Week 15 — Readings & Resources · Reflection & the Writing Portfolio

Course: English Composition (ENGL 1A) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Lindgren
Objective covered: Objective 8 — Reflect on writing as a process; assess your own choices; assemble and introduce a portfolio; articulate how skills transfer beyond this course.

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser, the same way you'd open a YouTube link. Nothing needs to be downloaded, and there is nothing to buy.

This week's load is deliberately light: 2 short readings + 1 video, grouped by the two big ideas, plus one optional free reference. Read or watch one item per group and you're ready for the quiz; do all of them and you'll be very comfortable. Total time is roughly 30–40 minutes if you do everything, far less if you pick one per group.

Reading order that matches the lecture: ① reflection & the reflective cover letter (what it is, what it does) → ② evidence of growth (how to show the revisions and choices you actually made).

A habit to use this week (and after): for every claim you make about your growth, finish the sentence "…which you can see in ___." If you can name the place it shows — a specific essay, a specific revision — your reflection is working. If you can't, it's still a feeling, not a finding.

① Reflection & the Reflective Cover Letter

Maps to Lecture Segments 2, 3 & 5. Reflection is specific, evidence-based self-assessment — not "I worked hard." A portfolio is curated, and its cover letter tells the reader what you chose, why, what you learned, and how you revised.

Video — "Writing Practice: The Reflective Essay | Rhetoric & Composition | Study Hall" (ASU + Crash Course)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6ECrgO_YKg
Why it earns the click: a clear, first-year-composition walk through what reflective writing actually is — looking back at your work and choices and naming what you learned — and, crucially, how to write reflection for a specific audience (its built-in chapters cover exactly that). This is the closest match to your portfolio cover letter. From the Study Hall Rhetoric & Composition series we've used all term.
⏱ ~10 min

Reading — "What Is a Cover Letter?" (Purdue OWL)
🔗 https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/job_search_writing/job_search_letters/cover_letters_1_quick_tips/index.html
Why it's assigned: your portfolio is introduced by a cover letter/memo, and the conventions are the same ones the OWL lays out here — a cover letter introduces you, makes a deliberate first impression, is tailored (not generic), and is itself a sample of your writing. Read it for the genre move, then aim those same moves at a portfolio: introduce your work, choose what to feature, and let the letter show your best writing.
⏱ ~6 min

② Showing Your Growth (Evidence, Not Effort)

Maps to Lecture Segments 2 & 5. Good reflection points to evidence — a named revision, a specific choice. The line to carry out of this week: name the skill, then point to where it shows.

Reading — "Reverse Outlining: An Exercise for Taking Notes and Revising Your Work" (Purdue OWL)
🔗 https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/reverse_outlining.html
Why it's assigned: the single most useful "evidence of revision" you can point to in a reflection is a global change — reordering or refocusing paragraphs. Reverse outlining is the tool that finds those changes (jot one phrase per paragraph; if the list doesn't make sense, your structure needs work, not your commas). If you did this on a draft this term, that's exactly the kind of concrete revision your cover letter should name.
⏱ ~5 min

Optional companion — "The Writing Process" (Purdue OWL)
🔗 https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/index.html
Why it's here: a one-page refresher on the whole arc — prewriting (invention), organizing, drafting, revising, proofreading — useful if you want to name the stages precisely as you reflect on how your own process changed since Week 1.
⏱ ~6 min

Optional one-stop reference (free online text)

If you'd like one optional reference to skim, the OpenStax Writing Guide with Handbook keeps its full text free to read online — a reputable, currently-available college writing reference. It includes sections on reflective writing and on the writing process that pair well with this week.
🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/writing-guide
Why it's here: a free, returnable reference for the whole course — entirely optional this week. (Linked as a free reference; this course makes no open-license or copyright claim about it.)

Pick-one quick path (≈16 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these two and you'll be ready for the quiz:
1. Watch "Writing Practice: The Reflective Essay" (Study Hall) (group ①).
2. Read "Reverse Outlining" (Purdue OWL) (group ②) — so you can name a concrete revision as evidence.

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell Prof. Lindgren and use the free OpenStax reference above in the meantime. Nothing here is hosted by our course — these are all external resources, linked, not reproduced.