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Reflective Essay Examples

50 best reflective essay examples (+topic samples).

If you have ever read reflective essay examples, you would know that these types of written works examine the writer’s life experiences . When you write a reflective paper example, you write about your own experiences and explore how you’ve changed, grown or developed because of those experiences. There’s no standard format for this essay as it may vary depending on the target audience.

Table of Contents

• 1 Reflective Essay Examples
• 2 What is a reflective essay?
• 3 Reflective Paper Examples
• 4 Format of reflective essay
• 5 Creating the outline of reflective essay examples
• 6 Reflective Paper Samples
• 7 Tips for writing reflective essay
• 8 Reflective Essay Samples

What is a reflective essay?

A reflective essay is a type of written work which reflects your own self. Since it’s about yourself, you already have a topic to write about. For reflective essay examples, readers expect you to evaluate a specific part of your life. To do this, you may reflect on emotions, memories, and feelings you’ve experienced at that time.

Since you’re writing reflection essay samples about yourself, make sure that they’re interesting and exciting. This is very important so that your readers don’t get bored with what you’ve written. Reflective essays are very personal thus, they’re a special type of essay. As you write one, you need to reflect, think, and explain.

In the essay, you should demonstrate and describe different feelings or emotions which you’ve felt in the past. These statements breathe life into your essay as your readers start picturing what you’ve written in their minds. Reflective essays are very honest, personal, and emotional, especially those which describe painful experiences.

Reflective Paper Examples

Format of reflective essay

As aforementioned, reflective essay examples don’t have a standard format. They seem easy enough to write but once you’ve sat down to start writing, you may suddenly find the task very challenging! Besides the format, you must think about the life experience you want to write about and remember everything about it.

A reflective paper example is a lot like a personal journal or diary. Of course, the difference is that other people will read your essay. Therefore, you must write it with good structure and coherence. In this regard, reflective essays are a lot like the other types of essays too.

When writing a reflective essay, you will have to examine your own life experiences. The purpose of writing such an essay is to provide yourself with a platform to share your most meaningful life experiences with other people. You can also use it as a way to explore how your experiences have changed you as a person.

You can present reflective writing in different formats. Most of the time though, people use a learning log or a diary entry format. You can use these formats and others. Just make sure that your essay has a good flow and that it’s easy for other readers to understand.

The format to use for your reflection essay samples would depend on your target audience. You can make an academic reflective essay or you can make it as a general and informal piece of writing. If you need to write the essay for a class assignment, follow the format given to you by your teacher.

No matter what format you choose, you may write an essay which:

• Focuses on your personal growth Such an essay helps you learn how to evaluate and analyze the experiences you have had in your personal life. This helps promote emotional development and growth. It also helps you understand yourself and your behaviors better.
• Focuses on literature For this type of essay, you may have to include references to literature and apply these to your own life experiences. Such essays are commonly given as assignments to students in school.

Creating the outline of reflective essay examples

Before you write your reflective essay examples, you must create an outline for them. Although you’d write about your own life, creating an outline gives structure to your essay to serve as a guide for what you want to write about.

Whether you need to write an essay for school, for a magazine or for any other reason, creating an outline is the very first step. With a good outline, you have a better idea of how your essay will flow from one paragraph to the next all the way to the conclusion.

When creating the outline of your reflective paper example, keep it organized. Develop the outline gradually and put a lot of thought into it. In doing this, you make the writing process much easier. Here is a rundown of the steps involved in the essay-writing process:

• Choose a topic (a significant life experience you want to write about)
• Gather information
• Create an outline
• Write a draft
• Finalize your essay

Reflective Paper Samples

Tips for writing reflective essay

As you think about the content of your reflection essay samples, remember that the important thing is that such an essay must be highly personal but also engaging to readers. There’s so much more to reflective essays than just writing your story. You must also reflect on your experiences to engage your audiences.

For your starting point, think about the most significant experiences you had in your life. Those which had either a negative or a positive impact on you as a person. If the reflective essay is a school assignment, your professor would probably specify what you must write about. Here are some tips for you for writing your reflective paper example:

• Reflection The most important part of writing your reflective essay is the reflective process. Think about the personal experience you want to write about. Focus on what happened, how this experience made you feel, and how it affected your life. Explore your memories and emotions for this part of the process. As you’re recalling and reflecting on your life experience, take a lot of notes . Write down all the details you remember and try to be as clear and as detailed as you possibly can. Take as much time as you need for reflection. You can even close your eyes as you try to remember those experiences vividly. When you’re confident that you have recalled all of the details of your life experience, it’s time to write your essay. To make it more meaningful, try to answer some important questions about your life experience including: Did you learn anything new about yourself because of this experience? Have you grown or developed because of this experience? If so, in what way? Did this experience impact your life positively or negatively? If you had the chance to experience this all over again, would you do anything differently? Why did you behave in such a way at the time of this experience? Did you make the right choices? What are your general thoughts and feelings about this experience? Can you say that you learned from this experience? Did you gain any new perspectives or skills because of this experience? These are “signpost questions” which can help you write a more meaningful essay. These are just some examples, you can also think of your own questions to ask yourself. The point of these questions is to make sure that you think critically and deeply about the experience you’re writing about.
• Planning After you’ve reflected on your life experience, it’s time to start planning your essay. When it’s time to start, you might feel as if you’re not adequately prepared even though you’ve done a lot of reflection. This is a normal feeling, especially if you want to create a written piece which people will love reading. To ease your anxiety and doubt, come up with a well-rounded and comprehensive plan. The best way to do this is through an outline. With an outline to guide your writing process, you can come up with an essay that’s more coherent and which has a clear structure. An outline or plan is important for reflective essays. Since you’re writing about an emotionally-charged topic, you might find yourself getting “lost” along the way. This is especially true if you’re writing about a painful experience which still affects you until now. The outline serves as a map for you to keep your thoughts organized. In your outline, make sure to establish all of the fundamental details you wish to include in your essay. This helps you pick out and remove any superfluous information to make it easier to read and understand. Planning the points you want to write about makes it easier for you to stay on point. As such, your writing becomes a lot clearer and your readers can follow your line of thought. An outline also prevents you from missing out any relevant information. It’s very difficult and frustrating to go back after you’ve written the whole essay just to fit in this information! Planning your essay also saves you a lot of time. Coming up with the structure makes you more familiar with your essay even before you start writing it. Thus, you can spend more time writing, revising, and proofreading your essay to make it the best version possible.

Reflective Essay Samples

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How to Write a Reflective Essay

You’re probably used to responding to different sources in essays. For example, in an academic essay, you might compare two books’ themes, argue for or against a position, analyze a piece of literature, or persuade the reader with facts and statistics.

In one way, a reflective essay is similar to an academic essay. Like an academic essay, a reflective essay can discuss ideas and concepts from books, literature, essays, or articles. However, unlike an academic essay, it focuses on how your personal experience relates to these things.

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What is a reflective essay?

Reflective essays are a type of personal essay in which the writer examines a topic through the lens of their unique perspective. Reflective essays are more subjective about their subjects than an academic essay, use figurative language, and don’t require academic sources. The purpose of a reflective essay is to explore and share the author’s thoughts, perspectives, and experiences.

Reflective essays are often written for college applications and cover letters as a way for the writer to discuss their background and demonstrate how these experiences shaped them into an ideal candidate. For example, a college applicant might write a reflective essay about how moving every few years because of their parent’s military service impacted their concept of home.

Sometimes, reflective essays are academic assignments. For example, a student may be assigned to watch a film or visit a museum exhibition and write a reflective essay about the film or exhibition’s themes. Reflective essays can also be pieces of personal writing, such as blog posts or journal entries.

Reflective essay vs. narrative essay

There are a few similarities between reflective essays and narrative essays. Both are personal pieces of writing in which the author explores their thoughts about their experiences. But here’s the main difference: While a narrative essay focuses on a story about events in the author’s life, a reflective essay focuses on the changes the author underwent because of those events. A narrative essay has many of the same elements as a fictional story: setting, characters, plot, and conflict. A reflective essay gets granular about the circumstances and changes driven by the conflict and doesn’t necessarily aim to tell a full story.

Reflective essays based on academic material

You might be assigned to write a reflective essay on an academic text, such as an essay, a book, or an article. Unlike a reflective essay about your own personal experiences, this type of reflective essay involves analysis and interpretation of the material. However, unlike in an analytical essay , the position you support is informed by your own opinion and perspective rather than solely by the text.

How to choose a topic

A reflective essay can be about any topic. By definition, a reflective essay is an essay where the writer describes an event or experience (or series of events or experiences) and then discusses and analyzes the lessons they derived from their experience. This experience can be about anything , whether big life events like moving to a new country or smaller experiences like trying sushi for the first time. The topic can be serious, lighthearted, poignant, or simply entertaining.

If your reflective essay is for an assignment or an application, you might be given a topic. In some cases, you might be given a broad area or keyword and then have to develop your own topic related to those things. In other cases, you might not be given anything. No matter which is the case for your essay, there are a few ways to explore reflective essay ideas and develop your topic.

Freewriting is a writing exercise where you simply write whatever comes to mind for a fixed period of time without worrying about grammar or structure or even writing something coherent. The goal is to get your ideas onto paper and explore them creatively, and by removing the pressure to write something submittable, you’re giving yourself more room to play with these ideas.

Make a mind map

A mind map is a diagram that shows the relationships between ideas, events, and other words related to one central concept. For example, a mind map for the word book might branch into the following words: fiction , nonfiction , digital , hardcover . Each of these words then branches to subtopics. These subtopics further branch to subtopics of their own, demonstrating just how deep you can explore a subject.

Creating a mind map can be a helpful way to explore your thoughts and feelings about the experience you discuss in your essay.

Real-life experiences

You can find inspiration for a reflective essay from any part of your life. Think about an experience that shifted your worldview or dramatically changed your daily routine. Or you can focus on the smaller, even mundane, parts of life like your weekly cleaning routine or trips to the grocery store. In a reflective essay, you don’t just describe experiences; you explore how they shape you and your feelings.

Reflective essay outline

Introduction.

A reflective essay’s introduction paragraph needs to include:

• A thesis statement

The hook is the sentence that catches the reader’s attention and makes them want to read more. This can be an unexpected fact, an intriguing statistic, a left-field observation, or a question that gets the reader’s mind thinking about the essay’s topic.

The thesis statement is a concise statement that introduces the reader to the essay’s topic . A thesis statement clearly spells out the topic and gives the reader context for the rest of the essay they’re about to read.

These aren’t all the things that a reflective essay’s introduction needs, however. This paragraph needs to effectively introduce the topic, which often means introducing a few of the ideas discussed in the essay’s body paragraphs alongside the hook and thesis statement.

Body paragraphs

Your essay’s body paragraphs are where you actually explore the experience you’re reflecting on. You might compare experiences, describe scenes and your emotions following them, recount interactions, and contrast it with any expectations you had beforehand.

Unless you’re writing for a specific assignment, there’s no required number of body paragraphs for your reflective essay. Generally, authors write three body paragraphs, but if your essay needs only two—or it needs four or five—to fully communicate your experience and reflection, that’s perfectly fine.

