APPLIED REFLECTIVE QUESTION

Applied Reflective Questions (ARQs)

Due Date: November 20th

Points: 10 points

Purpose: Reflect on the cognitive aspects of writing. Use the experience of the student in the prompt to reflect on your own writing behaviors and use those reflections to further your understanding about language production.

 

Skills You Will Use:

1. Apply Cognitive thinking to explain everyday behavior.

2. Identify the typical mistakes that novices make when learning the skill of writing.

3. Connect language production to other cognitive processes discussed in previous chapters.

 

Knowledge You Will Use: In this assignment you will asked to apply your understanding of language production, specifically as it pertains to the skill of writing. Furthermore, I am expecting to see you tie some of this knowledge back to other cognitive processes discussed in previous chapters.

 

Criteria for Success:

· A short response to the prompt below that appropriately integrates the chapter concepts into their answer. Merely listing chapter terms without appropriate explanation or using them incorrectly can result in reduction of points.

· Student should demonstrate a thoughtful application of the concepts to the prompt below.

· An originally written response; any response that is partially or fully written by someone else may result in academic misconduct or penalties.

· No more than two or three paragraphs. Use 12pt standard font (e.g., Times New Roman, Calibri, etc.). Either double or single spaced is fine.

· Document must be Word Doc or PDF; any other format will be an automatic 0.

· Do not include the prompt or questions in your submitted document.

 

Prompt/questions on back…

 

Chapter 10: Christof the Wordsmith

Christof has recently started college and is having the familiar student experience of getting overwhelmed with the amount of writing he must do. He has become disheartened at his own ability and is convinced that he is bad writer.

In his latest assignment he changed a few behaviors. He started the paper one day before it was due rather than waiting for the night before. After every sentence he wrote, he checked for spelling and grammar errors. He even read through his whole paper once immediately after he finished writing it.

To his surprise, after it was graded, the paper came back with another poor result. He still made some spelling and grammar mistakes, but he also received comments that said the writing “did not convey a clear argument”. His professor added that “certain paragraphs were unclear or did not flow together.”

At this point, Christof is sure he does not have the intelligence to write well in college.

TASK: Thinking about Language Production, answer the following questions about Christof. As always, bold a concept or relevant phrase in your responses.

1. Think about the following questions related to Christof’s writing experience. Write a paragraph addressing all of the following:

a. According to the research discussed on writing, how does Christof’s behavior compare to what novice writers typically do?

b. There are different stages of writing. In which stage of writing was Christof implementing changes in?

c. What did he do during this stage? What should he have done to perform better?

2. What makes writing cognitively challenging? Describe mental processes related to the task.

3. Christof is frustrated he missed many spelling errors in his paper.

a. Give a cognitive explanation for why he may have missed those errors in his paper.

b. What can he do to improve his ability to catch those mistakes next time?

4. Bonus (0.5 pts): A common mistakes people make when writing is a homophone replacement error. This occurs when we substitute words like their for there, or right for write.

a. How can you cognitively explain why we make replacement error?

b. Hint: think about how we accessed the word we choose to write down.

Overall Hint: Remember that language is tied to other processed; it is a higher-level ability. You should think about some concepts or terms discussed in Chapters 2, 4, & 9.