Revised assignment sheet for online 309

1. English 309 Rhetorical Style Page 1 of 3
Final Reflective
Memo and Revision
(200 points)
Educator and philosopher John Dewey argued, “We don’t learn from experience – we learn
from reflecting on our experience.” In other words, it’s only in the concerted effort to
recollect and make sense of what you’ve done that genuine knowledge is created.
To that end, the last project we’ll be completing in English 309 this semester consists of
two parts:
Specifically, your portfolio will consist of two deliverables:
1. A 1000(ish)-word reflective memo (described in detail below). The memo will be a
blending of definition, reflection, and a collection of evidence. (100 points)
2. A revised version of either your white paper or your imitative essay and a brief
explanation (submitted in the submission box on BbLearn of what you did to
revise). (100 points)
1. Reflective Memo
The basis for your reflective memo will be the course learning objectives, which are
spelled out in the syllabus:
Accordingly, your reflection will consist of five sections:
1. Describe style as rhetorical, a product of audience, purpose, and
genre.
2. Effectively compose in a wide range of written genres using the
style appropriate to that genre, audience, and purpose.
3. Thoroughly analyze the stylistic devices of a given piece of
prose, and imitate those devices in your own writing.
4. Apply advanced research skills to advance your own writing
goals.
5. Effectively give and receive feedback about writing in small and
large-group settings.

2. English 309 Rhetorical Style Page 2 of 3
Section One
In section one of your memo, you’ll be working with the first course objective: “Describe
style as rhetorical, a product of audience, purpose, and genre.” You have two goals in
this section:
1. Explain and/or define style as we have talked about it this semester. I expect you
to use Performing Prose and the other sources we read in class to support your
ideas.
2. Explain how style is rhetorical, making sure to include information about audience,
purpose, and genre. Again, use concepts from Performing Prose in your
explanation.
Section Two
In this section, you’ll be working with the second course objective: “Effectively compose in
a wide range of written genres using the style appropriate to that genre, audience, and
purpose.” You have three goals in this section:
1. For each of the three major assignments (the white paper, the imitative essay, and
the open letter), write a description of the piece’s genre, purpose(s), and
audience(s).
2. After you write this description, explain how each assignment required a different
style (with the goal of making sure your portfolio reader understands how you
determined which style was appropriate for the piece in light of the piece’s genre,
purpose(s), and audience(s)).
3. Make an argument for why each assignment you discuss is successful—i.e., how
each was effectively composed. (Or, if you feel that it wasn’t entirely successful,
you can explain what you might have changed if you were to do it again.)
Section Three
In this section, you’ll be working with the third course objective: “Thoroughly analyze the
stylistic devices of a given piece of prose, and imitate those devices in your own writing.”
You have two goals in this section:
1. Using either the genre parody assignment or the imitative essay assignment,
explain what stylistic features made the thing you imitated (or parodied) unique.
2. Explain what you did to either parody a genre or imitate the style of a model essay,
and what you learned as a result.
Section Four
In this section, you’ll be working with the fourth course objective: “Apply advanced
research skills to advance your own writing goals.” You have three goals in this section:
1. Explain how you approached the research you did about your topic this semester.
Consider discussing the process of choosing a topic and how research played into
that process.
2. Explain how you used research in each of the assignments you did for the course
(thinking about the differences in style requirements for each).
3. Explain what you might have done differently in terms of researching if you’d had
more time for the assignments.

3. English 309 Rhetorical Style Page 3 of 3
Section Five
In this section, you’ll be working with the fifth course objective: “Effectively give and
receive feedback about writing in small and large-group settings.” You have one goal in
this section:
 During this semester, you worked with a partners and groups during the drafting
and revision stages of writing (during brainstorming, and in peer review activities,
for example. Write a short reflection describing the challenges you face in
collaboration situations, and describe a couple of strategies you might be able to
employ in the future to make these collaborations more successful.
Formatting and Organization
Your reflective memo should show evidence that you’ve learned something about stylistic
genre conventions this semester. In other words, your memo should be properly
formatted using professional writing conventions and CRAP HATS principles – this would
include things like a memo heading, block-paragraph single-spaced formatting, and titled
sections.
2. Revision of White Paper OR Imitative Essay
You will actually revise either your white paper or imitative essay. Your revision should
involve not just local or sentence-level (editing) fixes, but a substantial re-seeing of the
piece, as we’ve discussed it in class. You might change the audience to a different, more
appropriate one; you might add research; you might change your point of view, subtract
or add details, or otherwise deepen and solidify the piece. (After you make these global
changes, of course, you should then turn to more local, sentence-level revisions.)
In the submission box on BbLearn, please provide a one-paragraph description of what
you did to revise the essay.
Grading Chart, Final Portfolio
Reflective memo. The writer has given an accurate, well-supported
assessment of his/her performance in the course by discussing how
well he/she has met the course outcomes. The writer demonstrates
clear vision and understanding of how his/her writing could be
improved, using language and concepts learned in the course.
100
Revision of white paper OR imitative essay. The piece has been
substantially revised, and is significantly improved from the original
version in terms of audience, purpose, content, and style. It shows
evidence of global AND local revision.
100
TOTAL 200 points