In the final section, tie up any loose ends from the essay’s body paragraphs. Mention your thesis statement in the conclusion, either by restating it or paraphrasing it. Give the reader a sense of completion by including a final thought or two. However, these thoughts should reflect statements you made in the body paragraphs rather than introduce anything new to the essay. Your conclusion should also clearly share how the experience or events you discussed affected you (and, if applicable, continue to do so).

6 tips for writing a reflective essay

1 choose a tone.

Before you begin to write your reflective essay, choose a tone . Because a reflective essay is more personal than an academic essay, you don’t need to use a strict, formal tone. You can also use personal pronouns like I and me in your essay because this essay is about your personal experiences.

2 Be mindful of length

Generally, five hundred to one thousand words is an appropriate length for a reflective essay. If it’s a personal piece, it may be longer.

You might be required to keep your essay within a general word count if it’s an assignment or part of an application. When this is the case, be mindful to stick to the word count—writing too little or too much can have a negative impact on your grade or your candidacy.

3 Stay on topic

A reflective essay reflects on a single topic. Whether that topic is a one-off event or a recurring experience in your life, it’s important to keep your writing focused on that topic.

4 Be clear and concise

In a reflective essay, introspection and vivid imagery are assets. However, the essay’s language should remain concise , and its structure should follow a logical narrative.

5 Stay professional

Although you aren’t bound to a formal tone, it’s generally best to use a professional tone in your reflective writing. Avoid using slang or overly familiar language, especially if your reflective essay is part of a college or job application .

6 Proofread

Before you hit “send” or “submit,” be sure to proofread your work. For this last read-through, you should be focused on catching any spelling or grammatical mistakes you might have missed.

Reflective essay FAQs

Reflective essays are a type of personal essay that examines a topic through the lens of thewriter’s unique perspective. They are more subjective about their subjects than an academic essay, use figurative language, and don’t require academic sources.

What’s the difference between a reflective essay and a narrative essay?

While a reflective essay focuses on its author’s feelings and perspectives surrounding events they’ve experienced or texts they’ve read, a narrative essay tells a story. A narrative essay might show changes the author underwent through the same conventions a fictional story uses to show character growth; a reflective essay discusses this growth more explicitly and explores it in depth.

What are example topics for a reflective essay?

• Moving abroad and adapting to the local culture
• Recovering from an athletic injury
• Weekly phone conversations with your grandmother
• The funniest joke you ever heard (and what made it so funny)

What Is Reflective Writing? (Explained W/ 20+ Examples)

I’ll admit, reflecting on my experiences used to seem pointless—now, I can’t imagine my routine without it.

What is reflective writing?

Reflective writing is a personal exploration of experiences, analyzing thoughts, feelings, and learnings to gain insights. It involves critical thinking, deep analysis, and focuses on personal growth through structured reflection on past events.

In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about reflective writing — with lots of examples.

What Is Reflective Writing (Long Description)?

Table of Contents

Reflective writing is a method used to examine and understand personal experiences more deeply.

This kind of writing goes beyond mere description of events or tasks.

Instead, it involves looking back on these experiences, analyzing them, and learning from them.

It’s a process that encourages you to think critically about your actions, decisions, emotions, and responses.

By reflecting on your experiences, you can identify areas for improvement, make connections between theory and practice, and enhance your personal and professional development. Reflective writing is introspective, but it should also be analytical and critical.

It’s not just about what happened.

It’s about why it happened, how it affected you, and what you can learn from it.

This type of writing is commonly used in education, professional development, and personal growth, offering a way for individuals to gain insights into their personal experiences and behaviors.

Types of Reflective Writing

Reflective writing can take many forms, each serving different purposes and providing various insights into the writer’s experiences.

Here are ten types of reflective writing, each with a unique focus and approach.

Journaling – The Daily Reflection

Journaling is a type of reflective writing that involves keeping a daily or regular record of experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

It’s a private space where you can freely express yourself and reflect on your day-to-day life.

Example: Today, I realized that the more I try to control outcomes, the less control I feel. Letting go isn’t about giving up; it’s about understanding that some things are beyond my grasp.

Example: Reflecting on the quiet moments of the morning, I realized how much I value stillness before the day begins. It’s a reminder to carve out space for peace in my routine.

Learning Logs – The Educational Tracker

Learning logs are used to reflect on educational experiences, track learning progress, and identify areas for improvement.

They often focus on specific learning objectives or outcomes.

Example: This week, I struggled with understanding the concept of reflective writing. However, after reviewing examples and actively engaging in the process, I’m beginning to see how it can deepen my learning.

Example: After studying the impact of historical events on modern society, I see the importance of understanding history to navigate the present. It’s a lesson in the power of context.

Critical Incident Journals – The Turning Point

Critical incident journals focus on a significant event or “critical incident” that had a profound impact on the writer’s understanding or perspective.

These incidents are analyzed in depth to extract learning and insights.

Example: Encountering a homeless person on my way home forced me to confront my biases and assumptions about homelessness. It was a moment of realization that has since altered my perspective on social issues.

Example: Missing a crucial deadline taught me about the consequences of procrastination and the value of time management. It was a wake-up call to prioritize and organize better.

Project Diaries – The Project Chronicle

Project diaries are reflective writings that document the progress, challenges, and learnings of a project over time.

They provide insights into decision-making processes and project management strategies.

Example: Launching the community garden project was more challenging than anticipated. It taught me the importance of community engagement and the value of patience and persistence.

Example: Overcoming unexpected technical issues during our project showed me the importance of adaptability and teamwork. Every obstacle became a stepping stone to innovation.

Portfolios – The Comprehensive Showcase

Portfolios are collections of work that also include reflective commentary.

They showcase the writer’s achievements and learning over time, reflecting on both successes and areas for development.

Example: Reviewing my portfolio, I’m proud of how much I’ve grown as a designer. Each project reflects a step in my journey, highlighting my evolving style and approach.

Example: As I added my latest project to my portfolio, I reflected on the journey of my skills evolving. Each piece is a chapter in my story of growth and learning.

Peer Reviews – The Collaborative Insight

Peer reviews involve writing reflectively about the work of others, offering constructive feedback while also considering one’s own learning and development.

Example: Reviewing Maria’s project, I admired her innovative approach, which inspired me to think more creatively about my own work. It’s a reminder of the value of diverse perspectives.

Example: Seeing the innovative approach my peer took on a similar project inspired me to rethink my own methods. It’s a testament to the power of sharing knowledge and perspectives.

Personal Development Plans – The Future Blueprint

Personal development plans are reflective writings that outline goals, strategies, and actions for personal or professional growth.

They include reflections on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Example: My goal to become a more effective communicator will require me to step out of my comfort zone and seek opportunities to speak publicly. It’s daunting but necessary for my growth.

Example: Identifying my fear of public speaking in my plan pushed me to take a course on it. Acknowledging weaknesses is the first step to turning them into strengths.

Reflective Essays – The Structured Analysis

Reflective essays are more formal pieces of writing that analyze personal experiences in depth.

They require a structured approach to reflection, often including theories or models to frame the reflection.

Example: Reflecting on my leadership role during the group project, I applied Tuckman’s stages of group development to understand the dynamics at play. It helped me appreciate the natural progression of team development.

Example: In my essay, reflecting on a failed project helped me understand the role of resilience in success. Failure isn’t the opposite of success; it’s part of its process.

Reflective Letters – The Personal Correspondence

Reflective letters involve writing to someone (real or imagined) about personal experiences and learnings.

It’s a way to articulate thoughts and feelings in a structured yet personal format.

Example: Dear Future Self, Today, I learned the importance of resilience. Faced with failure, I found the strength to persevere a nd try again. This lesson, I hope, will stay with me as I navigate the challenges ahead.

Example: Writing a letter to my past self, I shared insights on overcoming challenges with patience and persistence. It’s a reminder of how far I’ve come and the hurdles I’ve overcome.

Blogs – The Public Journal

Blogs are a form of reflective writing that allows writers to share their experiences, insights, and learnings with a wider audience.

They often combine personal narrative with broader observations about life, work, or society.

Example: In my latest blog post, I explored the journey of embracing vulnerability. Sharing my own experiences of failure and doubt not only helped me process these feelings but also connected me with readers going through similar struggles. It’s a powerful reminder of the strength found in sharing our stories.

Example: In a blog post about starting a new career path, I shared the fears and excitement of stepping into the unknown. It’s a journey of self-discovery and embracing new challenges.

What Are the Key Features of Reflective Writing?

Reflective writing is characterized by several key features that distinguish it from other types of writing.

These features include personal insight, critical analysis, descriptive narrative, and a focus on personal growth.

• Personal Insight: Reflective writing is deeply personal, focusing on the writer’s internal thoughts, feelings, and reactions. It requires introspection and a willingness to explore one’s own experiences in depth.
• Critical Analysis: Beyond simply describing events, reflective writing involves analyzing these experiences. This means looking at the why and how, not just the what. It involves questioning, evaluating, and interpreting your experiences in relation to yourself, others, and the world.
• Descriptive Narrative: While reflective writing is analytical, it also includes descriptive elements. Vivid descriptions of experiences, thoughts, and feelings help to convey the depth of the reflection.
• Focus on Growth: A central aim of reflective writing is to foster personal or professional growth. It involves identifying lessons learned, recognizing patterns, and considering how to apply insights gained to future situations.

These features combine to make reflective writing a powerful tool for learning and development.

It’s a practice that encourages writers to engage deeply with their experiences, challenge their assumptions, and grow from their reflections.

What Is the Structure of Reflective Writing?

The structure of reflective writing can vary depending on the context and purpose, but it typically follows a general pattern that facilitates deep reflection.

A common structure includes an introduction, a body that outlines the experience and the reflection on it, and a conclusion.

• Introduction: The introduction sets the stage for the reflective piece. It briefly introduces the topic or experience being reflected upon and may include a thesis statement that outlines the main insight or theme of the reflection.
• Body: The body is where the bulk of the reflection takes place. It often follows a chronological order, detailing the experience before moving into the reflection. This section should explore the writer’s thoughts, feelings, reactions, and insights related to the experience. It’s also where critical analysis comes into play, examining causes, effects, and underlying principles.
• Conclusion: The conclusion wraps up the reflection, summarizing the key insights gained and considering how these learnings might apply to future situations. It’s an opportunity to reflect on personal growth and the broader implications of the experience.

This structure is flexible and can be adapted to suit different types of reflective writing.

However, the focus should always be on creating a coherent narrative that allows for deep personal insight and learning.

How Do You Start Reflective Writing?

Starting reflective writing can be challenging, as it requires diving into personal experiences and emotions.

Here are some tips to help initiate the reflective writing process:

• Choose a Focus: Start by selecting an experience or topic to reflect upon. It could be a specific event, a general period in your life, a project you worked on, or even a book that made a significant impact on you.
• Reflect on Your Feelings: Think about how the experience made you feel at the time and how you feel about it now. Understanding your emotional response is a crucial part of reflective writing.
• Ask Yourself Questions: Begin by asking yourself questions related to the experience. What did you learn from it? How did it challenge your assumptions? How has it influenced your thinking or behavior?
• Write a Strong Opening: Your first few sentences should grab the reader’s attention and clearly indicate what you will be reflecting on. You can start with a striking fact, a question, a quote, or a vivid description of a moment from the experience.
• Keep It Personal: Remember that reflective writing is personal. Use “I” statements to express your thoughts, feelings, and insights. This helps to maintain the focus on your personal experience and learning journey.

