UNIT 4
YOU’VE CHANGED: A “FOR REAL” PAPER THAT WILL
REQUIRE THOUGHT + WORK
For your final paper, you will write an essay* (~500 words) reflecting on yourself
as a writer, drawing on what you have learned about yourself over the semester
and illustrating your struggles and your improvements using one key concept from
your toolbox. What stands out as most important to you about yourself as a
writer and your writing? Your piece should include specific examples cited
from particular essays to illustrate and develop your observations. You know
me by now. I don’t want a fluff piece or a bunch of generalizations. It’s also not
useful to hear, “I loved/hated this course.” Discuss your writing and progress, using
your writing and progress as evidence, focused around a concept that we’ve
discussed (e.g. genre, purpose, audience, but also copyediting, hook/pegs,
drafting, quotations, MLA, etc.).
How has your feeling toward “this concept,” whichever one(s) you pick, changed
between papers? How has changing one element (e.g. audience) changed your
approach to writing a paper? How do you understand the relationship between this
element and other elements in your toolbox?
There is no need to include a Works Cited page but you do need to make it clear,
in the body of your writing, which essay you are citing from. This assignment counts
for 10% of your final grade. Don’t do it the night before.
Some questions to consider include:
 What have you learned about yourself as a writer, your strengths and
weaknesses?
 What writing strategies have you developed or learned? What have you
learned about writing? About critical thinking? About analysis?
 Consider what advice you can give yourself for the writing you will do (in
school and out) in the future. What do you want to remember about your
work this semester?
Goals for this assignment:
 To analyze one’s own writing process and written texts
 To gain confidence about writer’s metacognition and performance
 To identify areas for improvement and strengths
 To perform self-assessment of one’s time in the course
Submission Info:
 Due: Tuesday, April 19 by 11:59PM
 Submitted by email: bbowles@tru.ca
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Late policy: Papers submitted after midnight on April 19 will be considered
late and will be subject to the usual late policy (see syllabus) to a
maximum of 7 days. After 7 days it’s a zero.
Format: Paper must be an attachment as .doc, .docx, or .pdf. Absolutely
no links. Links will count as late papers until I receive a doc or pdf.
*The term essay is open to the usual (and unusual) wide range of creative
possibilities. Do you want to write this as a piece of genre fiction (is your struggle
a love story? A murder mystery about the disappearing point of your paper?) or
do you want your 500 words to be in track changes and comment bubbles? I
encourage you to get creative. The form and format of this paper is up to you. All
I ask is that you use it to explore content that relates to your journey as a writer in
this course.