RooWriter Reflection - Short Writing Assignments
Why use RooWriter in Discourse 300?
You can assign RooWriter for completion points, but it can also serve as a baseline text written early in
the semester to which students can return to when writing the reflective essays for their portfolios.
Rather than awarding completion points for taking the RooWriter, you can grade the reflection, which
could be a low-stakes homework assignment or a bigger assignment worth more points. This lines up
nicely with Disc 300 SLOs because it addresses the “reflecting on your process” and “reading your work
critically” SLOs. Students might use the RooWriter reflection essay to set goals for themselves as writers,
and then at the end of the semester in their portfolio reflections, they can reflect upon how well they’ve
met those goals. Incorporating the RooWriter as text to be reflected upon, rather than for completion
points, means it doesn’t matter if a student took the RooWriter over the break before classes began.
Regardless of when students took RooWriter, they can still write the reflection essay or other reflectionoriented assignments.
Beginning of the Semester Short Reflection Essay or In-Class Writing
Write a short reflection essay (250-500 words) on your writing process. Consider the following
questions:
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How is writing a RooWriter essay similar to or different from other types of writing?
What sorts of reading and note-taking strategies did you use when preparing to write your
RooWriter essay? Did these strategies provide you with useful material when you began
composing your RooWriter essay?
How is writing in response to a particular question posed by someone else different from writing
an essay where you develop your own research question? Which do you prefer? Why?
What changes did you make to your writing process knowing that your audience was not your
classmates and instructor?
How did you adjust your revision process based on the 72-hour window in which you wrote your
RooWriter essay? What would you have done differently if you had more time?
For an in-class writing option, choose any one of the questions above.
Mid-Semester Short Reflection Essay or In-Class Writing
Write a short reflection essay (250-500 words) on your writing process. Consider the following
questions:
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Reread your RooWriter essay. How do you assess your own strengths and weaknesses?
How might you use the feedback from your RooWriter essay to adjust your writing process for
other writing tasks?
What patterns in your writing were highlighted in evaluators’ responses to your RooWriter
essay? Have others (peer reviewers, professors) noted these patterns before? How can you
build upon your strengths and improve your weaknesses?
Which resources can you use to improve your writing?
Based on RooWriter and the writing you’ve done in class, what are your top priorities for
improving your writing? How will you meet these goals?
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For an in-class writing option, choose any one of the questions above.
End of semester
Encourage students to include their RooWriter essay as an artifact in their portfolios and reflect upon
RooWriter as one of the rhetorical situations they’ve engaged throughout the course of semester. Some
questions students might consider when incorporating RooWriter into their portfolios:
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Compare a piece of writing from the end of the semester to your RooWriter essay. Where do
you see improvement? What accounts for this improvement? What areas of your writing still
need work?
How well have you followed-through on your plan to improve your writing and build on your
strengths?
Compare the reading and note-taking strategies you used for RooWriter to those you used later
in the semester. How have your reading and note-taking strategies changed over the course of
the semester? How have these changes translated into better writing or a different writing
process?
Other Recommendations
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Review “Best Practices for Use of the RooWriter.”
Email students before classes begin and let them know that they’ll need to complete RooWriter
by the end of Week 2.
Assign a reading packet or let students choose. You can also create your own reading packet.
Prioritize your students’ essays. Email as list of student ID numbers to the Coordinator of Writing
Assessment at RooWriter@umkc.edu before you assign RooWriter.
Create a report for your class and view students’ results.
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