Here is a video about reflective writing that I think you’ll like:

Reflective Writing Toolkit

Finding the right tools and resources has been key to deepening my reflections and enhancing my self-awareness.

Here’s a curated toolkit that has empowered my own reflective practice:

• Journaling Apps: Apps like Day One or Reflectly provide structured formats for daily reflections, helping to capture thoughts and feelings on the go.
• Digital Notebooks: Tools like Evernote or Microsoft OneNote allow for organized, searchable reflections that can include text, images, and links.
• Writing Prompts: Websites like WritingPrompts.com offer endless ideas to spark reflective writing, making it easier to start when you’re feeling stuck.
• Mind Mapping Software: Platforms like MindMeister help organize thoughts visually, which can be especially helpful for reflective planning or brainstorming.
• Blogging Platforms: Sites like WordPress or Medium offer a space to share reflective writings publicly, fostering community and feedback. You’ll need a hosting platform. I recommend Bluehost or Hostarmada for beginners.
• Guided Meditation Apps: Apps such as Headspace or Calm can support reflective writing by clearing the mind and fostering a reflective state before writing.
• Audio Recording Apps: Tools like Otter.ai not only allow for verbal reflection but also transcribe conversations, which can then be reflected upon in writing.
• Time Management Apps: Resources like Forest or Pomodoro Technique apps help set dedicated time for reflection, making it a regular part of your routine.
• Creative Writing Software: Platforms like Scrivener cater to more in-depth reflective projects, providing extensive organizing and formatting options.
• Research Databases: Access to journals and articles through databases like Google Scholar can enrich reflective writing with theoretical frameworks and insights.

Final Thoughts: What Is Reflective Writing?

Reflective writing, at its core, is a deeply personal practice.

Yet, it also holds the potential to bridge cultural divides. By sharing reflective writings that explore personal experiences through the lens of different cultural backgrounds, we can foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of diverse worldviews.

Read This Next:

• What Is a Prompt in Writing? (Ultimate Guide + 200 Examples)
• What Is A Personal Account In Writing? (47 Examples)
• Why Does Academic Writing Require Strict Formatting?
• What Is A Lens In Writing? (The Ultimate Guide)

How to Write a Reflection Paper in 5 Steps (plus Template and Sample Essay)

by Kaelyn Barron | 15 comments

If you’ve been assigned the task of writing a reflection paper on a book you’ve read, film you’ve seen, or an event you’ve attended, you may be wondering where to start.

After all, there are few rules when it comes to writing a reflection, since it’s basically just your reaction and thoughts on the material—and all that creative freedom can be intimidating at first! But even with this lack of structure, there are steps you can take to write a reflection paper that adds value to the discussion.

What Is a Reflection Paper?

A reflection paper is a type of essay that requires you to reflect, or give your thoughts and opinions, on a certain subject or material. This type of essay is often assigned to students after they’ve read a book or watched a film.

However, it can also be written in a professional setting, often by those who study education or psychology, to reflect on an individual’s behavior. Or, you can write a reflection paper for your own purposes, to work out your thoughts and feelings on a personal subject.

If you’re a student, in most cases, you’ll be given a prompt or question to guide your reflection. Often, these assignments are completed in class, so the reflections are generally under 1,000 words. The good news is that there are on wrong answers!

However, there are things you can do to write more effective reflections that will give you (and your teachers, if applicable) more insight to your views and thought processes.

How to Write a Reflection Paper

Use these 5 tips to write a thoughtful and insightful reflection paper.

1. Answer key questions.

To write a reflection paper, you need to be able to observe your own thoughts and reactions to the material you’ve been given. A good way to start is by answering a series of key questions.

For example:

• What was your first reaction to the material? Was it positive, negative, or neutral?
• Do you find the writer (or director, presenter, etc.) to be credible?
• Has the material changed your mind in some way?
• Which issues or questions does the material fail to address?
• What new or remaining questions do you have after reading/viewing the material?
• What have you learned from this material?
• Does it remind you of any personal experiences, or anything else you’ve seen or read?

Answering these questions will help you formulate your own opinions, draw conclusions, and write an insightful reflection.

2. Identify a theme.

Once you’ve answered a few basic questions, look at your responses and see if you can identify any common themes .

What’s the main takeaway? If you could summarize your thoughts on this piece in one sentence, what would you say?

Think about what you’ve learned, or how the material has affected you. Be honest about how you feel, especially if the material incites any strong opinions or reactions from you.

3. Summarize.

Your reflection paper should not be just a mere summary of the material you’ve read or studied. However, you should give a recap of the most important aspects, and offer specific examples when necessary to back up any assertions you make.

Include information about the author (if you’re writing about a book or article). If you’re writing about a work of fiction, very briefly and concisely summarize the plot. If writing about nonfiction, share the author’s thesis, or the main argument they’re trying to make.

Just be careful to not overdo the summary—you don’t want to reproduce or offer a play-by-play of the original work, but rather offer enough context so readers can appreciate your reflection and analysis.

4. Analyze.

Your reflection paper is a great place to practice your critical thinking skills , which include analysis. The questions in Step 1 will offer you a good start when it comes to thinking more analytically.

Once you’ve offered enough context for your readers by including a brief summary, analyze the

• the overall tone of the work
• the credibility of the writer (or producer of the content)
• potential biases
• the intended purpose of the material

If you’re writing a reflection paper on a work of fiction, be sure to check out our guide to writing a literary analysis.

5. Make connections.

Does the material remind you of any personal experiences you’ve had, or other books or films you’ve encountered? Can you connect it to any current events or real-world examples?

Then, zoom out and try to see the bigger picture. What do these connections have in common? Can you point out a larger, more universal theme?

The more of these connections you can tie in to your reflection to create a cohesive picture, the better.

Reflection Paper Template

Reflection papers don’t really require a rigid structure—the most important thing is that you communicate your ideas clearly and effectively. (Of course, if you received specific guidelines from your instructor, you should stick to those.)

The following is a loose outline that you can use to guide you through your reflection paper:

• Include: Title, Author Name (or Director, Photographer, etc.).
• Briefly summarize the work and its main themes.
• Write a thesis that states the work’s overall impact on you.
• When relevant, include specific quotes or examples to support your claims.
• Explore your main reactions and thoughts after reviewing the material.
• Build connections to personal experiences and other works you’ve encountered.
• Show how the ideas from your body paragraphs tie together to support your thesis.
• Summarize the overall effect the material had on you.

Reflection Paper Example

The following is an example of a reflection paper I wrote for a university course in response to an academic article on conflict resolution, found in the book Managing Conflict in a World Adrift :

In “Understanding the Gendered Nature of Power,” Oudraat and Kuehnast explain how peace theorists have fallen short in their analyses of the role of gender (and of women especially). Because gender roles are a reflection of power dynamics within societies, they can also serve as valuable indicators of dynamics within conflicts and post-conflict processes.

The authors emphasize the importance of using international intervention wisely. Although postconflict reconstruction might seem like an opportunity to rethink gender norms and roles, it seems that postconflict programs tend more often to reproduce gender norms that “no longer contribute productive approaches to society and escalate social tensions.” While I think we should always strive to bring more opportunities to women and eradicate gender biases, I agree with the authors that international actors must “be attentive to the gendered nature of the societies in which they intervene.” We have seen many cases where international intervention, although well-meaning, can end up hurting a community even more by meddling without truly knowing the conditions of a local situation.

One example of such misguided help is the campaign for “clean stoves” in African villages, based on the idea that women are assaulted when they look for fuel and water outside their camps. Providing clean stoves does nothing to address the root of the problem (sexual violence), and in fact further confines women to their homes, while many studies show that times of collecting water or other supplies are often critical opportunities for women to communicate, socialize, exchange ideas, and so on. In many cases it is the only time they will leave the home or village that day. The solution proposed by the clean stoves campaign reminds me of the culture surrounding sexual violence in the United States, where rather than working to attack the root causes of such crimes, we instead teach women that it is unsafe to go out late, or to dress in a certain way.

In order to make any progress, I agree with the authors when they suggest we need qualitative data that capture the changing nature of societies coming out of war. We must first identify the information we lack in order to move forward wisely and effectively.

Writing a Reflective Essay

Whether you’ve been assigned a reflection paper for school or simply want to write one for your own exercise, these tips will help you get the most from the experience.

Remember that when you’re consuming any type of media, it’s good practice to reflect on what you’ve absorbed and ask critical questions so you can draw your own conclusions.

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

• 19 Books That Make You Think: A List of Thought-Provoking Reads
• Why You Should Keep a Reading Journal: Tips for More Reflective Reading
• How to Write a Literary Analysis: 6 Tips for the Perfect Essay
• How to Summarize a Novel: 4 Steps to Writing a Great Summary

As a blog writer for TCK Publishing, Kaelyn loves crafting fun and helpful content for writers, readers, and creative minds alike. She has a degree in International Affairs with a minor in Italian Studies, but her true passion has always been writing. Working remotely allows her to do even more of the things she loves, like traveling, cooking, and spending time with her family.

15 Comments

Very helpful, thanks a lot!

Thankful for this! Thanks to you!

we’re glad you found the post helpful! :)

In my understanding, this post helped me to guide my students while I was teaching them how to write effective reflection paper. In addition to this, I had time to correct my past through this post. Thanks a lot!!!

I’m so glad you found this post helpful for your students! :)

I believe I understood the steps and instructions on how to write a reflection paper and it makes lots of sense to me now than before . What I was really hoping for was that you could give us an example of a text or an article written followed by a reflection that was done on that article . Maybe I`m asking too much. Thank you though!!!!

Hi Larry, I’m glad the article was helpful for your reflection paper! I tried to provide an example of one of my own papers, but I couldn’t find the full text of the article I wrote on (it was from a textbook). I’ll try to find another example though :)

am very empress with this information. it really helps me to write an effective reflection papers

thanks Benjamin, we’re so glad you found it helpful! :)

This is very helpful as I am preparing for my portfolio defense. Many thanks Mark

I’m so glad you found it helpful, Mark!

Very informative.

Thanks Sara, I’m glad you found the post helpful! :)

Many thanks for this information,,very needed today for my final exam.

You’re very welcome Lyn, I hope it helped for your exam! :)

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Reflective Essay: Examples and Other Guidelines

• Icon Calendar 29 July 2024
• Icon Page 6355 words
• Icon Clock 29 min read

This article is a guideline on how to write a good reflective essay, addressing key areas students should pay attention to when their lecturers give them assignments to produce such papers. Basically, a reflective essay examines a writer’s experience in life. People explore how their involvement changed or developed their characters and gather accurate details to support a main argument. In this case, each topic is essential because it teaches readers most important details that should guide their writing, from choosing a topic, following a correct outline, and going through each technical step to produce a quality document. Reading this guideline gives writers critical insights on writing an outstanding reflective essay, guaranteeing they can create a high-quality paper under any context. Although this article focuses on students as a primary audience, anyone needs to understand that an effective reflective essay should have a proper introduction, a compelling body, and a conclusion that brings an appropriate closure and applies a particular knowledge to be an expert, thoughtful essay writer.

