The Final Reflective Essay

The purpose of this essay is to explain how the assignments you chose for the portfolio show your learning process and progress in Freshman Inquiry.

The essay of approximately 1500 words, written in first person, must be double-spaced and proofread. In your essay, using specific items from your portfolio as support and examples, you will briefly describe the elements you chose to include in your portfolio and explain how they relate to or show the points you are making in your essay: what you have learned about each of the four University Studies goals this year and how the assignments in the portfolio demonstrate your learning. Consider the audience for this essay, who will include Frinq faculty as well as possibly other Frinq students.

In this final essay support your ideas with examples from your portfolio. For example, when discussing communication, you might describe how working on revising a particular assignment helped you better understand how to write for different audiences, or in pondering critical thinking, you might describe how another assignment challenged your preconceived ideas about a topic. Please clearly refer to these assignments in the essay and include them in your portfolio.

As you write and shape your essay, think about how best to organize it. Does it make more sense to order the information chronologically? From most to least important point? From struggles to breakthroughs? In other words, don’t just free associate. Organize your essay into a logical order that best fits the points you are trying to make.

This essay is about what you learned not about what you liked.