Introductory Reflective Hypertext Essay: Generic Sample
This generic sample of guidelines for student reflective hypertext essays generalizes areas that can be adapted for the specific expectations of any class or project in any academic discipline. This version assumes students will develop a Webfolio, a Website with many pages. For specific models, see student samples.
Karen's Webfolio Introductory Reflective Hypertext Essay
Introductory Reflective Hypertext Essay
As the final project for our class, you will compose a Webfolio, an electronic portfolio that can be shared on the Internet. This Webfolio demonstrates your activities and learning in our class with an emphasis on collection, attention, selection, composition, connection, reflection, collaboration, representation, and publication. In addition, you and I will be able to assess your understanding of course content as well as your understanding of the rhetorical features of composing in and for various media and audiences. To introduce your audience to your Webfolio and to demonstrate your thinking and learning, you will compose an Introductory Reflective Hypertext Essay according to specific guidelines for our class. You might find it helpful to print the guidelines for a checklist.
- To demonstrate what you have learned about the content and concepts of this course
- To encourage reflection on the content and concepts of this course through your reading and writing
- To compose and communicate for print and electronic media: hypertext with active links to related Web pages and appropriate multimedia performances
- To publish your compositions and thinking about the course to an audience of classmates and others
- To allow your own and your teacher's assessment of your learning based on fulfillment of the course goals and on your own reflection on your learning
Contents of Introductory Reflective Hypertext Essay (Generic Example)
Write a 750-word or longer Introductory Reflective Hypertext Essay to present your reflections on reading, writing, discussions, and other activities related to the content and concepts of this class during this term. Your essay should be both interesting and persuasive.
Include all the following elements within the body of your essay (within your paragraphs, not as a list). Include them in any order that contributes to the unity and coherence of your composition. Be specific in your explanations and examples. Include additional commentary and related annotated hyperlinks that demonstrate the scope of your enquiry and understanding.
- Reflect on your reading, research, and other instructional activities during this course, referring specifically to at least one important element from each of the primary units of study designated on your course syllabus. Explain why you picked that element and relate it to the objectives of the course as a whole.
- Select for particular attention at least three separate substantial activities during this course that you can publish — compositions, communications, and projects.
- Describe and discuss them, reflecting on and referring specifically to their contribution to your learning. Tell what activities contributed most to your understanding of course content and concepts. How and what did you learn from those activities?
- Quote yourself, your classmates, and your teacher briefly to support your discussion. In particular, you should incorporate within your essay explanations of what you have taught and what you have learned through interactions with others. Provide links to more substantial excerpts.
- What activities did you find most challenging or problematic? most enjoyable or enriching or interesting?
- Incorporate hyperlinks to Web pages in which you present examples of your compositions during the term. Revising them for publication is fine; specify what changes you made. Identify your compositions
by their titles, name each appropriately (for example, reasrchproject.htm)
and hyperlink from the title within your essay to the revised composition
in your Webfolio. Include brief descriptions of and links to at least three substantial compositions you developed during
the course, selecting those that best exemplify your thinking, learning,
and writing:
- One formal composition
- One additional formal composition or two examples of less formal writing of at least 250 words, for example, contributions to a particular online discussion
- At least one additional example of your writing or a multimodal or multimedia composition for our class
- Your Class Project
- Discuss the benefits of particular class activities — such as laboratories, field trips, online discussion boards, peer exchanges, scholarly research, and collaborative projects — to you as a reader, writer, and scholar
- Provide a Works Cited listing on the same page as your Introductory Reflective Hypertext Essay or link to it as a separate page, documenting correctly according to the document standards for this class.