General Aspects

When lecturers give students writing reflection papers, they aim to develop intellectuals. A particular writing process of different types of papers demands learners to utilize their academic training to produce knowledge others can consume for enlightenment. As such, various types of essays are central to providing college students with a platform for their reflection papers, constructing their intellectual personas, and influencing others. Reading this guideline helps students and anyone interested in writing to gain insights into essential requirements when organizing essays. Specifically, this article provides a guideline for writing a reflective essay by addressing key aspects that authors of reflection papers need to know and some prompts they can choose to produce a high-quality scholarly document.

What Is a Reflective Essay and Its Purpose

According to its definition, a reflective essay is a type of writing whose primary focus is a writer’s self-reflection on his or her experiences, thoughts, feelings, or other personal topics. Ideally, students writing such a composition must use their creative thinking skills to examine an experience or an issue and clearly state what it means to them without relying on others’ inputs (Bassot, 2023). Therefore, the main purpose of writing a reflective essay is to present a writer’s own perspective on a specific issue, analyze and evaluate their life events, understand how these experiences have influenced them, and articulate their learning and personal growth. On the other hand, college professors assign their students tasks to write these essays because they understand that applying knowledge is the most effective strategy, meaning to entrench knowledge (Williams et al., 2020). Self-reflection on an experience or topic means a unique way in which students apply what they have learned and create new knowledge through creative thinking. However, a reflective composition is not similar to argumentative, analytical, cause and effect, and expository essays, or typical research papers because, while writing about personal aspects allows students to use their own knowledge and experience, other papers have different purposes and requirements. In terms of pages and words, the length of a reflective essay depends on academic levels, specific assignment instructions, course contents, or instructor’s preferences, while general guidelines are:

High School

• Length: 1-2 pages
• Words: 250-500 words
• Length: 2-3 pages
• Words: 500-750 words

University (Undergraduate)

• Length: 3-5 pages
• Words: 750-1,250 words

Master’s

• Length: 5-6 pages
• Words: 1,250-1,500 words
• Length: 6-10 pages
• Words: 1,500-2,500 words

Reflective essays take different forms because limiting what students can reflect on is impossible. Typically, English professors require students to write thoughtful texts about what they have read or studied in class and their experience on something personal as their reflection (Cogni, 2019). A particular reason behind such expectations is that human beings have an imaginative ability to judge events that occur in diverse contexts. Everyone learns something from experiences that shape their existence. Hence, when writing a reflective essay, students must first understand its purpose because it forms a valid foundation for their focus.

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Reflection on an Assigned Reading

College students read various texts in any semester, including assigned textbooks, articles, research papers, essays, reflections, commentaries, and opinions. These documents have one similarity in common since they all address topics lecturers consider important to learners’ intellectual development (Christensen & Wärnsby, 2023). Moreover, to write a reflection paragraph, people describe a specific experience, analyze their thoughts and feelings about it, and discuss crucial insights or lessons learned. In this respect, it is common for students to receive paper assignments requiring them to write a reflective paper on an article, poem, play, novel, or research topic. While professors often specify essay topics, students may encounter scenarios where they must construct sentences themselves. The most important thing they must consider when organizing reflection papers properly is that they must reflect a specific text a tutor prescribes.

Articles are texts commonly found online where writers pick an issue of concern to society or a specific community and discuss it from various perspectives as a reflection. For example, authors of articles posted in the New York Times journal may write about how social policies of the New York state government have contributed to homelessness (Williams et al., 2020). Some authors may claim that these policies have resulted in high rental prices, forcing many individuals and families to seek alternative accommodation, including living with relatives and in homeless shelters. A lecturer may require students to write a reflective essay on such articles. In turn, one must read an online article to understand author’s perspectives in such an instance. As a result, students must reflect on how these viewpoints apply to them, people they know, and society. Their reflection paper writing should underscore an article’s significance.

Poems are texts that paint a picture of society through words. Like art, they address many societal issues, such as leadership, love, family, morality, and tragedy. However, unlike most texts, poems are complex since their language requires readers to engage in critical thinking and reflection (Bassot, 2023). Like an artist hides a message in a mural, a poet uses words to communicate deep insights. As such, lecturers often require students to read poems and write reflective papers. In such a scenario, students should read poems through their creative thinking lens and pick critical insights they can expound on. However, their exposition and reflection should be based on what they think and not what others say.

Literature Play

Like poems, literature plays serve a particular purpose of communicating ideas with a profound message or hidden meaning. It is common for college students to read plays as part of course content and write reflection papers (Cogni, 2019). As such, reflecting on such literature plays helps learners to apply knowledge to specific contexts. Therefore, when writing a reflective essay on a poem, students should read assigned plays to understand the information or knowledge an author intends to convey. The next step is to write a reflective paper that allows them to self-reflect by explaining how a profound message or hidden meaning applies to real life.

Unlike plays and poems, novels are long texts to analyze and write about. Nonetheless, they are similar to an extent they address issues common in society. Most novelists use their creative imagination and reflection to communicate social problems through texts (Taylor, 2023). Therefore, reading novels across generations is the best way to know how modern society reflects human civilization. With this understanding, English professors often require students to read novels and write reflective essays for their final semester assessment. In such a context, students should read an assigned novel and interact with other materials about this work, such as commentaries and reviews by different authors. However, these texts should only help students to better understand a specific novel rather than form part of a reflective essay.

Research Topic

It is common for college students to read research topics as part of their academic work. Almost all disciplines have issues that attract a particular attention of researchers. However, social sciences tend to have a highest level of attention and reflection because they are about a social world. One approach through which lecturers in social sciences develop students into intellectuals requires them to analyze different research topics and produce a reflection paper (Williams et al., 2020). If students receive such writing instructions, they should read an assigned study to understand critical points. Because researchers tend to be broad in assessing issues, writers should narrow their focus by picking a problem they think has a greatest significance to them or an aspect of their academic or social environment.

Reflection on an Experience

The most effective way of helping students to gain a deeper understanding of concepts, thoughts, and ideas is to require them to apply what they have learned to their personal lives as their reflection. In this case, a typical format of a reflective essay includes an introduction with a thesis, a body that describes a specific experience and analyzes its impact, and a conclusion that summarizes key insights and reflections (Bassot, 2023). Like everyone else, learners have personal life situations that enrich their existence despite their impact. In other words, a unique episode may have been pleasant or unpleasant. In turn, people can always get a moral lesson if they view it through optimism. Lecturers often require students to write reflective essays on personal aspects, including a life event, work experience, peer relation, domestic experience, and a hobby.

It is natural for everyone to experience a life event that leaves a lasting impact on them and close relations, including parents, siblings, friends, and even neighbors. Basically, a reflection paper consists of a description of a specific personal experience, an analysis of its impact, and key insights or lessons learned from it (Bassot, 2023). Examples of these events include a near-death episode, such as an automobile accident, a chronic disease, or a personal loss, such as losing a parent. While these events are unique, they can trigger people’s creative imagination and reflection if they are discussing such topics. Lecturers understand this truth, and they give their learners assignments to write reflective essays about personal experiences. When students receive such instructions, they should use their imagination and reflection to link what they have learned with what happened to them in their past that remains significant today. Doing so gives a reflection essay a scholarly characteristic, allowing it to be an academic text others can consume.

Work Experience

Working is an activity no one can avoid from adolescence. While students may not be employable because they have yet to complete their education, employers give them opportunities to gain practical work situation along their academic journey. Work attachments are integral to a college education because they allow students to experience a particular work environment before graduation (Christensen & Wärnsby, 2023). Moreover, some students come from families with established businesses, while others seek employment during holidays to fund their education. This reality explains why professors ask learners to write reflective essays about a work experience. Under such an instruction, students should recall and talk about an incident in a work environment with a lasting impact as their reflection.

Peer Relation

Peer relations are rich sources of personal experiences for college students. As social beings, adolescents develop friendships with their peers in diverse environments, including schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods. For example, a significant peer relationship reflection can be romantic or friendly (Williams et al., 2020). Almost every college student has experienced a romantic encounter that left them with lasting memories. Professors can ask their audience to write a reflective essay on a romantic relationship and how it generally shapes their view of life. In such a reflection paper, writers should include how the relationship challenged their perceptions or entrenched ideals, like commitment and honesty. In turn, people can focus on friendship and how it changed their lives. Essentially, a written text should focus on specific dynamics that shaped a particular relationship, such as availability, and how they think they are essential or nonessential for a lasting engagement.

Domestic Experience

A domestic environment directly impacts people’s attitudes and behaviors. It is impossible for one to live without a difrect influence of parents, whether biological or foster, guardians, or siblings. Standard domestic experiences for writing a reflection paper include family vacations, parental divorce, domestic violence, or events like family get-togethers (Bassot, 2023). Lecturers often require students to think about how such life events have impacted their worldview, including entrenching values, like hard work, empathy, and integrity. When students have to write a reflective essay on a domestic experience, their focus should be on events that have a lasting impact on their memory. Such events are easy to evaluate because they stand out in the writer’s behaviors and mannerisms.

Hobbies are personal engagements that form part of a person’s social experience. People have different hobbies because only some of them are fascinated by one thing, like watching a football game or hiking a mountain. However, everyone has an interest they engage in as a form of unwinding after a difficult task or life season (Taylor, 2023). College tutors view reflective essays as essential for students to relate their hobbies to a course concept or idea. When learners receive instructions to write a reflective paper, they should be honest and talk about their hobby, not someone else’s. Ideally, reflections enable students to view their hobbies through a particular lens of coursework.

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Examples of Reflective Prompts

Since everyone has unique life situations and perspectives on different personal themes, lecturers often instruct students to write reflective essays without specifying a particular topic. For example, the key points of a reflective essay include describing a personal experience, analyzing its impact, and connecting some insights gained to broader themes or personal growth (Bassot, 2023). However, reflecting on a text differs because a lecturer can select a specific reading. When it comes to an individual episode, students have a free hand in deciding personal essay topics. In turn, the main difference between reflective and narrative essays is that the former focuses on analyzing and gaining insights from personal experiences, while the latter primarily tells a story without author’s reflections (Williams et al., 2020). As a result, some examples of reflection essay prompts students and other people can choose to write about are:

Assigned Readings

• Examining Gatsby’s Pursuit of Daisy: Love or Obsession
• Modern Interpretations of Shakespeare’s Female Characters
• Narrative Techniques in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• How “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley Applies to Contemporary Society
• The Moral Lesson in the Play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare
• The Essence of Morality Through the Lens of the Poem “Morality” by Mathew Arnold

Personal Experience

• Learning From Failures: A Personal Account
• Overcoming a Fear That Changed My Life
• The Journey to Mastering My Favorite Hobby
• The Challenges of Long-Distance Dating
• How Family Fosters Togetherness
• How a Near-Death Experience Shaped My Ideals

Note: Some sections of a reflective essay may be added, deleted, or combined with each other. A key characteristic of reflective writing is its emphasis on self-examination and personal growth, analyzing how experiences shape one’s thoughts and behaviors.

