As you read, Yancey believes that “reflection” allows students to become agents of their own learning. Other theorists view reflection as a means of looking back so that we can understand how to move forward. After reading Yancey's theory of reflection, I want you to reflect on reflection. Using specific evidence from the reading think through the following questions:
*What is Yancey's theory of reflection? How does she connect it to composition?
***Note: she defines reflection in several different ways, so I'm not looking for everyone to use the exact same definition. Use the one that stuck out to you or that you were drawn to.
*Make your own connections between reflection and writing--where does reflection fit into the writing process? To your writing process?
*Why is reflection "important" to you as a writer, a thinker, and a knowledge-maker?
DUE: Wednesday, June 25, 2014 by class time.
For me, Yancey best defined reflection "as the dialectical process by which we develop and achieve, first, specific goals for learning; second, strategies for reaching those goals; and third, means of determining whether or not we have met those goals or other goals." She connects reflection to composition by mentioning Pianko who states that the act of reflections during composing is indicated by a writer's pauses and rescannings, which distinguishes the able writers from the not so able.
ReplyDeleteReflection helps me in my writing process because it allows me to view it from multiple perspectives. Using the process of reflection will enable me to not only change how I have written, but it will also afford be the invaluable opportunity to discuss it with others. Through reflection I am able to discover what I know, what I have learned, and what I have yet to comprehend. I also think that the more we reflect on our work the more we will learn about how we think. By explaining myself to others I will be able to understand myself more clearly and discover what I like and don't like about the way I write. Thus, through reflection we become "agents of our own learning." I have also concluded from this reading that it is instrumental to enjoy what I am writing about before I begin to write.
From Yancey's opinion, reflection is "a mean of go[ing] beyond the text to include a sense of the ongoing conversations that texts enter into." Yancey connect reflection with composition in the way that reflection is " a means of bringing practice and theory together." During the process of composing, people could review their previous thoughts and may correct some of them and even develop some new ideas.
ReplyDeleteReflection helps me review my ideas and organize them in a more logical way. With reflection, I could be more conscious about my thoughts and then make my writing clearer. Also, by reading my reflection, others could get to know my thoughts and then we can exchange our ideas so that we might learn from each other or revise some mistakes. To sum up, reflection helps myself know what I have learned and what I am not sure. Reflection helps me develop my composition to be more comprehensive and logical.
I agree with your idea that reflection can help writers to understand themselves better because they can receive many opinions and critical advice from their readers. It also a good way for readers and writers to be more connected by reflections.
DeleteAs far as I am concerned, Yancey’s theory of reflection means that reflection is the unnecessary process to connect audience and writers with the critical and specific comments. In addition, reflection also includes the ongoing conversation beyond the text, which means it is the bridge to connect the audience and the writers. In this article, Yancey mentions that reflection contains three processes, which are goal setting, text revising, and the articulating of what learned has taken place. These processes help to build the connection with audience because accepting an argument in some writings needs a process like knowing and learning and therefore reflection. People need to know it and learn it, and they need to discuss it to understand it completely because the processes of explore the confused and misunderstood questions is the real goal of reflection in the writing.
ReplyDeleteI think reflection should fit into the end of the writing because readers will think what this writing talks about when people read it. It is very common process for everyman when they finish reading. And I think each writing needs a reflection in the end of the writing because the correspondent reflections really help readers to understand the whole writing by looking others’ responses or debates.
I think reflection is important because it can help me to explain my ideas or arguments more intelligent to my audience. Maybe some readers will feel confused by some points in my writing, but some others understand it and write it in the reflection. So that is really a good complementary for audience. It can also be called a win-win writing that writers can explain ideas fluently and readers can understand easily.
"Going beyond the text to include a sense of ongoing conversations that texts enter into."(5) This to me is the most appealing definition of reflection given by Yancey. I like this one because it clearly relates to composition in the sense that if a text makes you think as another person talking to you makes you think, you will likely go deeper into the subject purely out of interest in keeping the conversation going.
ReplyDeleteReflection fits into the writing process in a crucial way, personally I like to reflect on each little bit of my writings. It's crucial to do this because I find if I do, new ideas come to me more easily. It would seem in my case, that when I write I put the words down, but don't truly take time to asses what possible conversations they might lead into. I need to be more meticulous in my reflection because there are ideas I might never have if I don't take time to think.
Yancey reiterates multiple definitions of reflection, however, the one that stood out the most to me was referred to as post-process, that is to say that the “study of effects of larger discourse on students and postit ‘endpoints’ of earlier models… as sites for revision,” as well as reflection (4). Consequently I think that reflection is a process to view the growth of the writer, as well as the development of the rhetorical process. Yancey sees many people attempting to write who all possess the same characteristics, with a common trait, that they all had problems with their final composition. I think that good writing, for that reason, possesses different things every time, and reflection allows you to see what was successful and what was ineffective.
