The reflection genre is the writer's appraisal of an educational experience, as well as being the students' appraisal of their own reaction to this expe- rience. This makes a reflection a fruitful source of insight into students' feelings about the experience.
We begin this account with four extracts from the reflections of a rep- resentative from each of the four groups of students: Ntombifuthi (a female student who had attended a rural decile 7 school; schools below decile 9 are regarded as disadvantaged by the university);3 Michelle (a female student who had attended an advantaged urban decile 10 school);
Sizwe (a male student from a disadvantaged decile 7 school in a rural area); and finally Gareth (a male student from an advantaged urban decile 10 school).
APPRAISAL analysis of reflections 737
+
tenacity JUDGMENT2 - capacity JUDGMENT
3 - capacity JUDGMENT
4 - security AFFECT
5
+
tenacity JUDGMENT6 - capacity JUDGMENT
7
+
tenacity JUDGMENT8
+
satisfaction AFFECT9
+
capacity JUDGMENTFigure 3. APPRAISAL resources in Nthombifutlzi's reflection
(1) (An extract from Nthombifuthi's reflection)
It was very difficult to make a doll house. I tried my best [I] to know bow to do wiring but I got lost. [2]
The first thing I was struggling with [3] was the plan for my house, but at last I manage to do it. It took me three weeks to do wiring.
The first day I tried but the bulb did not light. It was the stress day for me [4] but I did not give up [5] and I came for next day. I con-
nected everything in order but the light didn't tum on. Ask help from other people but they did fail to do my house wiring. [6] But at last I put more effort [7] I changed everything and start from scratch like I never did it before finally my doll house work.
I can say I learnt a lot from this course. I'm so proud [8] that I can be able to connect electricity, all those year I thought that boys are the only one who know how to do wiring. [9]
Figure 3 shows that in a way that our data found to be typical of female
students from a disadvantaged educational background, Nthombifuthi
judged herself as lacking in capacity for the task (particularly when com- pared with male students) but as a person who perseveres, trying repeat- edly until she was successful. In Figure 3 we code the way we analyzed each instance of APPRAISAL in Nthombifuthi's reflection. The
+
and - signs refer to whether in each instance of APPRAISAL the writer appraises the experience positively or negatively.(2) (An extract from Michelle's reflection)
I must say that this was one of the hardest and most challenging assignments I ever had to do! [1] It was a lot of hard work and it was incredibly time consuming and finicky. [2] Nevertheless, it was vety interesting to see how electricity works. [3]
738 James Mackay and Jean Parkinson
1 - composition: complexity APPRECIATION
2 - composition: complexity APPREClA TION
3
+
reaction: impact APPRECIATION4
+
satisfaction AFFECT5 - composition: complexity APPRECIATION
6 T*
+
tenacity JUDGMENT7
+
reaction: impact APPRECIATION8 - disinclination AFFECT
9 T - insecurity AFFECT
10 - disinclination AFFECT
11
+
tenacity JUDGMENT12 - dissatisfaction AFFECT
13 - unhappiness AFFECT
14
+
satisfaction AFFECT15
+
happiness AFFECT16
+
satisfaction AFFECT* T stands for "token" of attitude, or evoked instance of APPRAISAL
Figure 4. APPRAISAL resources in Michelle's reflection
Firstly I built the dolls house out of balsa wood which was lots of fun. [4] Gluing the house together was a bit tricky, [5] I needed 4
arms to hold everything in place. But I made a plan [6] and it turned out great. [7)4 Then came the most daunting part of the whole assign- ment [8] ... I was getting grey hairs over the wiring [9] because I thought to myself, I can't even wire a plug, how the hell am I going to wire a dolls house with lights and an alarm system .. . ?! [1 O] But after getting some much needed guidance, I sat down at my desk and began to figure this thing out. [ 11) After wiring every room, I fi- nally got the chance to connect the wiring to the battery to see if it worked. And wallah ... only 2 of the 4 room lights were working. [12]
What a bummer! [13) So I sorted that problem out and then tried again. AIJ the lights came on this time and the main switch was work- ing pe,fectly. [14) I think that was the most exciting and relieving mo- ment of my life. [15] I'd done it! [16]
As was characteristic in our data among female students from an advan- taged educational background, Michelle uses a good deal of AFFECT, both positive and negative, and expresses herself strongly for academic writing including exclamation marks, expressions such as "what a bummer!", strong epithets as in "incredibly finicky" and apparent exaggerations such as "most exciting and relieving moment of my life". In Figure 4 we indicate how we analyzed Michelle's reflection.
