Reflective or Memoir Essay Overview: For this assignment, you will write a reflective essay or one more like a memoir. You will focus on an event that had a significant impact on your life and explain the impact. Purpose: To continue practicing inquiry strategies To review and practice organizational strategies for essays, especially the attention-getter and the clever last lines To focus on developments of details and build skills To write a memoir Form: This is an essay/writing of three distinct parts – there should be a clear introduction paragraph with an attention getter, any necessary background, thesis and plan of development; three well- developed body paragraphs, each developing some particular aspect of your reflection. Special Considerations: It is a reflective piece or memoir, though, since you are focusing on a significant moment in your life. You will have some time to draft this in class, and it will go through the revision process. Please be prepared to work on this electronically both in class and at home. Procedure: Discuss strong idea development and practice idea development skills Practice working on voice within an essay, and practice writing for a specific audience Practice incorporating dialogue appropriately Discuss and practice effective methods for attention-getters and clever last lines Complete a life graph or other inquiry strategy before writing Bring in specific essay prompts from universities Compose thesis statement, plan of development, and topic sentences Complete the type 3 draft Orally and peer revise the type 3 essay for organization Revise it for idea development Revise it for sentence fluency Submit the type 4 essay Type 4 FCA’s: See rubric on the back Reasonable Best Effort Guidelines: If the essay fails to meet one of the RBE Guidelines, it will be returned until corrected. Yes No RBE Standard Submits prewriting or other research Appropriately addresses and responds to prompt/topic Incorporates dialogue smoothly and appropriately Incorporates vocabulary word smoothly and appropriately Demonstrates efforts to vary sentence structure Submits this rubric Meets proofreading standards as identified by the class I have checked the above RBE guidelines as well as the FCA’s, and I am confident my work meets or exceeds expectations. _________________________________________________________________________________ Name ______________________________ FCA Organization ____/ 35 points Mastering + Reflective Essay +/- Developing Emerging +/- Organization: Introduction: Organization: Introduction: Organization: Introduction: Creates a clever, well-developed 3-5 sentence attention-getter using one of the identified methods, provides sufficient background, and clarifies the significance/impact of the event thematically 10 May need revision in ONE of the following: needs to develop an AG further or refine idea for clarity and engagement; provides some background but more is necessary to have a clear picture; incorporates a ThS but needs a more clear theme of impact of experience 8-7 Needs revision in EACH of the following: Needs to create an A-G that works w/ one of the identified methods to draw the reader in (may use a question or write an A-G that does not draw the reader directly into the topic); needs to provide background information; needs to focus the essay thematically 6-0 Conclusion: Conclusion: Conclusion: Summarizes the ThS/theme, reflects on the impact, and attempts a clever last line, but may need to: use less similar words/phrases in summary, reflect more clearly on the impact of event, or revise the cll for clarity, humor, effect, etc. to effectively end w/ a bang 8-7 Needs to: re-state the ThS/theme using different words and phrases, reflect on the importance of the event, and end in a clever way, as the conclusion summarizes instead of reflects 6-0 Topic Sentences: Topic sentences serve as a cohesive device, organizing all the details in the paragraph under one thematic thought. 15 Topic sentences may not be completely comprehensive for all information in the paragraph. Topic sentences may need creativity.One topic sentence may even be missing. Topic sentences may not be present or are not indicative of the details from the paragraph. Examples and Elaboration: Examples and Elaboration: Examples and Elaboration: piles on (using more than 3 examples) clear, specific, and thoughtful details and anecdotes that clearly illustrate impact/significance of experience. Each detail is elaborated upon carefully and thoughtfully to explain, enrich, & substantiate the TS and ThS. Reader’s questions are anticipated and answered. Incorporates some details and anecdotes, but needs to implement less general and more specific details/anecdotes in order to define the impact/significance more clearly and personally. Each detail also must have more substantiation/ explanation to fully demonstrate support of the theme. Needs to also anticipate reader questions and address those in detail. Presents a limited scope of significance/ impact of this experience – may need to provide more details and anecdotes and may also need to clarify and/or sharpen the existing details. Explanation, too, of how the details support the essay’s theme are lacking and is therefore necessary. The writer needs to reflect on the experience and define it through anecdotes and details in a personal, reflective way. Voice: Voice: Voice: Writes honestly, personally, and engagingly to the reader about the experience. Respects purpose and audience for the writing and so adds interest. Writes sincerely and pleasantly about the experience, but needs to keep voice consistent so that the reader feels compelled and drawn to what the writer develops. Writes “safely” and needs to take some risk and share his/her self. May need to revise at points to better serve the audience. Writes at a distance from the topic and the audience. Needs to show concern for the audience and show his/her feelings/perspective on the experience. Needs to be involved sincerely in what s/he is writing. Summarizes the ThS/ theme using different words and phrases, reflects on the significance of the event, and concludes with a clever last line - a bang, not a whimper 10 Comments: Idea Development ____/ 50 points Comments: Voice ____/ 15 points Comments: _____ / 100 points A B C D F