Personal Reflective Essay(Folio Item)

Higher/Intermediate 2 English

Stepping up your Skills

Now that you are in “Senior English” the examiners will be looking for:

• Content that is sufficiently substantial to allow real depth of thought and reflection

• Structure that leads the reader convincingly and satisfyingly through your experience

• Expression and vocabulary that brings alive your experience

• Technical accuracy with spelling, grammar, punctuation … and variety in sentence structure.

What shall I write about?

Event-Driven Experience: e.g.

• a happy/ disastrous holiday

• Your time staying in a different country

• A family situation such as wedding, divorce, birth, illness, death

• Moving house/country

• A time when you were successful or unsuccessful

An Emotion-Driven Experience:

• A time when you first experienced real anger, fear, isolation, prejudice, jealousy, shame or disappointment.

• A photograph, old song or object often triggers these strong memories…. And may also be linked back to an event.

A Relationship-Driven Experience:

Changes in a particular relationship brought about by:

• Growing up

• Alteration in a relationship either for the better/worse

• How you felt let down by a relationship that you thought you could count on.

PERSONAL REFLECTIVE ESSAY

(FOLIO ITEM)

TEXTUAL FEATURES STRUCTURAL FEATURES

= words you use. = how you set it out.

Textual Features(Words you use)

• Word Choice – strong, emotional words are needed to reflect your thoughts and create an atmosphere. Use a thesaurus to help you.

• Imagery – Try to use poetic devices such as metaphor, similes, onomatopoeia, personification so that the reader can “see, feel, smell and hear” what you are describing.

• Tone – you choice of words will also reveal how you feel about the topic … anger, resentment, amusement, confusion etc.

Most Importantly ….

Content: Chose a topic that is not limited in scope – you

need to be able to explore and explain• Your feelings at the time• Your reactions at the time• Your reflections when looking back at this

event• Examine how the event has shaped the

person you have become … is this a good thing or a bad thing?

PERSONAL REFLECTIVE ESSAY

Personal Event + Reflective Analysis

Structural Features(How your Essay should look and flow)

Introduction: You need to capture the readers’ attention with the first sentence.

Chronological Start – this is where you write your story in chronological order (start at the beginning of the event and continue) and build up the experience as it evolves.“It was Tuesday when the letter arrived.

Flash-Forward Start. This is where you start in the middle of a really exciting bit to catch attention … then move backwards in time to give the necessary information needed for full understanding.“The slamming door reminded me that this relationship was over before it ever really started.

“The music seemed to share my tears and heart ache as I said my final goodbye.

Body Paragraphs:

• Use a strong statement (topic sentence) at the beginning of each paragraph to help you focus your ideas on the experience you are going to explore in the rest of that paragraph.

• Try to make a reflective comment somewhere in each paragraph to help the reader understand the significance of the experience.

Conclusion: (Also known as “deep and meaningful time!!)

• This is where you stand back from the events and experiences that you have been describing.

• You have the advantage of time now and you can compare your present feelings with what you felt at the time.

• The broader the gap between the two, the greater your maturity may seem to have developed. (i.e. try to sound wise and all-knowing in your conclusion!!)

Structural Features(How your Essay should Look)

Word Length:Intermediate 2: Min 500 Max 1000Higher: Min 650 Max 1300

Presentation:• Neatly handwritten or typed:• 12 pt standard font (Times New Roman or Ariel)• Black• Alignment should be left or justified• Line Spacing – SQA recommends 1.5 line spacing.

TYPE IT UP FOR ME (SAVE IT), HAND IT IN .. I WILL COMMENT … YOU EDIT … AND SUBMIT

Handout

Place handout in the Folio Section of your Ring Binders.

Due Date: MUST be 100% complete and perfect by December.(Sooner is MUCH better as there will be OTHER assessment work to focus on as well)

Why are you looking at me like that????

Start planning your

Personal Reflective Essay