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
APPRAISAL analysis of reflections 739
+
Composition: balance+
capacity+
reaction: impact+
satisfaction+
satisfaction+
propriety+
capacity+
capacity /satisfaction: admiration+
Composition: balance+
valuation+
capacityAPPRECIATION JUDGMENT APPREClA TION AFFECT AFFECT JUDGMENT JUDGMENT
JUDGMENT
I
AFFECTAPPRECIATION APPRECIATION JUDGMENT
Figure 5. APPRAISAL resources in Sizwe's reflection
(3) (Sizwe's reflection)
The course is well planned and it is interesting [1] because of the lec- turer. He explained everything in such a way that he opened our mind and made things easy for us. [2]
But what was interesting is that we did a practical work [3] that makes us feel comfortable with the course [4] and when I had a prob- lem my lecturer help me to solve that problem and I learn a lot about electricity and J enjoy the course. [5]
I would like to thank my lecturer for being patient [6] because for the first time I experience some few problems because it was the first time to me to do electricity but I found it easier during the course. [7]
The problem I had is to differentiate positive and negative and how to connect it. So now I can say I can do better. [8]
The course should be continue and it is relevant to the life situation [9] and it is helpful. [I OJ To be a teacher does not mean that you can- not understand about electricity. [11]
Text (3) (analyzed in Figure 5) shows that Sizwe's reflection is interper- sonally positive, as characteristic of the reflections of male students from a disadvantaged educational background. Positive APPRAISAL resources include AFFECT, JUDGMENT, and APPRECIATION equally. In his reflection Sizwe praises the course and the lecturer. Such solidarity with the lecturer was distinctive in the reflections of this group, and combined with the fi- nal sentence of his reflection implies that the lecturer is a positive model for Sizwe, who is building a new identity for himself as a knowledgeable, competent teacher.
740 James Mackay and Jean Parkinson
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
+
satisfaction T+
inclination+
valuation- Composition: complexity
+
reaction: quality+
satisfaction - capacity+
inclination+
valuationAFFECT AFFECT APPRECIA TfON APPRECIATION APPRECIATION AFFECT JUDGMENT AFFECT APPRECIATION
Figure 6. APPRAISAL resources used in Gareth's reflection
(4) (Gareth's reflection)
When I was young I was always fascinated by electricity; [1] I re- member my uncle making a Dolls house for his daughter, and / never thought I would have the opportunity tn make one myself. [2]
Truly this was an amazing project; [3] from the outlook when you look at a circuit diagram it looks complicated. [4] But once you get down to making it, it is extremely fun. [5] I really enjoyed using the soldering iron and the glue gun. [6] I guess because you see instant results using them.
The thing that I found the most challenging was the alarm system [7] as I forgot to put it into the house instantly and so everything was painted and set up and then I had to try and figure out how I was going to put in a buzzer. The project has encouraged me to make an even bigger house and add to it a lot more accessories. [8]
I really feel this project was appropriate [9] and I learnt a lot that I can take into the exam to help me get better marks. Thanx.
Characteristic of the reflections of male students from an advantaged educational background is the positive AFFECT and APPRECIATION that predominated. Text (4) (analyzed in Figure 6) reflects Gareth's positive assessment of the project ("amazing", "extremely fun") and his enjoy- ment in doing it, which extends to repeating the project on his own with
"a lot more accessories". Interestingly, the reflection contains evidence of a social model achieving similar behavior ("I remember my uncle making a Dolls house").
It will be noted from the above discussion that almost all instances of
APPRAISAL are inscribed rather than evoked. In the whole corpus only 14 instances out of 551 in total were evoked rather than inscribed. This may be because expression of feelings is expected in the reflection genre and, familiar with this genre because it is commonly used in their studies, stu-
APPRAISAL analysis of reflections 741
dents felt comfortable with explicit expression of emotion. Another factor is the relative shortness of the reflections (mean length 185 words), so that evoked meanings cannot easily have been cued by explicit lexis earlier in the text.
4. APPRAISAL resources used by four groups: quantitative and