I. Essay Introduction

• Attention-grabbing hook: Dating is a social experience shaped by multiple dynamics.
• Overview of the topic: The challenges of long-distance dating.
• Thesis statement: Long-distance dating has taught me that human beings are naturally dishonest, love cannot flourish without supervision, and faithfulness results from commitment.

II. Body Paragraphs

• First paragraph: Open with a topic sentence about a first lesson and provide a reflection paper for this first lesson.
• Second paragraph: Present a second lesson and reflect on this second lesson.
• The third paragraph: Start by emphasizing a third lesson and write a reflection for this third lesson.

Note: The number of body paragraphs depends on a particular length of an assignment. Usually, the length of a reflective essay is about 500-1,000 words, which means 2-4 double spaced pages or 1-2 single spaced pages.

III. Conclusion

• Summary of body points.
• Restate a thesis statement of a reflection.
• Conclude with a final remark.

Example of a Reflective Essay

Topic: The Challenges of Long-Distance Dating

Introduction Sample

Dating is an experience that enriches one’s worldview because of specific dynamics that shape it. However, long-distance dating has significant drawbacks that create a wrong impression of dating as a social experience. My experience with long-distance dating is awful because I have learned that human beings are naturally dishonest, love cannot flourish without supervision, and faithfulness is a product of commitment.

First Body Paragraph Example

Long-distance dating challenges the adage ‘honesty is the best policy’ because it reveals humans as naturally dishonest. After my reflection, I learned this painful lesson when I developed a relationship with a friend I met online in my early adolescence. Since this period of growth is when individuals develop most peer relationships, dating is common among youth, especially those in college. A real essence of dating for many adolescents is a freedom it represents since one can choose whom they love without social restrictions. However, dating someone you do not regularly meet because of distance is troublesome. After meeting someone on the Internet I thought was a perfect match for me, I hoped to develop a lasting romantic relationship. However, things turned ugly when I learned that a person of my dreams was married. This experience convinced me that human beings are naturally dishonest.

Second Body Paragraph Example

A greatest lesson from my dating experience is that love cannot flourish without supervision and reflection. I always tell myself it was good that I discovered a person was married because I would have continued investing emotionally in a relationship built on a lie. My desire to know my online date more closely saved me from a futile endeavor. Generally, this burning interest in learning more is a form of social supervision because it helps one to discover truths. Although my reflection quest for truth led to a final end of my relationship, it helped me to learn that love cannot flourish if no one desires to know more about their partner. I consider this desire to know as supervising love.

Third Body Paragraph Example

More importantly, my experience with long-distance dating taught me that faithfulness is a product of commitment. I was committed to my relationship because I was faithful, neither married nor dating anyone else. Unfortunately, my partner was not trustworthy because this person was married, explaining why he was less committed to investing emotionally in our relationship. The genesis of my reflection quest for more information about him was that he turned down several of my requests for a physical meet-up. After learning he was married, I understood why he would not agree to meet physically because he was not committed to the relationship. To him, dating was a passive hobby.

Conclusion Sample

The above experiences with long-distance dating have shaped my worldview about people and love. While one may consider some individuals pleasant or unpleasant, all are transformative because they have shifted my perceptions. They have convinced me that people are naturally dishonest, one cannot nurture love without supervision, and commitment births faithfulness. While my experience was awful, these lessons are essential for my reflection and emotional well-being in my future romantic relationships.

Steps on How to Write a Reflective Essay

While reflection writing is straightforward, producing a reflective essay can be complex because one must observe technical details that shape a high-quality paper. For example, to write a reflective essay, people describe a personal experience, analyze its impact on their thoughts and feelings, and connect these insights to broader themes or lessons learned (Bassot, 2023). Ideally, students should approach such a composition as an academic exercise because there are specific issues and rules they must observe and satisfy to make their work meet basic requirements of a good document. These issues include sufficient preparation, setting up the stage, producing a first draft, and perfecting a final draft. Important rules include creating an error-free document, meaning a good reflection paper must not have grammar or formatting mistakes or plagiarized information.

Step 1: Preparation

In this first step, students must prepare themselves by doing specific things. Firstly, they should choose a particular topic of interest and define it. Ideally, such a topic should indicate a specific kind of essay they want to produce, whether a self-reflection about a text or a personal experience (Cogni, 2019). In the case of the former, a lecturer specifies an assigned topic. The next task is to prepare ideas through brainstorming with classmates or friends while considering a target audience for their work. A good reflective essay should be an academic paper that meets quality standards because those who will consume it include a lecturer, fellow students, and anyone wanting to know more about a choosen topic. When writing a reflective essay, students should understand that a primary purpose of their texts is to provide an opportunity for self-reflection by presenting their papers.

Step 2: Setting Up the Stage

The next step in writing a reflective essay is to set up the stage where students need to consider several tasks. The first aspect is to find credible sources if a main mission is to talk about assigned readings, such as a poem, short story, or novel. Locating reliable sources is vital to ensure one stays within an assigned topic. Secondly, one should read valid sources while making notes. For reflection papers, they should use the ideas generated in the preparation stage to guide note-taking (Taylor, 2023). The third task is creating a well-organized structure and outline that reflects a standard format of this type of essay as described by a sample above. Lastly, writers should create an annotated bibliography to ensure that borrowed information in a text has a corresponding original source. Doing so helps to avoid plagiarizing an entire work. However, this task does not apply to a reflective essay about a personal experience.

Step 3: The Writing Process

The third step in producing a reflective essay is to create a first draft. At this stage of writing a reflective paper, students should focus on capturing all the ideas generated when preparing to execute a particular task. As such, they should not worry about an overall quality, like grammar and formatting. In this case, a real importance of a first draft is that it allows writers to put their ideas together (Bassot, 2023). If a particular reflection topic is about assigned readings, students may use this stage to find more sources that help to expand their reasoning. They may also alter an outline to accommodate any additional instructions, such as a specific paper’s length. Moreover, the three parts of a reflective essay are an introduction with a thesis statement or central claim, body paragraphs covering main points, and a conclusion with a logical ending of a paper. The most important thing one should do is develop a clear thesis statement because it should guide their work. In turn, some examples of sentence starters for beginning a reflective essay include:

• Looking back on my experience during [specific event or time], I realize that it profoundly shaped my understanding of [specific concept or theme], and it continues to influence my perspective on [related topic].
• When I first encountered [specific situation or challenge], I was overwhelmed by [initial reaction], but, upon my reflection, I can see how it led to significant personal growth and a deeper appreciation for [related lesson or value].
• One of the most significant moments in my life journey was when I [specific action or decision], as it forced me to confront my beliefs about [specific issue] and ultimately transformed my approach to [related aspect of life].
• Reflecting on this life event, I can see how my initial assumptions about [specific topic] were challenged, leading me to develop a more complex understanding and a newfound respect for [related subject or person].
• At the time, I felt [specific emotion] about [specific event or decision], but, looking back, I realize that it was an essential moment that taught me a real importance of [specific lesson or value].
• This experience taught me that [specific insight], and, after that, it has become a guiding principle in my life, shaping my decisions and interactions with others in meaningful ways.
• Initially, I was unaware of how much [specific life moment] would impact me, but, as I reflect on it now, I see that it played a crucial role in my development as a [specific role or identity].
• Through this event, I discovered [specific insight or realization], which not only changed my perspective on [related topic] but also inspired me to pursue [related goal or interest] with a greater purpose.
• It was during this moment that I first recognized a true meaning of [specific concept or value], and this understanding has since influenced many aspects of my life, from [related area] to [related area].
• Upon reflection, I understand now that [specific experience] was more than just a challenging period but also a transformative transition that taught me resilience, patience, and a value of [specific lesson or value].

Writing an Introduction

An introduction section is a first part of any essay and contains an overall paper’s focus. Basically, to start a reflective essay, writers begin with an engaging hook that introduces specific experiences and provides unique contexts for their reflections (Williams et al., 2020). When developing this part, students should ensure they capture a reader’s attention, establish a topic’s background, and conclude with a thesis statement. They also should provide background information about a discussed topic. In reflection papers, these three components are essential features of an essay’s opening section. To a greater extent, they determine whether a target audience will complete reading a whole text or not. On the other hand, students should know — people do not read unexciting texts when organizing this section. Such texts lack a hook that grabs one’s attention and ignites a desire to learn more in the rest of a reflective paper.

Writing Body Paragraphs

A body section of a reflective essay should capture all the ideas writers have generated in the preparation stage. However, tutor’s instructions regarding a college essay length should determine whether writers use all the ideas, add new ones, or drop some of them. Each paragraph should open with a topic sentence emphasizing an idea in the thesis statement (Cogni, 2019). These ideas may be lessons for a reflection paper about a personal life situation, but, if the focus is on reading a specific article, they should be arguments or observations since specific details and evidence make an overall work compelling. In turn, real-life examples make a reflection relevant and persuasive. Ideally, this part of a reflection paper should cover an evidence-based format by integrating course concepts and ideas. Moreover, writers can include references in a reflection paper by citing relevant theories, concepts, or literature that support or relate to their personal experiences and insights (Cogni, 2019). In turn, all parts must relate to one another, while achieving a proper flow of ideas improves an overall quality of a reflective paper. Finally, people should use the rest of a single paragraph to explain a specific lesson or observation or enrich a central argument. Other essential components of each paragraph include a concluding sentence and a transition. Therefore, body paragraphs of a reflection paper must be clear and logical.

Writing a Conclusion

A conclusion section is the last part of a reflective essay. The most important features include summarizing an entire reflective paper by emphasizing key lessons for a piece about a personal experience or arguments or observations for an article about a text (Bassot, 2023). Basically, writers sum up all the main points discussed in a body section. The next step is restating a thesis statement by rewording it, and, lastly, it is to make a final remark about a discussed topic. Such a remark must underscore writers’ primary worldviews as a product of their reflection. Therefore, when organizing this section, students should know their focus is to finalize a particular text by making declarations that allow readers to be satisfied. It is illogical for a reflective paper to leave a reader hanging unless it is fiction. Thus, one should bring a reflective essay to a logical closure.

Step 4: Wrapping Up a Final Paper

The last step in writing a reflective essay is to produce a final draft by perfecting a first draft. This wrap-up exercise involves revising a first version of a particular text to ensure it captures all the author’s ideas. The second task for writing a reflection paper is to edit a written text by adding or eliminating sentences to provide a logical flow of ideas and thoughts. The next mission is to ensure all three parts — introduction, body, and conclusion — capture all essential features, including thesis, topic sentences, and final remarks, as appropriate (Williams et al., 2020). The last task is to eliminate all mistakes, including grammatical errors, incorrect punctuation, formatting flaws, and missing citations. To produce a perfect reflection paper, authors must familiarize themselves with all the rules of academic writing and use them as a valid measure for polishing a final draft.

