L216: LAMP Sophomore Seminar

Business and the Humanities

Topic:  The Price of Prosperity

Paper V:          Individual Reflective Paper

Length:            4–5 pages

Due:                Electronically by e-mail attachment no later than 5 p.m., Tuesday, May 6.

Introduction

The purpose of the individual reflective paper is to give you an opportunity to make personal sense of all your hard work on the final project, and indeed, in our class all semester.  This paper is not intended to be an analytical synthesis (like the papers we have written  thus far), but rather more a journal-style personal reflection in which you narrate your thought processes and discoveries as you and your group shaped the business that you presented.

Assignment

In 4–5 pages, write a reflective paper in which you explain the process by which you and your group arrived at the business proposed.  Although your paper will be reflective and personal, it should nevertheless be academically rigorous.  In other words, you should discuss the texts and discussions in class that had the greatest impact on you.  To do so, you should refer specifically (i.e. quote and cite) to ideas from class discussions, the intellectual work of your peers, your own papers, the work of Ritzer, Barber, other texts, and so on. 

Part of your individual reflection should also include a consideration of the collaborative process:  you should explain how you worked together as a group and what you, and perhaps others, learned in the process.  For instance, what did you learn about working with others?  What did you learn about yourself?  If you were going to do another such project, what might you do differently?  You may wish to consult the Group Presentation Evaluation Sheet that has the summarized comments of your peer judges and your Group Presentation grade as you write this part of the individual reflective paper.  You will receive this information from me via e-mail attachment by Friday, May 2.

To conclude this reflective paper, I would be interested in hearing how you see this course impacting your life as you look to the future.  In what ways are you more aware?  How will you consume differently?  Do you see the world in new and different ways?  Have you developed new appreciations?  new skepticisms?

Grading

The most successful papers will discuss the ideas that generated the groups’ final project and tie them specifically to texts and discussions in class.  It will be evident that the author has spent considerable time reflecting on the overall meaning of the course and the course activities.  The reader will also see how the author’s thoughts and actions have been affected by the course.  The essay will be coherent and structured such that a reader may understand how the course and its content have helped the author to grow in understanding about “the price of prosperity.”

Less successful papers will lack unity and seem disjointed or rambling.  It will seem that the paper was written without much reflection.  Alternately, the comments about what the author has learned may seem forced or disingenuous (dishonest).  The less fortunate essay will jump from idea to idea without transition such that the reader has difficulty understanding how the author has made personal sense of the course.