The document outlines a checklist for improving academic writing, covering areas like sentence construction, paragraph organization, and the use of evidence. Additionally, it discusses reflective essays, describing them as opportunities to explore personal experiences and thoughts without the need for argumentation. The guide emphasizes creating vivid descriptions, posing thought-provoking questions, and incorporating external perspectives to enhance the reflective writing process.

1. Academic Writing Expectations Checklist
The items checked off below are areas where you can improve.
Click the links to access Writing Center resources:
· Sentence-level skills
sentence components Constructing complete and correct
sentences. See an explanation of and how to avoid sentence
fragments and run-ons.
commonly misused words
Using and spelling words correctly. See a list of
punctuation Punctuating appropriately. See the different types
of and their uses.
Grammarly tutorial Using Grammarly to catch further errors.
See a .
Comments:
· Paragraph-level skills
paragraph basics Using paragraph breaks. See a description of .
topic sentences Focusing each paragraph on one central idea
(rather than multiple ideas). See an explanation of how work.
Comments:
· Use of evidence
integrating evidence Using course learning resources. See
examples of in a paper.

2. quotation marks Enclosing direct quotes in quotation marks.
Read about the purpose of .
paraphrasing strategies. Paraphrasing (explaining in one’s own
words) to avoid plagiarizing the source. See
Comments:
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THE PERFECT
PAPER» Writing the Reflective Essay
Thinkine on Paper
FORGET ABOUT MAKING AN ARGUMFNT~THF
REFLECTIVE ESSAY IS ALL ABOUT
ENTERTAINING YOUR OURIOSITY BySarahMontante
o
•e reflective essay is the luxury assign-
ment of papers. It gives you the oppor-
tunity to explore an event or a topic in
any way that interests you, without hav-
ing to prove anything to your reader. It's
easier to vwrite than a personal essay

3. because you don't have to analyze yourself, and it's
often more fun because you get to incorporate other
people's thoughts and ideas.
So what is a reflective essay? Simply put, it's
thinking on paper. Every reflective essay begins with
an occasion for reflection, an event or experience that
makes you stop and think. It could be something as
dramatic as a political protest or as mundane as a
sunrise—as long as it sparks a question in your mind.
3 D NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2004 Literary Cavalcade
The essay describes the occasion for reflection
and then explores a question about it. The
purpose of the essay is to share a provocative
experience, allowing the reader to follow the mean-
derings of your mind.
Let's say that you went to the beach one morning
and saw cigarette butts and soda bottles that the
tide had washed in, and a pair of fish that had been
caught and left on the sand. Let's say that the sight
of those freshly caught fish abandoned on the beach
made you think about how much people v f̂aste. This
Vi/ould be a great topic for a reflective essay.
> WRITE IN THE MOMENT
To write it, you would first want to describe the occasion
itself—the smell in the air, perhaps the usual saltiness
mixed with the sweet but noxious odor
of something rotting. You

4. would want to make the
litter visible by describ-
ing the faded labels on
the plastic soda bot-
tles, the way that the
paper has long dis-
solved from the outside
of the cigarettes, leaving
nothing but the gray, frayed
filters. And then you would
show your reader the fish, their
scales still shiny, their bodies
firm and plump. The fresh
blood implies that they were
caught just this morning. They are a good catch—a iit-
tie small but still edible—and you wonder why anyone
would catch them with no intention of eating them.
And so you come to a question: Are human beings
taking more than their fair share from the
earth? Now that you have thrown the doors
wide open to reflection, you can incorporate
ideas and information that take you beyond
your own experience. You might include a
quote from an ancient philosopher that talks
about the place of human beings in the food
chain, or reports from modern-day environ-
mental scientists who are worried about the
rate of consumption of the rain forests.
At the end of the reflective essay, you will want
to draw some conclusions about your experi-

5. ence or about the general topic. Since you aren't writ-
ing a formal argument or a persuasive essay, you don't
have to worry about hammering home your point the
way you would in a formal conclusion. All you want to
do is close the loop on your thoughts. How have you
been changed by the experience of examining this
topic? Maybe there is some change in your own
life that you can demonstrate to tie the essay
together—perhaps you have decided to be a
part of a local beach clean-up crew, or maybe
you have decided to recycle more in your
house. Maybe not. The change you've expe-
rienced may be purely abstract; you might
be newly aware of the fragility of the envi-
ronment and feel a greater respect for the
other organisms that inhabit it. Your
reflective essay will reflect your thoughts
and ideas.
HOWTO REFLECT
YOUR ESSAY SHOULD PRESENT A PROVOCATIVE EVENT
TO YOUR
READER AND MAKE YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS CLEAR
%^ Choose an occasion. Think back on the significant events in
your life that changed you
4 or helped you form your opinions. Write down ait the
moments that come to mind and
then choose the one that feels most vivid to you.
% Make it real. Your first task is to make this event come alive
for the reader. Use
^ sensory language and plenty of concrete details. Try to make
the experience thought-

6. provoking for your reader.
=̂ Pose a question. Tell your reader exactly why this experience
made you stop and think
^"' and what it made you curious about. Be sure that your
question is broad enough that
you can explore it in an essay and that it is about the topic, not
about you.
«^ Explore. Do a little research to find out what other people
have to say about your
^ topic. Do you agree with them? Do you find their perspectives
interesting? Incorporate
two to three other ideas into your essay. — ^ - _ _ « « _ _ -
> Draw a conclusion. The reflective essay should demonstrate
athought process that begins with a question and ends up
somewhere
else. You don't necessarily have to answer the question, but you
should
show development in your thinking about the topic, even if it
means
coming to a new question at the end.
Next month, LC ̂
you how to wnie
Literary Cavalcade NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2004 37