My AB sources

Foster, John M. The Taj Mahal. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Wood, Michael. The Taj Mahal. New York: Basic Books, 2009.

Strickland, Carol. The Taj Mahal. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.

And my topic is Taj Mahal

The purpose of this assignment is to reflect on your research process for the annotated bibliography and your overall feelings toward your course writing and assignments. To do this, you will compose a well-organized essay that incorporates quotations from the sources used for the Annotated Bibliography.

The reflection continues with you exploring your overall progress with the writing process.

You will be using the following in your reflection:

• Annotated Bibliography (AB)
• Icebreaker Discussion
• Writing Activity 1 (WA1)
• Midterm Survey
• Writing Tutor forms

The first part of your analysis will:

• Describe your research process for the AB Assignment, summarizing the process, your findings, and using the sources in your analysis with direct quotations and proper MLA citations.

The second part of your analysis will:

• Describe your own growth in the writing process, what you have learned, how you have improved, and how much confidence you have in your own writing. Note: While you will reference your discussions, writing activities and writing tutor forms, you will not have to quote directly from them.

The third part of your analysis will:

• Describe how you will be using writing going forward, where you may use it, and to answer the question:
  • Is the ability to write academically something that will benefit you in your future endeavors? How? Explain.

Note: No new research is required for this essay. The sources used must be the sources used for the annotated bibliography assignment. New sources must be approved by the instructor.

Note about using your own discussions, writing tutor forms, and Discussions: These materials will not need a works cited entry or internal citations unless you are directly quoting another person. This is allowed, but is not a requirement. It is better to internalize the information to answer the reflective questions of the essay.

Task

Compose a 1000-word essay that reflects on your AB research process and your overall thoughts about your current proficiency in academic writing, the writing process.

• Essay 3 contains three basic sections, but it should be written as one, smoothly-flowing essay.
• It does not need specific introductory or concluding paragraphs as Parts I and III fulfill these functions.
• The essay must include at least one quotation from each AB source.
• The essay must include a works cited page.

Part I: Why you picked your topic, what you already knew, and what did you learn?

• Before you began researching your topic, what did you already know about it?
• Why did you select this topic? What is interesting about it?
• What did you find out, specifically about your topic, that you maybe did not know before?
  • Be specific.
  • This is a perfect place to integrate your direct quotations and internal citations, following MLA format.

Part II: How do you feel about your own writing and your progress?

• Reflect on how much you have grown in your writing abilities.
  • Note: This is a good place to bring up your writing activities, discussions, surveys, and/or Writing Tutor forms
  • Be specific.
  • Do you feel more confident in completing a writing assignment? Why?
  • How have your own feelings about writing assignments changed?
  • Did you learn your mistakes from writing tutor visits and professor feedback?
  • Have you been able to highlight your writing strengths?
  • How do you feel about creating your own topics and using critical thinking/research to alter existing topics?
  • Are you apprehensive about writing assignments in other courses?
  • Note: You do not have to answer all of these questions, but you need to focus on your own experiences and growth.

Part III: Where will academic writing present itself outside of college?

• Reflect on how your experiences with academic writing and research will happen outside of college and college courses.
  • How will you be using writing in your other career and life endeavors?
  • Do you see the benefits of being able to express yourself better with your writing?
  • In what areas can your writing proficiencies be used? Be specific.
  • Do you see a link to other courses and your possible career? Explain.

Criteria for Success

A successful essay:

• Meets the basic requirements of the assignment
• Has been written by the student submitting the essay, for this class, and for this semester
• Does not contain plagiarism of any kind
• Follows the 3-part pattern of organization
• Fully develop each of the 3 parts
• Reflects on the research process instead of merely describing it
• Explores your own thoughts about the writing process and your experience with it
• Contains at least 1 quotation from each source
• Correctly integrates and documents quotations and sources
• Includes a works cited page as its last page
• Has been carefully edited and proofread to minimize documentation, grammatical, and other editing errors
• Follows MLA style and guidelines (spacing, indent, margins, etc.)

The essay will be graded with the Grading Rubric for Essays. Please familiarize yourself with this rubric before you submit your essay. Here is the condensed version of the rubric: