
3. How did Joan Didion’s reflective essay act as research?
14. DUE
• Read A Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. by 11/10
• No Quiz
• Journal due 11/13
• APA Short Essay Final Draft due 11/17
• Thesis and Outline for final paper due 11/17
