Reflective Essay
1. What are reflective essays?
Reflective writing requires you to look back at or reflect on an experience or a situation and to offer your points of view on it. In university, you may be asked to write reflectively for the purposes of an assignment, formalising your thinking to show that learning is taking place. For example, this may involve evaluating an event/ experience and analysing its impacts; or reflecting on articles you have read and linking theories with real-world practice. In this case, you should not merely describe what happened or re-interpret the concept. You need to show a clear line of thought, analysing, questioning, interpreting and evaluating the experience from your perspectives, and using evidence or examples to illustrate your reflections. By doing this, you could develop new insights and perspectives, which will in turn challenge your existing beliefs and affect your future actions.
About this website
EWRite is an open access online literacy platform for PolyU community that has two major objectives:
- to support PolyU students’ literacy development within and across the disciplines
- to support subject and language teachers to implement system-level measures for integrating literacy-sensitive pedagogies across the university
This platform provides access to generic genre guides representing typical university assignments as well as links to subjects offered by faculties with specific disciplinary genres and relevant support materials.
The materials can be retrieved by students by choosing the genres that interest them on the landing page. Each set of materials includes a genre guide, genre video, and a genre checklist. The genre guide and video are to summarize the genres in two different ways (i.e. textual and dynamic) to fit different learning styles. The genre checklist is for students to self-regulate their writing process. The genre guide and checklist include links to various ELC resources that can provide further explanation to language items (e.g. hedging and academic vocabulary).
The platform also acts as a one-stop-shop for writing resources for students, language teachers and subject leaders. Information about the English Writing Requirement policy can also be found on this platform. There are training materials for new colleagues joining the EWR Liaison Team.