Important Rules

When writing a reflective essay, students should observe all the rules applicable to their work, even if a lecturer does not emphasize them. The first convention that one should satisfy is to maintain a formal tone. Apart from using a first-person voice, students should ensure their work is academic. As such, they should avoid slang and any language that dilutes a particular formality of their text, and they need to write following an active voice (Gardner, 2023). Another convention to consider when writing a reflection paper is to cite ideas writers borrow from different sources. As such, when students use quotes from an assigned text they are reflecting on, such as an online article, they should cite it properly by paying attention to APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago/Turabian writing styles.

What to Include

Common Mistakes

• Lack of Focus: Failing to clearly define a main theme or purpose of a particular reflection essay.
• Vague Analysis: Providing shallow reflections without deep analysis or critical thinking.
• Overly General Statements: Using vague language and not providing specific examples or details.
• Ignoring Structure: Not organizing a reflective essay with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.
• Neglecting Personal Insight: Focusing too much on describing events and not enough on personal growth and insights.
• Inconsistent Tone: Shifting between informal and formal language inappropriately.
• Poor Grammar and Spelling: Making frequent grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
• Lack of Connection to Broader Themes: Failing to relate personal experiences to larger concepts or theories.
• Ignoring Feedback: Not considering or incorporating feedback from peers or instructors.
• Overloading With External Sources: Relying too heavily on external references and not enough on personal reflection.

A reflective essay involves examining personal experiences and their impact on a particular writer. It also requires choosing a meaningful topic, describing a specific life event in detail, analyzing its effects, and connecting insights to broader themes. Essential components include a clear introduction, a detailed body, and a concise conclusion. Writers should also focus on personal growth and learning while incorporating relevant theories or concepts. Besides, proper structure, honest reflection, and critical thinking are key to producing a compelling reflective essay. In turn, some lessons to learn include:

• Reflective essays allow students to discuss relevant events or course readings that influenced their lives.
• This guideline shows that writing a good reflective essay is a rigorous exercise, and it requires one to understand several tips.
• Understand a topic when writing a reflection essay: whether one is to reflect on a text or a personal experience.
• Brainstorm and create a mental database of ideas.
• Develop a clear outline that emphasizes an introduction, a body, and a conclusion and the key features of each.
• Review all the technical steps of producing a high-quality reflective essay.
• Produce a first draft and then perfect a document into a final draft by eliminating all mistakes, like wrong grammar, poor formatting, and illogical sentences.
• Proofread final drafts before presenting them to lecturers.
• It is advisable to give a final draft to someone to read a reflection paper and avoid missing out key details or obvious mistakes.

Bassot, B. (2023). The reflective practice guide: An interdisciplinary approach to critical reflection . Routledge.

Christensen, J., & Wärnsby, A. (2023). Reflective writing in course design for active learning in social work education. Journal of Social Work Education , 59 (3), 756–771. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2023.2213285

Cogni, M. (2019). From sentences to essays: A guide to reflective writing through reflective thinking . Vernon Press.

Gardner, P. R. (2023). The reflective essay in social research methods education: An analysis of student assessment experiences. College Teaching , 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2023.2205629

Taylor, E. (2023). Promoting student reflection through reflective writing tasks. Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence , 7 (1), 44–60. https://doi.org/10.26077/eafb-b4ea

Williams, K., Woolliams, M., & Spiro, J. (2020). Reflective writing . Red Globe Press.

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Reflective Essays

What is a reflective essay? Typically, you write a reflective essay in response to a text you have read, an event you have attended, or another experience you have had. The essay focuses on describing the event, text, or other experience, discussing what you learned from it, and speculating on how you could apply what you learned.

Reflective essays are designed to stimulate your learning by asking you to think about (“reflect on”) what you learned from a particular text, event, or experience. The process of thinking consciously about your learning deepens and reinforces that learning. 

Setting Yourself Up to Reflect

If you know in advance that you will be reflecting on a text or experience, take some time beforehand to set yourself up to reflect on it afterwards. Write down some notes about your expectations, as suggested by the questions below: 

• What expectations do you have about the text, event, or experience? What do you expect it to be like? What do you expect to learn from it? 
• Are there any questions you have at the outset? 
• Is there any aspect of this text or experience that you expect to be challenging for you?

You can refer to these notes later, when you compose the reflection.

Engaging with the Text, Event, or Experience

As you are reading the text or participating in the experience, ask yourself these questions:

• Is it similar to or different from what you expected?
• How is it answering the questions you had at the outset?
• Is there anything you find to be challenging about this text, event, or experience?
• Are you engaged by the text, event, or experience? If so, what is engaging to you?
• What, if anything, do you think you are learning from this text, event, or experience?

In other words, think consciously about how the text, event, or experience meets your expectations, raises or answers questions, poses challenges, or provides an opportunity to learn.

Writing the Reflection

Now it’s time to write down your reflections. Remember that reflective essays are meant to deepen your thinking about a particular assignment or experience, so your own thoughts, feelings, and insights matter here. 

A reflection can be divided into four phases, each of which can be a section of your essay:

• Describe: What was the text, event, or experience? If it was a text: who wrote it, and what was it about? If it was an event or experience: when did it occur; who was there; what went on? 
• Interpret: How did the text, event, or experience meet your expectations (or not)? What questions did it raise for you? Was there anything you found to be particularly surprising, meaningful or challenging? If so, what was it? 
• Evaluate: What did you learn from this text, event, or experience? 
• Plan: How do you think you can use what you learned during this text, event, or experience in the future?  In what situations could you use what you learned?

Style, Tone, Length

• A reflection is an essay, so provide full, thoughtful responses to the questions in your instructor’s prompt.
•  The style and tone of your reflective essay should match the purpose of the overall assignment. This is a personal essay meant to showcase what you learned from the text, event, or experience that you are writing about. You can use the pronouns “I,” “me,” and “mine.”
• Describe the text, event, or experience fully, using plenty of descriptive words. Include enough detail for your audience to understand that you were engaged with the text, event, or experience that you are reflecting on; the reader should come away with the understanding that you learned something from the text, event, or experience you are writing about.
• Citations are only necessary if you are referring to a specific text, and even then, your citations are not the focus of the reflection. For a reflective essay, you are the main source of evidence. Always check with your instructor about what citation style to use, if relevant.
• The length of your reflection will depend on your instructor’s instructions for the assignment.
• The best source of information on length is your professor, so find out what the word or page-count is from them.

References  

RMIT University Library Learning Lab. (n.d.). Writing an academic reflection. https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/content/writing-academic-reflection

University of Birmingham. (2015). A short guide to reflective writing. https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/as/libraryservices/library/asc/documents/public/short-guide-reflective-writing.pdf

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A complete guide to writing a reflective essay

(Last updated: 3 June 2024)

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“The overwhelming burden of writing my first ever reflective essay loomed over me as I sat as still as a statue, as my fingers nervously poised over the intimidating buttons on my laptop keyboard. Where would I begin? Where would I end? Nerve wracking thoughts filled my mind as I fretted over the seemingly impossible journey on which I was about to embark.”

Reflective essays may seem simple on the surface, but they can be a real stumbling block if you're not quite sure how to go about them. In simple terms, reflective essays constitute a critical examination of a life experience and, with the right guidance, they're not too challenging to put together. A reflective essay is similar to other essays in that it needs to be easily understood and well structured, but the content is more akin to something personal like a diary entry.

In this guide, we explore in detail how to write a great reflective essay , including what makes a good structure and some advice on the writing process. We’ve even thrown in an example reflective essay to inspire you too, making this the ultimate guide for anyone needing reflective essay help.

Types of Reflection Papers

There are several types of reflective papers, each serving a unique purpose. Educational reflection papers focus on your learning experiences, such as a course or a lecture, and how they have impacted your understanding. Professional reflection papers often relate to work experiences, discussing what you have learned in a professional setting and how it has shaped your skills and perspectives. Personal reflection papers delve into personal experiences and their influence on your personal growth and development.

Each of these requires a slightly different approach, but all aim to provide insight into your thoughts and experiences, demonstrating your ability to analyse and learn from them. Understanding the specific requirements of each type can help you tailor your writing to effectively convey your reflections.

Reflective Essay Format

In a reflective essay, a writer primarily examines his or her life experiences, hence the term ‘reflective’. The purpose of writing a reflective essay is to provide a platform for the author to not only recount a particular life experience, but to also explore how he or she has changed or learned from those experiences. Reflective writing can be presented in various formats, but you’ll most often see it in a learning log format or diary entry. Diary entries in particular are used to convey how the author’s thoughts have developed and evolved over the course of a particular period.

The format of a reflective essay may change depending on the target audience. Reflective essays can be academic, or may feature more broadly as a part of a general piece of writing for a magazine, for instance. For class assignments, while the presentation format can vary, the purpose generally remains the same: tutors aim to inspire students to think deeply and critically about a particular learning experience or set of experiences. Here are some typical examples of reflective essay formats that you may have to write:

A focus on personal growth:

A type of reflective essay often used by tutors as a strategy for helping students to learn how to analyse their personal life experiences to promote emotional growth and development. The essay gives the student a better understanding of both themselves and their behaviours.

A focus on the literature:

This kind of essay requires students to provide a summary of the literature, after which it is applied to the student’s own life experiences.

Pre-Writing Tips: How to Start Writing the Reflection Essay?

As you go about deciding on the content of your essay, you need to keep in mind that a reflective essay is highly personal and aimed at engaging the reader or target audience. And there’s much more to a reflective essay than just recounting a story. You need to be able to reflect (more on this later) on your experience by showing how it influenced your subsequent behaviours and how your life has been particularly changed as a result.

As a starting point, you might want to think about some important experiences in your life that have really impacted you, either positively, negatively, or both. Some typical reflection essay topics include: a real-life experience, an imagined experience, a special object or place, a person who had an influence on you, or something you have watched or read. If you are writing a reflective essay as part of an academic exercise, chances are your tutor will ask you to focus on a particular episode – such as a time when you had to make an important decision – and reflect on what the outcomes were. Note also, that the aftermath of the experience is especially important in a reflective essay; miss this out and you will simply be storytelling.

What Do You Mean By Reflection Essay?

It sounds obvious, but the reflective process forms the core of writing this type of essay, so it’s important you get it right from the outset. You need to really think about how the personal experience you have chosen to focus on impacted or changed you. Use your memories and feelings of the experience to determine the implications for you on a personal level.

Once you’ve chosen the topic of your essay, it’s really important you study it thoroughly and spend a lot of time trying to think about it vividly. Write down everything you can remember about it, describing it as clearly and fully as you can. Keep your five senses in mind as you do this, and be sure to use adjectives to describe your experience. At this stage, you can simply make notes using short phrases, but you need to ensure that you’re recording your responses, perceptions, and your experience of the event(s).

Once you’ve successfully emptied the contents of your memory, you need to start reflecting. A great way to do this is to pick out some reflection questions which will help you think deeper about the impact and lasting effects of your experience. Here are some useful questions that you can consider:

• What have you learned about yourself as a result of the experience?
• Have you developed because of it? How?
• Did it have any positive or negative bearing on your life?
• Looking back, what would you have done differently?
• Why do you think you made the particular choices that you did? Do you think these were the right choices?
• What are your thoughts on the experience in general? Was it a useful learning experience? What specific skills or perspectives did you acquire as a result?

