English Composition II
Capstone Reflection Assignment – In Plain English
Please give SPECIFIC examples of each
This assignment is a brief rhetorical analysis of your final capstone essay. Along with your essay, it is intended to demonstrate the skills you have gained over the course of Comp II.
Look at YOUR use of Logic/Emotion/Credibility in your Final Version of the Capstone
It should be about 2-3 (double-spaced) pages long (longer is fine). Please write this paper in essay style, (no bullet points or Q&A), and in MLA or APA format.
Use the following questions to develop your analysis:
What considerations did you have in mind as you chose your topic for the Capstone?
What your ideas for a topic were, what you already knew about it, what you wanted to know about it.
Why did you arrive at the thesis you did?
What did you learn from sources in Annot. Bib Draft that guided you to the Main/Controlling Idea for your Capstone?
In what ways did you attempt to make your essay appealing/convincing to an audience?
What tone did you use? What did you do to grab the reader’s interest and then keep hold of it?
What types of evidence did you use to develop and support your claims? How did you decide which sources to include (and which to leave out)? How did the Annotated Bibliography effect your decisions in what to use and how to use it as well as what to leave out?
Types of evidence (quotes, paraphrases, Figures – charts, graphs, images). Annot. Bib. (Draft) – How did it allow you to look at sources AND the most recent information on the topic? Then, how did all of that help you come up with your Thesis/Controlling Idea for your paper?
What choices did you make in terms of style, voice, language, and tone? On what basis did you make them? This could include things such as rhetorical devices, use of humor, etc.
Being aware of audience and their expectations. Purpose of paper (other than being an assignment). Conveying information and building an argument. Why did you organize and write the paper as you did?
How have you attempted to move readers through your argument? Why did you organize your essay in the way that you did? How did you make use of Logic/Emotion/Credibility to persuade readers to consider facts and information, different points of view, and/or to take a specific course of action?
In what ways does your essay reflect the conventions of academic writing? Think in terms of credible sources, organization of ideas/building the argument, consideration of perspectives, opposing viewpoints and countering those arguments, and in pointing out fallacies while avoiding them in your own argument.
How has your understanding of these conventions shaped your argument?
Now that you know about real Rhetoric, (L/E/C), how exactly did you use Rhetoric in your own paper?
In what ways does this Capstone essay represent your standing as a writer who has now completed the composition sequence (Comp I and II)? How would you assess your own strengths and weaknesses? What have you accomplished in your writing over the course of Comp I and II? With what aspects of your writing are you most—and least—satisfied at this point, and why?
Why is your Capstone essay proof that you have successfully gained the skills needed to write papers at the college level? In YOUR opinion, what are you good at? What do you still struggle with or wish you were better at? How has your writing improved from where it was B.C. (Before College) to where it is now? Why do YOU think you are good at this or that, and why do YOU think you still struggle with this or that?
