National 5 – Writing Folio Personal and Reflective Writing

What is it? Personal About you About your experiences About your thoughts, feelings, opinions, ideas… Reveals your character, personality and thought processes

Main Requirements The essay will aim to interest or give pleasure, rather than simply convey information. It will concern itself with, usually, a single idea, insight or experience. Be thoughtful in tone and convey a sense of the writer’s personality, authorial voice & stance. Reveal the thought processes of the writer and engage the reader in the writer’s process of reflection

An Reflective essay is NOT simply an account of an experience. It must contain thoughtful reflection and be entertaining for the reader.

Summary Take a single personal experience, idea or insight as a starting point or stimulus Show writer’s interesting and/or entertaining thoughts on this central stimulus Develop thoughts and move out beyond immediate starting point to REFLECT in wider way on some aspect(s) of the experience, idea or insight. Something of writer’s personality will emerge from this process of reflection.

Process Pick an initial stimulus. Explore initial stimulus in an interesting and entertaining way. Move out and beyond initial stimulus to establish a thoughtful tone. Reveal aspects of the writer’s personality and thought processes.

Reflective Writing is still CREATIVE Use your style and specific literary techniques to create interest and effect within your essay: Imagery Word Choice Alliteration Onomatopoeia Symbolism Hyperbole Use of the senses Sentencing Punctuation

All Reflective essays should focus on some aspect of this The main focus of reflection should ultimately make some sort of point about how we live – what makes us tick What is it? The human condition is about how we live our lives and how human nature works It can be concerned with positive or negative aspects – how we behave, obstacles or challenges we encounter, how we react You should try to explore it in a unique and new way

Possible Stimuli/Tasks Choose from the following: Reflect on the Future and what you hope/want to achieve Reflect on the significance/importance of technology in your life Reflect on your heroes Reflect on something you are passionate about Reflect on a time you made a sudden discovery/realisation (epiphany)

The Future Our lives revolve around past/present/future – what is the importance of each? How important is the future at your stage in life? We are always looking ahead to the future but can we ever get there? Are we ever content in the present? Young look to future; old look to past. The future is unknown (another country/world) – does this make the future a scary thing? How do you view/treat/feel about the future?

The Future Introduce by reflecting on the significance of the future to you and to humans in general (use reflective ideas from last slide/quotation) Main Essay/Paragraphs: –Reflect on your thoughts and feelings about different aspects of your future (what you want to achieve/do – how you see your future) = Work/education, Personal life, Family/friends, hobbies/ambitions OR -Select one significant aspect you your life and chart how the past/present/future have set you up on a certain path OR -Look at an incident/occasion from your past which affected/changed the direction of your future – reflect on the incident itself and what it caused to happen Conclude by linking the focus of your essay back to a reflective point about your thoughts/feelings in relation to the future

Technology We live in an age of technology – could we live without it? How quickly does technology change? Has it always changed at this speed? Why are some people scared of technology? Are we better off now than our ancestors were because of technology? Do we rely too much on technology? Why/why not? What technologies were just being introduced when you were born/young? Are they still around now? Why do we as humans feel the need to keep advancing technology? What do you think future technology will look like? Are there any dangers of technology?

Technology Introduce by reflecting on the significance of technology in this day and age (use reflective ideas from previous slide/quotation) Main Essay/Paragraphs: –Write about the significance of 3-4 types of technology in your life (more or less depending on detail – could focus on one example if you can think of enough to reflect on) –Think about things that you couldn’t live without and why this is –Include the advantages and disadvantages of these technologies Conclude by linking the focus of your essay back to a reflective point about your thoughts/feelings in relation to the significance of technology in your life and in the lives of humans in general

Heroes What is a hero? What qualities does a hero have? Do our heroes change as we get older? Why? Is it important to have a hero? Why? Do ‘heroes’ know they are heroes? What sorts of heroes do we have when we are young? Are there different kinds of heroes?

Heroes Introduce by reflecting on what makes a hero and why having a hero is important/not important (use reflective ideas from previous slide/quotation). Main Essay/Paragraphs: –Write about the qualities of different types of heroes and why you think they are important –Reflect on the difference between heroes today and in the past – reflect on how your heroes have changed since you were a child –Identify and describe some of your current heroes – why are they your heroes –Reflect of the purpose of heroes – why we have heroes/why some people don’t Conclude by linking the focus of your essay back to a reflective point about your thoughts/feelings in relation to the significance of your hero(es) in your life and in the lives of humans in general

Passion What is passion? Where does it come from? How do we know when we are passionate about something? Is passion always a good thing? Can you be passionate in a negative way? What effects can passion have on people? How does it make people feel? What would life be like if nobody felt passionate about anything? Is it important to be passionate about things in life? Why/why not?

Passion Introduce by reflecting on the nature of passion – what it is/why it’s important and/or descriptively introducing your particular passion (use reflective ideas from last slide/quotation) Main Essay/Paragraphs: –Either focus on one particular passion and describe what it is like/give details of it, where it came from, your feelings relating to the passion and why you feel this way, the future of your passion and why others should feel passionate about it too OR -Explore a few of your passions (2-4) and try to explore some of the above points in relation to each one Conclude by reflecting on the significance of your passion in your life and, more generally, having passion in all our lives

An Epiphany What is an epiphany? What sorts of epiphanies/realisations do people go through as they grow up? Why do epiphanies happen? Do epiphanies always come from big, life- altering events? How do epiphanies make us feel? When do epiphanies happen?

An Epiphany Introduce by describing the moment of epiphany (without giving too much away about it and/or reflect on the significance of epiphanies/how they happen and what it is like when they do (use reflective ideas from last slide/quotation) Main Essay/Paragraphs: -Take us through the experience which lead to the epiphany, the moment of epiphany, how you felt at various stages, what it taught you/made you aware of and how it changed your wider perspective on things (what you discovered about yourself/life in general) OR -Describe a range of discoveries/epiphanies you have had throughout life: when you were a child, during early stages of school and more recently – compare and contrast the nature of these epiphanies and your thoughts/feelings in relation to each one Conclude by linking the focus of your essay back to a reflective point about the nature and significance of epiphanies – your own personal ones and in more general