These signpost questions should help kick-start your reflective process. Remember, asking yourself lots of questions is key to ensuring that you think deeply and critically about your experiences – a skill that is at the heart of writing a great reflective essay.

Consider using models of reflection (like the Gibbs or Kolb cycles) before, during, and after the learning process to ensure that you maintain a high standard of analysis. For example, before you really get stuck into the process, consider questions such as: what might happen (regarding the experience)? Are there any possible challenges to keep in mind? What knowledge is needed to be best prepared to approach the experience? Then, as you’re planning and writing, these questions may be useful: what is happening within the learning process? Is the process working out as expected? Am I dealing with the accompanying challenges successfully? Is there anything that needs to be done additionally to ensure that the learning process is successful? What am I learning from this? By adopting such a framework, you’ll be ensuring that you are keeping tabs on the reflective process that should underpin your work.

How to Strategically Plan Out the Reflective Essay Structure?

Here’s a very useful tip: although you may feel well prepared with all that time spent reflecting in your arsenal, do not, start writing your essay until you have worked out a comprehensive, well-rounded plan . Your writing will be so much more coherent, your ideas conveyed with structure and clarity, and your essay will likely achieve higher marks.

This is an especially important step when you’re tackling a reflective essay – there can be a tendency for people to get a little ‘lost’ or disorganised as they recount their life experiences in an erratic and often unsystematic manner as it is a topic so close to their hearts. But if you develop a thorough outline (this is the same as a ‘plan’) and ensure you stick to it like Christopher Columbus to a map, you should do just fine as you embark on the ultimate step of writing your essay. If you need further convincing on how important planning is, we’ve summarised the key benefits of creating a detailed essay outline below:

An outline allows you to establish the basic details that you plan to incorporate into your paper – this is great for helping you pick out any superfluous information, which can be removed entirely to make your essay succinct and to the point.

Think of the outline as a map – you plan in advance the points you wish to navigate through and discuss in your writing. Your work will more likely have a clear through line of thought, making it easier for the reader to understand. It’ll also help you avoid missing out any key information, and having to go back at the end and try to fit it in.

It’s a real time-saver! Because the outline essentially serves as the essay’s ‘skeleton’, you’ll save a tremendous amount of time when writing as you’ll be really familiar with what you want to say. As such, you’ll be able to allocate more time to editing the paper and ensuring it’s of a high standard.

Now you’re familiar with the benefits of using an outline for your reflective essay, it is essential that you know how to craft one. It can be considerably different from other typical essay outlines, mostly because of the varying subjects. But what remains the same, is that you need to start your outline by drafting the introduction, body and conclusion. More on this below.

Introduction

As is the case with all essays, your reflective essay must begin within an introduction that contains both a hook and a thesis statement. The point of having a ‘hook’ is to grab the attention of your audience or reader from the very beginning. You must portray the exciting aspects of your story in the initial paragraph so that you stand the best chances of holding your reader’s interest. Refer back to the opening quote of this article – did it grab your attention and encourage you to read more? The thesis statement is a brief summary of the focus of the essay, which in this case is a particular experience that influenced you significantly. Remember to give a quick overview of your experience – don’t give too much information away or you risk your reader becoming disinterested.

Next up is planning the body of your essay. This can be the hardest part of the entire paper; it’s easy to waffle and repeat yourself both in the plan and in the actual writing. Have you ever tried recounting a story to a friend only for them to tell you to ‘cut the long story short’? They key here is to put plenty of time and effort into planning the body, and you can draw on the following tips to help you do this well:

Try adopting a chronological approach. This means working through everything you want to touch upon as it happened in time. This kind of approach will ensure that your work is systematic and coherent. Keep in mind that a reflective essay doesn’t necessarily have to be linear, but working chronologically will prevent you from providing a haphazard recollection of your experience. Lay out the important elements of your experience in a timeline – this will then help you clearly see how to piece your narrative together.

Ensure the body of your reflective essay is well focused and contains appropriate critique and reflection. The body should not only summarise your experience, it should explore the impact that the experience has had on your life, as well as the lessons that you have learned as a result. The emphasis should generally be on reflection as opposed to summation. A reflective posture will not only provide readers with insight on your experience, it’ll highlight your personality and your ability to deal with or adapt to particular situations.

In the conclusion of your reflective essay, you should focus on bringing your piece together by providing a summary of both the points made throughout, and what you have learned as a result. Try to include a few points on why and how your attitudes and behaviours have been changed. Consider also how your character and skills have been affected, for example: what conclusions can be drawn about your problem-solving skills? What can be concluded about your approach to specific situations? What might you do differently in similar situations in the future? What steps have you taken to consolidate everything that you have learned from your experience? Keep in mind that your tutor will be looking out for evidence of reflection at a very high standard.

Congratulations – you now have the tools to create a thorough and accurate plan which should put you in good stead for the ultimate phase indeed of any essay, the writing process.

Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Your Reflective Essay

As with all written assignments, sitting down to put pen to paper (or more likely fingers to keyboard) can be daunting. But if you have put in the time and effort fleshing out a thorough plan, you should be well prepared, which will make the writing process as smooth as possible. The following points should also help ease the writing process:

• To get a feel for the tone and format in which your writing should be, read other typically reflective pieces in magazines and newspapers, for instance.
• Don’t think too much about how to start your first sentence or paragraph; just start writing and you can always come back later to edit anything you’re not keen on. Your first draft won’t necessarily be your best essay writing work but it’s important to remember that the earlier you start writing, the more time you will have to keep reworking your paper until it’s perfect. Don’t shy away from using a free-flow method, writing and recording your thoughts and feelings on your experiences as and when they come to mind. But make sure you stick to your plan. Your plan is your roadmap which will ensure your writing doesn’t meander too far off course.
• For every point you make about an experience or event, support it by describing how you were directly impacted, using specific as opposed to vague words to convey exactly how you felt.
• Write using the first-person narrative, ensuring that the tone of your essay is very personal and reflective of your character.
• If you need to, refer back to our notes earlier on creating an outline. As you work through your essay, present your thoughts systematically, remembering to focus on your key learning outcomes.
• Consider starting your introduction with a short anecdote or quote to grasp your readers’ attention, or other engaging techniques such as flashbacks.
• Choose your vocabulary carefully to properly convey your feelings and emotions. Remember that reflective writing has a descriptive component and so must have a wide range of adjectives to draw from. Avoid vague adjectives such as ‘okay’ or ‘nice’ as they don’t really offer much insight into your feelings and personality. Be more specific – this will make your writing more engaging.
• Be honest with your feelings and opinions. Remember that this is a reflective task, and is the one place you can freely admit – without any repercussions – that you failed at a particular task. When assessing your essay, your tutor will expect a deep level of reflection, not a simple review of your experiences and emotion. Showing deep reflection requires you to move beyond the descriptive. Be extremely critical about your experience and your response to it. In your evaluation and analysis, ensure that you make value judgements, incorporating ideas from outside the experience you had to guide your analysis. Remember that you can be honest about your feelings without writing in a direct way. Use words that work for you and are aligned with your personality.
• Once you’ve finished learning about and reflecting on your experience, consider asking yourself these questions: what did I particularly value from the experience and why? Looking back, how successful has the process been? Think about your opinions immediately after the experience and how they differ now, so that you can evaluate the difference between your immediate and current perceptions. Asking yourself such questions will help you achieve reflective writing effectively and efficiently.
• Don’t shy away from using a variety of punctuation. It helps keeps your writing dynamic! Doesn’t it?
• If you really want to awaken your reader’s imagination, you can use imagery to create a vivid picture of your experiences.
• Ensure that you highlight your turning point, or what we like to call your “Aha!” moment. Without this moment, your resulting feelings and thoughts aren’t as valid and your argument not as strong.
• Don’t forget to keep reiterating the lessons you have learned from your experience.

Bonus Tip - Using Wider Sources

Although a reflective piece of writing is focused on personal experience, it’s important you draw on other sources to demonstrate your understanding of your experience from a theoretical perspective. It’ll show a level of analysis – and a standard of reliability in what you’re claiming – if you’re also able to validate your work against other perspectives that you find. Think about possible sources, like newspapers, surveys, books and even journal articles. Generally, the additional sources you decide to include in your work are highly dependent on your field of study. Analysing a wide range of sources, will show that you have read widely on your subject area, that you have nuanced insight into the available literature on the subject of your essay, and that you have considered the broader implications of the literature for your essay. The incorporation of other sources into your essay also helps to show that you are aware of the multi-dimensional nature of both the learning and problem-solving process.

Reflective Essay Example

If you want some inspiration for writing, take a look at our example of a short reflective essay , which can serve as a useful starting point for you when you set out to write your own.

Some Final Notes to Remember

To recap, the key to writing a reflective essay is demonstrating what lessons you have taken away from your experiences, and why and how you have been shaped by these lessons.

The reflective thinking process begins with you – you must consciously make an effort to identify and examine your own thoughts in relation to a particular experience. Don’t hesitate to explore any prior knowledge or experience of the topic, which will help you identify why you have formed certain opinions on the subject. Remember that central to reflective essay writing is the examination of your attitudes, assumptions and values, so be upfront about how you feel. Reflective writing can be quite therapeutic, helping you identify and clarify your strengths and weaknesses, particularly in terms of any knowledge gaps that you may have. It’s a pretty good way of improving your critical thinking skills, too. It enables you to adopt an introspective posture in analysing your experiences and how you learn/make sense of them.

If you are still having difficulties with starting the writing process, why not try mind-mapping which will help you to structure your thinking and ideas, enabling you to produce a coherent piece. Creating a mind map will ensure that your argument is written in a very systematic way that will be easy for your tutor to follow. Here’s a recap of the contents of this article, which also serves as a way to create a mind map:

1. Identify the topic you will be writing on.

2. Note down any ideas that are related to the topic and if you want to, try drawing a diagram to link together any topics, theories, and ideas.

3. Allow your ideas to flow freely, knowing that you will always have time to edit your reflective essay .

4. Consider how your ideas are connected to each other, then begin the writing process.

And finally, keep in mind that although there are descriptive elements in a reflective essay, we can’t emphasise enough how crucial it is that your work is critical, analytical, and adopts a reflective posture in terms of your experience and the lessons you have learned from it.

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How to Write a Reflective Essay

• 3-minute read
• 29th August 2018

If you think that a “reflective essay” is a college paper written on a mirror, this post is for you. That’s because we’re here to explain exactly what a reflective essay is and how to write one. And we can tell you from the outset that no mirrors are required to follow our advice.

What Is Reflective Writing?

The kind of “reflection” we’re talking about here is personal. It involves considering your own situation and analyzing it so you can learn from your experiences. To do this, you need to describe what happened, how you felt about it, and what you might be able to learn from it for the future.

This makes reflective writing a useful part of courses that involve work-based learning . For instance, a student nurse might be asked to write a reflective essay about a placement.

