Week (8) article reflection (writing guide)

This week we will do a special article reflection on a professional writing guide, in preparation for your final draft of the first essay assignment.

Article for week (8) -- writing guide

Steps to follow

1. Read the article for this week, and carefully and take notes. You should always read a scholarly article thoroughly at least twice.  The first time through, read quickly to understand the overall topic, the specific arguments and evidence, and the flow of the author's logic or narrative.  The second time through, read more slowly to note any useful concepts or terms, any key claims or arguments, and any points where the author seems to nicely summarize their thoughts.  Also note any ideas you don't quite understand or names which aren't familiar!

2. Pick out one specific part of this article to reflect on. These reflections are most effective when they are focused.  You might hone in on one particular example or piece of evidence in the article that surprised you -- or that you find yourself questioning as dubious.   You might narrow in on one particular argument that the author is making, one that you find yourself agreeing or disagreeing with most enthusiastically.   Or maybe there's a particular quote or description in the article that stuck with you.   One good way to think about this is to try to pick out what you think is the "MIS" of this article -- the "most important sentence."

3. Write a one-paragraph reflection on this article.  Write a paragraph about why the particular excerpt from the article that you chose is worthy of wider discussion.  Does it raise a particular question that you'd like to pose to the course?  Does it resonate with something in your own experience that you don't think others would have shared?  Does it connect with another course you've taken at UW-Madison, either supporting or contradicting what you thought you'd already learned?  Detail each article reflection in a way that would be useful for other students to understand and would spark more discussion. These  reflective paragraphs must be longer than a sentence or two!

4. Turn it in. Upload your reflection to Canvas to get credit for this assignment.  

5. Post about this article to your classmates. Go to the Discussions page of this web site and find your section's discussion board.  Your TA will have created a post titled something like, "Reflections on the article ____" with the article's title.  Use the "Reply" feature under that post to add your reflection paragraph about this article below your TA's posting.  You should post your paragraph by 11:59pm Wednesday night before discussion section meets on Thursday.

6. Comment on one other student's reflection.  Once you've posted your own reflection to the text discussion, read through the other student reflections so far, and post a "Reply" comment to at least one of these reflections. 

Please note: Practicing how to comment politely and constructively on each other's reflections is an important collaborative learning skill.  A good comment acknowledges the original poster's reflection, and then offers a way to connect or build upon that person's thought to your own reaction or to something else from the course or from your wider instructional experience.  (Politely pointing out differences or even disagreements of perspective or interpretation is OK, as long as it is done with respect and without trying to minimize or dismiss the original person's comment.)

7. Be prepared to talk about your article reflections in your discussion section.  Each week, your TA may call on several students to talk specifically about their own article reflections during discussion section (in addition to the students already giving formal speeches and the students formulating discussion questions).  Make sure you are prepared in case you are called on, as this factors into your discussion participation grade.