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Reflections

In the first unit for English 101, students were asked to compose an Introductory Letter. I presented the letter as having three goals: 1.) to introduce students to me, 2.) to address the goals students had for both the course and potential longer-term goals, and 3.) to describe their habits of mind.

In the lead up to this final assignment for the unit, students wrote several quick prompts about potential goals they had, stories they wanted to share about their week, a self-assessment (like a self-directed peer review), and a final reflection about their writing process. Lesson plans for the unit included a quick mini-lecture on habits of mind, goal-setting, structure of the letter, language of a letter, and a transitional discussion.

I didn’t particularly care for this assignment. I felt that, though letter writing was likely an extremely unfamiliar genre for them, we didn’t cover enough genre conventions for a letter. Also, this isn’t a genre that students are likely to use ever again either in college or in their professional lives, so I’m not wholly certain what the purpose of this assignment was as a part of the course at large. Students who are planning to go to grad school will be writing statements of purpose, which is a similar genre, but ultimately has a very different purpose and, therefore, significantly different tone and content. Even introductory emails, more common in the business world, will be more formal and far less personal.