Instructions for Self-Assessment and Placing 1201 Essay into Blackboard Outcomes

Choose at least two essays that you can reflect on to write most powerfully about your development as a reader and writer this term.  One of them should show your ability to cite sources and integrate them effectively into your argument in a 4-6 page essay.   To write the self-assessment, you will want to be aware of the primary goals of ENGL1201.  The Outcomes Statements for First-Year Writing is a set of eleven statements that express what we expect you to have accomplished by the end of your first-year writing experience.  Some of the statements apply only to ENGL1202 (focus on literature).  Also, you might find it useful to examine a sample student self-assessment.  Also, the language in the official first-year writing rubric may help you reflect on your writing skills.  To prepare to write the self-assessment in advance, review all your writing, taking notes on places you noticed that you've learned something or still struggle.  You may bring to class your notes and the excerpts from your writing that you plan to cite. 

How to write the self-assessment

Write a self-assessment of your development as a writer and readaer over the term.  The self-assessment should be an essay that focuses on a thesis about your growth as a writer in ENGL1201, documenting your claims based on the outcomes statements and referring to essays.  Good self-assessments are honest self-assessments.  We're not looking for you to prove that you're a perfect writer, just that you understand what you're good and not-so-good at and what processes you use to produce your best writing.  Since you will not be including previous drafts with your self-assessment, it will be especially important that you cite specific instances from early and final drafts in your self-assessment to demonstrate what revision means to you (see sample student self-assessment above).  You may discuss writing besides that which you have included in your e-portfolio.  It will be hard to write a substantive self-assessment in less than three pages.  The self-assessment may be administered as a take-home or a partial take-home (prepared in advance but written during the final exam time).  Follow your instructor's directions for how to submit your self-assessment to him/her directly.  Your essay will be evaluated as an academic essay, that is, on your ability to draw from a complex set of evidence (your essays and writing experiences), your critical reflection on that evidence, the compelling nature of your thesis, and a coherent organization.

To prepare for the final exam in ENGL1202, you'll need to access your self-assessment for 1201 and your best essay from 1201.  Directions for submitting the 1201 essay in the Blackboard My Content area are in this PowerPoint presentation.