Student Reflection and Critical Thinking: A Rhetorical Analysis of 88 Portfolio Cover Letters

This research is an analysis of88 first-year portfolio cover letters from the Spring 2000 English 102 Program Assessment at the University of Nevada, Reno. This analysis focuses on what these students viewed as the rhetorical purposes of cover letters. The goal of this study was to apply the theories of Aristotle, Toulmin, and Burke to these letters to analyze their appellate, argumentative, and performative nature. The results of the study suggest that, while a majority of the student writers reviewed what they had learned, offered support for portfolio choices, and supplied information about learning, they did not often reach a level that demonstrated metacognitive ability by examining assumptions about writing and thinking. It is possible that the genre of the portfolio cover letter and its role in reflection need to be reexamined and redefined. As a basic writing and first-year composition teacher, as well as a former basic writing program coordinator, I have found that students often use the term" critical thinking" as a sort of linguistic buzz word, having little idea how to accomplish this "critical" skill. Students often find critical thinking to be a foreign and difficult task, perhaps because it differs educationally from finding a single right answer. As one student puts it," critical thinking doesn't seem to get me anywhere." Such students can find this kind of analysis time-consuming and confusing, especially when there are several options or avenues from which to choose. Because our society encourages forward progress and quick fixes and because critical thinking requires stepping back self-critically from the task itself to determine the best course of action, students may struggle with thinking critically. Critical thinking requires students to stretch themselves intellectually and psychologically, possibly taking two steps back before taking one forward. It requires students to dig and take apart their decision-making and justify their actions. According to composition research, one of the ways to encourage this type of cognitive digging is to have students participate in reflective writing. Reflective thinking and writing, as Kathleen Blake Yancey has postulated, can contribute to a student's understanding of accomplishment Laurel L. Bower received her doctorate in rhetoric/composition from the University of Nevada, Reno, in May 2003. She is based in Boise, Idaho, and is presently writing full-time. She hopes to obtain a teaching position in Idaho in the future. © Journal of Basic Writing, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2003