must provide specific evidence H u m a n i t i e s

This essay serves as your introduction for your portfolio to the English instructors who will evaluate it. Below is a slightly-edited standard prompt for this essay from the De Anza English department. If you carefully follow the instructions on this prompt, your reflective essay should be recognizable to the English instructors who will evaluate it. Please note that the reflective essay will not need citations or a works cited page if you only refer to essays that you have written.

Sample Prompt for Reflective Essay (take-home)

Content: Write an essay of 2-3 pages to look back on your progress in writing this quarter and explain why you have succeeded in EWRT1A. This goes in the front of your portfolio, as an introduction to your work for the teachers evaluating the portfolio.

Review all the work you’ve done for the class. Consider how the essays in the portfolio show your readiness for your next writing class (either EWRT 2, COMM 9, or PHIL 3). Give specific examples from these essays to show your improvements.

Your overall purpose is to demonstrate how your writing, reading, thinking and studenthood have changed as a result of what you have learned in this class. You must provide specific evidence for your claims, meaning quotes from your essays or detailed descriptions of specific events or processes.

• Discuss what you have learned as a writer in EWRT 1A. This might include practice in organization, analysis, development, vivid examples, construction of better sentences, proofreading, writing process, and so on. (This is 1-2 paragraphs after your introduction.)
• Writing is learning. To demonstrate how this worked in your case, choose two topics from your writing, and explain how your understanding of these issues changed as a result of reading and writing about them. What did you understand or believe about these two issues before EWRT 1A, and how do you see those issues now? How does that impact your personal, career or academic life? Give an example for each topic. (This is at least two substantial paragraphs)
• What still needs improvement? Write about what you’d still like to work on with your writing. Remember that all of us are still trying to be better writers, so what are you going to focus on in COMM 9, EWRT 2, or PHIL 3 and beyond? (This is your conclusion.)

Audience: De Anza English teachers

What we’re looking for in the reflective essay:

• Clear organization
• Well-developed, focused paragraphs that show critical thinking about your own writing and learning process
• Specific examples, details
• Well-constructed sentences
• Correct grammar and punctuation
• Form: typed, double-spaced