302H Reflective Commentary Guidelines for Research Project, Part I

Reflective Commentary Guidelines

For this reflective commentary, please consider the following questions:

1) How did the process of performing research change your initial conception of this project? In what ways did you need to adjust your focus because of what you discovered during your research? Note: I am not talking about a complete change of topic. I am talking about a refinement of your topic, not abandoning one and replacing it with another. If you changed topics completely at some point, only address the refinement that occurred once you settled on your new topic.

2) Now that you have completed this part of the project, how confident are you in your ability to write the paper that will complete the project? Compare this experience to your process for prior research essays you have written. How will this assignment help you produce a more sophisticated final essay?

3) Which quotations are you most confident will prove useful in the essay, and why? Which one are you most likely to cut, if any? Why?

4) How did the peer response process go and what changes did you make after receiving your peers’ comments? Describe how you spent your time in revision. Did you change your thesis (completely or partially), seek out more sources or quotations, refine your descriptions of how you plan to use them, or focus on technical issues such as citations and the works cited?

The commentary should be written like an essay — meaning well-organized and properly paragraphed, grammatically correct, do not number your answers — but the style may be informal, and of course you should use the first person. I expect it to be between 300 and 350 words total (not per question). Please use your word count function to put the total (not including the header) after the commentary. No title is necessary.

Reflective commentaries, like other aspects of the essays, earn scores of √+, √, √-, or –. However, rather than being averaged into the score, your reflective commentary score will be converted to a bonus: a √+ will earn a bonus of 1 point; a √ will earn a bonus of .5 points; a √- will not earn a bonus; a – will result in a .3 point deduction, and not turning in a reflective commentary will result in a 1 point deduction. Remember that this essay assignment starts with a base value of 15 points.