Brief/Essay question: Reflect on the process of collating the scrapbook.
There are many (unlimited, even) ways in which you could interpret this brief, and reflect on different aspects of the scrapbooking process. For example, you could reflect on:
- on your own positionality in relation to the project
- your engagement with the scrapbooking process
- the emotional energy involved in working with the material
- your views on the topic and how they changed or stayed the same as time went on
- how your knowledge of the topic changed over the course of the project
- how your understanding of your topic was influenced by one or more of the core concepts
All of these aspects of reflection are equally valid, and will be viewed and marked equally.[unique_solution]
Please note, it is not possible to share previous examples of reflective essays with students, because of the personal information they contain, which would not be appropriate to share in a class context. However, I have compiled some points of further guidance below:
- Revisit lecture 2: Violence, Abuse and Situated Knowledge, which discusses feminist standpoint perspectives/positionality, and includes some material on the reflective essay. It is also worth re-visiting the suggested reading for this lecture – the Bragg and Buckingham (2008) article, which discusses some of the rationale and ‘benefits’ of scrapbooking.
- Write in the first person – so use ‘I’ rather than ‘this paper/essay’, and you do not have to use as formal academic language as you might normally do (although you can if you wish).
- Try to make sure you prioritise reflecting on the scrapbooking process, so do not only describe what you did (but you will need to have some description, so we know what you are reflecting on). Typically, reflecting involves an exploration and explanation of events/processes – engaging with them critically, or reflecting on why they are significant. Just like you would in an essay (or scrapbook!), try to make your reflections nuanced and multifaceted, to demonstrate the depth of your understanding and reflective insights and analysis.
- Structuring your essay – because a reflective essay is different to your typical academic essay, you do not have to stick to the standard academic essay format (although, again, you can if you wish). Primarily we will be marking for clarity and the coherent organisation of your writing.
- Including personal information and experiences – if you want to you can include reflections relating to your personal experiences, such as experiences relating to violence and abuse. We neither encourage nor discourage this, it is entirely up to you and what you want to include in this reflective assignment.
- Academic references and referencing – you might wish to draw on academic references in your reflective essay, for example if you choose to discuss your engagement with the core concepts, or academic literature relating to violence and abuse, scrapbooking (e.g. Bragg and Buckingham 2008), or academic works on positionality and knowledge (e.g. see lecture 2). If you do draw upon academic literature you will need to use in-text citations and produce a bibliography like you would for any academic assignment (see the referencing guide on Duo for more details). ** Please do not ask how many references we are expecting for this assignment, because each assignment submission will be so different, and there is no right answer to this/how long is a piece of string etc!
Please note that there are no further guidelines to give beyond the guidance posted here and the essay marking criteria (available in the assignments tab). You are not expected to know anything more about the assessment – so just like with the scrapbooks, there is no ‘secret formula’. Please try not to get caught up/bogged down by the small details, all we want to see is your interpretation of the brief. If you follow the guidance posted here, there is no right or wrong way of drafting your essay.