Reflective Essay : Writing 1

Draft Due by 12:10, Wednesday Sept. 23

Final Draft Due in Teams, Monday Oct. 5

Prompt: Choose one of the creative projects you have done in this class and write reflectively about your own creative process. Reference ideas from one or more of the texts we have discussed thus far in this course, and how they might have informed your thinking and/or process.

Projects:

Generative Drawing

Abstracted Collage

Texts:

Carol Dweck: Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

Syed: How Creativity is Helped by Failure

Gilbert: Your Elusive Creative Genius

Kentridge: The Creative Process of a Master Artist

Steps:

• Describe the project and the particular creative process that you used to achieve your final results: what steps did you take from start to finish?

• Discuss the ideas from your chosen course texts and reflect on how they related to your own experience (or not). When you reference the texts you must cite them properly using parenthetical in-text citation, and a Works Cited page at the end of the document according to MLA style.

• Reflect thoughtfully on your experience, what you have learned, and how you might be thinking slightly differently now about the subject of creativity.

Questions to consider: **(These are suggestions ONLY to spark your thought process for this paper. Do Not give us simply a list of answers to these questions. Keep in mind, the general structure of reflective writing is to discuss (a) What? (b) So what? (c) Now what?

  1. Did you have any “happy accidents” or unexpectedly great results due to a “mistake” as you were working?
  2. How was your process “iterative”? Did it lead to a secondary process?
  3. Were your final results a complete surprise to you, or were they expected?
  4. Did you have previous experience with this creative process that effected the choices you made and the results you got?
  5. What did you learn about yourself from going through the steps to complete this project?
  6. Did completing this project cause you to think differently about creativity?

Learning Goals:

• To think reflectively about creativity from the computer science lens, and from the fine art lens.

• To synthesize the content presented in the course in relationship to your own experience executing a creative project.

• To accomplish an organized, well-written, 3-page reflective essay with proper citations.

Timeline:

9/23: First draft due by the start of class (12:10pm). The class will workshop the drafts on this day.

10/5: Final draft due as a PDF file* copied to the “Homework” tab in your Class Notebook in our “TEC: Creativity (BIG GROUP) Team.

*Most text editors (Word, Pages, etc.) support an option to “Export to PDF”, usually in the File menu. If you need help with this step, just ask!

Format and paper mechanics:

  • Your paper should be 3 double-spaced pages and typed in 12 point Times New Roman font.

  • Include your name, assignment title, and the date on the first page. No cover/title page.

  • When you reference texts (articles, websites, books, etc.,) in your essay you must include in-text parenthetical citations and a Works Cited Page at the end of the paper. Use MLA style. Proper citation is critical to avoid plagiarism. You are responsible for knowing what plagiarism is and for avoiding it. The Online Writing Lab at Purdue is an excellent resource for proper citation methods– you can go to this website to read more about the various citation styles: purdue owl