ReplyDeleteMetering your writing to determine what was a success and what was not allows your to better understand the situation that required you to bring about that device. Consequently you will draw more conclusions in the future and know when to adapt different situations to writings you have already completed. As an individual I believe reflection allows for the contemplation of things that we possibly didn’t notice the first time because of time constraints. Additionally I think that reflection doesn’t necessarily be something you sit down and set out to do, you can find yourself reflecting when something reminds you of what you were working on or sparks a better idea than one you had created earlier.
Additionally Yancey offers Schon’s theoretical perspective, in which new ways of thinking about a situation are derived directly from reflecting and knowing our own work (12). I think that this embodies the best quality of reflection, however, I don’t think that all reflection will yield new theories. I think that to some extent you can reflect all you want, but if you’re ignorant to a topic it will be irrelevant.
I agree with your idea that reflection is the good way to help people understand writing and create their own thinking or arguments. Reflection can be necessary or unnecessary which depends on the writing. If the writing is hard to understand, it may need some reflection; and if not, maybe reflection is not necessary.
DeleteYancey describes reflection many different ways, but the definition that stuck out to me the most was when she described that reflection is a “means of go[ing] beyond the text to include a sense of the ongoing conversations that texts enter into.” She connects reflection with composition by introducing the idea that reflection is a process that brings “practice and theory together.” Also, Yancey mentions that reflection is an important part of “learning and of writing specifically; articulating what we have learned for ourselves is a key process in that learning…” I think this is very vital in the composition process because it forces us, as writers and students of language, to reflect on our theory’s and analyze them and how they relate to ourselves as writers. Reflection has helped me a lot as a writer because it has forced me to look at others points of view and incorporate those ideas into my own thoughts. This process has helped me to gradually change my writing style and explore my ideas as a writer. Also, reflection has helped me to better organize my thoughts into a more cohesively composed piece that others are able to understand and comment on. Additionally, reflection has enabled me to think about and understand what I’ve learned as a writer and also question what I don’t know and how I can use others ideas to help me understand my own better. I also learned in this article that it is vitally important as a writer to enjoy what I’m writing about because then the ideas will flow in a cohesive composition that readers will understand clearly.
ReplyDeleteYancey gave several definitions for reflection, but whenever i think back into to the reading just two come to my mind. The first which says that reflection is a process of looking backward to decide what to do forward and the second which is a little more complex is that reflection "is a critical component of learning and of writing specially; articulating what we have learned for ourselves is a key process in that learning- in both school learning and out-of-school learning". In fact i believe that if she had placed one after another would be an easier way to give support to what she said in the second definition that i mentioned, besides the fact that follows the logos established by Aristotle. And by reading the second definition that i quoted form Yancey the connection between composing and reflection became clear, so during the writing process we would need review what we read, reflect about it in order to make it more concise, which sometimes could include small alterations or the inclusion of totally new ideas.
ReplyDeleteDuring my writing process the reflection comes when i am doing the outline because i don't like to read what i have wrote, i simply cannot enjoy it and that is one of the points about my writing that i need to change in order to make my writing better. I believe reflection is important because it doesn't matter what we are doing we always need to think back to make the right decision which is our usual reflection process and it helps us to make our points stronger or to make wise decisions.
One Yancey’s theory on reflection is divided in three, reflection in action, constructive reflection and reflection in presentation . She defines reflection in action as “the process of reviewing and projecting and revising, which takes place within a composing event and the associated texts”. While Constructive reflection is defined as “the process of developing a cumulative, multi-served, multi-voiced identity, which takes place between and among composing events…”. And finally defined reflection in presentation as “ the process of articulating the relationships between and among the multiple variable of writing and the writer in specific context…”. I identified heavily with this view on reflection because it was the closest to my own. While writing and re-reading anything I compose, after I feel I’ve finished with the writing I try to get an outside opinion/revision. I have found that this way you are able to get the most out of your time. Getting someone else to read your work can help you establish a better flow of the work. Finally, the last one goes hand in hand with reflection in action, I take into account my audience and I incorporate into the writing my audience for a more effective piece. Only after I have done all three will I feel confident enough with one of my compositions.
ReplyDeleteYancey defined reflection as a process by witch we establish goals, ways or strategies to achieve those goals and at least, look back and see if the goals were successfully achieved. She used other words such as projections, retrospection/review and revision to define this three step process. She related it to composition by saying that by using those three steps, people are able to develop/create, analyze and get more knowledge and at least deliver a good end product.
ReplyDeleteI relate this to my writing process because I see reflection as what people call "brainstorming". This process is very important because it helps me to get clear ideas, know that path I want to follow and in the end check if what I wrote is what I really wanted to pass to others.