When writing a reflective essay, moreover, you may have to forget the rule about not using pronouns like “I” or “we” in academic writing. In reflective writing, using the first person is essential!

The Reflective Cycle

There are many approaches to reflective learning, but one of the most popular is Gibb’s Reflective Cycle . This was developed by Professor Graham Gibbs and can be applied to a huge range of situations. In all cases, though, it involves the following steps:

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• Description – You will need to describe your experiences in detail. This includes what happened, where and when it happened, who else was involved, and what you did.
• Feelings – How you felt before, during, and after the experience you describe.
• Evaluation and Analysis – Think about what went well and what could be improved upon based on your experience. Try to refer to ideas you’ve learned in class while thinking about this.
• Conclusions – Final thoughts on what you’ve learned from the experience.
• Action – How you will put what you’ve learned into practice.

If your reflective essay addresses the steps above, you are on the right track!

Structuring a Reflective Essay

While reflective essays vary depending upon topic and subject area, most share a basic overall structure. Unless you are told otherwise, then, your essay should include the following:

• Introduction – A brief outline of what your essay is about.
• Main Body – The main part of your essay will be a description of what happened and how it made you feel . This is also where you will evaluate and analyze your experiences, either as part of the description or as a separate section in the essay.
• Conclusion – The conclusion of your essay should sum up what you have learned from reflecting on your experiences and what you would do differently in the future.
• Reference List – If you have cited any sources in your essay, make sure to list them with full bibliographic information at the end of the document.

Finally, once you’ve written your essay, don’t forget to get it checked for spelling and grammar errors!

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A reflective essay is a type of writing where you explore how an event, experience, or concept has influenced your development or perspective. It involves deep thinking, self-analysis, and personal reflection. In a reflective essay, you explai what you learned and how you changed as a result of that experience.

In this article, you will learn how to write a reflective essay, and how to highlight impactful experiences. A reflection essay seems easy as you don’t have to defend one’s point of view or convince the reader of something. But it has its challenges, so we recommend to keep on reading and find out everything you need to know about this type of essay. More complex examples are available down below.

What Is a Reflective Essay: Definition

A good question to start with is, “What is a reflective essay?” A reflective essay is a type of academic writing, in which the student has to test personal life experience/position towards a particular topic. Unlike in argumentative writing, the student does not have to defend the personal position. It does not require a complicated, professional language with some terminology. Do not define something - focus on sharing personal life experience, skills, development, and the most vivid examples to illustrate the topic.

Reflective Essay Format

A reflection essay student writes to meet the college writing standards has a different format from the one a magazine writer should present to reach the issue’s audience. However, each reflective paper has a similar outline. Reflective essay format depends on the general requirements your teacher provides. Some of them can ask for a specific format for your essay. APA writing style , MLA, and Chicago are the basic formats you can use. But if you don’t know exactly which formatting to use, you can use reflective essay apa format. This is the most common college essay format, so knowing its requirements is critical: Font:  Times New Roman, 12 points Interval:  Double interval Margins:  1 inch all round Page Numbers:  Insert a title in the upper left corner of each page.  

Reflective Essay Outline and Structure

Knowing how to write a reflective essay is essential. Even if you feel confident about your thoughts and knowledge, don’t start your writing without a clear and well-designed plan. Without logical essay structure , your essay will likely achieve lower marks. To avoid this situation, follow 10 easy steps we provided below. The first thing every student needs to understand how to write a good reflective essay is an effective, detailed outline. It has 3 typical sections: introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Writing a reflective essay does not require any references – the only person to refer is the student who decides to share his thoughts & ideas. Let’s look at 4 main reasons to include an outline of reflective essays.  

• An outline assists in laying out the details the student wants to leave after narrowing down the draft before working on the final paper. It prevents them from concluding the essay by realizing something is missing.
• An outline provides a clear, concise roadmap, which prevents the writer from taking curvy paths and facing dead ends. It shows the way like a compass in the woods.
• An outline helps to save a lot of time.
• An outline helps the potential readers, including teachers & classmates, to avoid falling off the main point when reading the essay partially.

Reflective essay outline is not much different from other types of essays. Use this reflective essay template in creating your perfect reflective essay:

How to Start a Reflective Essay: Creating an Introduction

Let’s figure out how to write a reflective essay introduction. Start with stating the primary focus of the personal reflection. Avoid being indirect and covering a range of topics; stay direct and concise by underlining the basic purpose of sharing a life experience. Professional Opinion:

“Giving a preview of the most exciting part of the story is a clue. The target reader may lack time to read the full piece from cover to cover. “There are many things I have learned from Marketing class. The most valuable lesson I have obtained is checking the effectiveness of 2 different approaches or services through utilizing so-called A/B testing.” It will make the reader think about what is special about this specific method. The reader will go on reading the body paragraphs to find out!” Professor Hemsworth, History & Anthropology teacher and academic writer at StudyCrumb

Another way to attract attention in the introductory paragraph is to come up with the intriguing hook for essay sentences like statistics, fact, quote, metaphor, rhetorical question, or joke. It depends on the mood of your reflective narrative.

Working on Reflective Essay Thesis

Some people may say that a reflective essay does not need a thesis. However, the example shared in the previous section talking about introduction is an example of the inspiring thesis statement. Include at least a reflective summary of the primary idea. The best idea would be to focus on previewing the peak of the plot development or highlighting the most valuable lesson learned. Let’s take a look at this little reflective essay thesis sample.

If you find it challenging, rely on our  professional essay writing service  and have your reflective essay done with academic standards in mind. 

Writing a Reflection Essay Body Paragraph

What is the purpose of a body paragraph ? The body paragraphs of the reflective analysis interpret the way the author evolved or what he/she has absorbed from a particular life lesson (mention 3 different lessons). When writing your reflective essay you should mention the circumstances that forced you to pass a certain way. If you study a subject like English Literature or Arts, the paper’s prompt may ask you to describe how you changed as a field professional during the course of study. It is important to choose a specific interval of time to list the improvements. Compare & contrast the initial skills to the knowledge you have today. It is a great idea to tell the audience the ways various tasks, challenges, and lessons made the author grow since the beginning of his education. There is no need to conduct research to collect the supporting evidence. The author alone is responsible for defending every stated claim with the help of vivid samples that describe the topic the best. Example: In case the student has become more professional in the field of writing, he should list the causes of those changes (new English teacher, more practice at home, part-time job related to the field of writing). Who knows – some of the ideas may be used by other students to succeed!  

How to Write a Reflective Essay Conclusion

The question of how to end a reflection paper is not less important. The last challenge is to prepare an impressive, inspiring, and powerful conclusion, which will make the target readers want to develop the same positive way. Write a reflective summary regarding the way you have changed over a given period of time. Share some forecast by looking ahead: how the experiences listed in the essay would influence further personal development. By looking at the past events, decide which of them was the most important. The good idea is to compare & contrast past and future events to stress the gaps between the obtained skills and experience, possibly gained in the future. Don't want to bother with writing any conclusions? Use a summary maker to generate e reflective essay conlusion in seconds.

How to Write a Reflective Essay: 10 Easy Steps

Writing personal reflection helps students to stress their individuality by highlighting various skills, knowledge, behavior, feelings, and even mood. The purpose of writing a reflective essay is to show how the person changed over time and what factors played an important role in those metamorphoses. Keep on reading this section to learn steps that will make your reflective writing perfect. Step 1:  Think of the questions that interest you the most. It may be your experience, feelings, or an event in life. Make sure you analyzed the question well. Check credible sources and collect relevant information. Step 2:  Decide what you want to write about. Make sure you know how to title an essay . Identify the topic. Step 3:  After you decided on a topic, create an appealing title that will entice readers. Make sure your title is clear and to the point. Step 4:  Create an outline of your essay. Step 5:  Create an attention-grabbing hook for reflective essay. It should be some intriguing sentence or phrase that will arouse the interest of your readers. Step 6:  Create an introduction of your reflection paper. Step 7:  Think what you will include in the main body of your text. Start writing your body paragraphs. Step 8:  Diversify your text with all the necessary details to make your readers see a clear picture of the environment in your story. It can be some place, people, atmosphere, etc. Step 9:  After the reader is already familiar with the setting and characters, you should tell about yourself. What were your feelings? How has the situation affected you? What did you learn from this situation? Step 10:  Conclude your reflective essay. Briefly summarize all the points that were mentioned in your text and provide a short moral with recommendations. You can use these steps as a checklist for your writing process. In case you need another step-by-step guide on response essays  or any other type of writing, we've got you covered.

>> Read more: How to Write Essays

Reflective Essays Sample From Successful College Students

No recommendations, tips & tricks help the students to understand the way a particular assignment should look like in the end as effectively as the examples. The article contains one of the up-to-date reflective essay examples from a college student.

Writing a Reflective Essay: Bottom Line

Congratulations, we have learned how to write a reflective essay. We really do hope that our guidelines, tips, and examples were useful to you. Now, you can definitely work on your reflection assignment with a clear understanding of its structure and main points. So start your writing, and the sky's the limit! 

In case you need more writing tips, feel free to browse our Blog. Be it a diagnostic essay , a synthesis essay  or a response paper , we have tutorials for any type of writing. 

Consider  buying essay papers  in case you've got other plans for the evening. Submit your details to StudyCrumb and get an astounding paper written in line with your requirements. Your assigned writer will handle any assignment with a blink of an eye!

Frequently Asked Questions about Writing a Reflective Essay

1. what is a common mistake when writing a reflective essay.

A common mistake when writing a reflective essay is to drift away from the subject you're writing about. It usually happens when you don’t stick to your initial plan. So plan your writing well and if you feel that you go a bit off topic, be sure that you return to the same topic you originally discussed.

2. What is the purpose of writing a reflective essay?

The purpose of writing a reflective essay is to make a student write about their personal experience, explore it, reflect on it and find positive and negative aspects. The goal is to analyze how a student changed due to this experience and what made them change. What lesson a student learned is an essential point in persuasive writing.

3. How to write a reflective essay on a book?

If you are writing a reflective essay on a book, the main task is to show your teacher how you reflect on a chosen book, how you understand the problem presented by an author. To create a good essay, start with brief information about the author. Then, without spoilers, briefly summarize the main points of a book. After that explain the main conflicts, share your impressions. Ask questions like: “What are the peculiarities of the main characters?”, “What did an author want to say by indicating the main issues?”

Daniel Howard is an Essay Writing guru. He helps students create essays that will strike a chord with the readers.

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Teaching Students How to Write a Reflective Narrative Essay

What Is a Reflective Narrative?

In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin , Franklin reflects on different formative periods throughout his life. The literary work is divided into four parts: his childhood; his apprenticeship; his career and accomplishments as a printer, writer, and scientist; and a brief section about his civic involvements in Pennsylvania.

Franklin’s Autobiography is a historical example of a reflective narrative. A reflective narrative is a type of personal writing that allows writers to look back at incidents and changes in their lives. Writing a reflective narrative enables writers to not only recount experiences but also analyze how they’ve changed or learned lessons.

Reflective Narrative Essay Example

A reflective narrative essay consists of a beginning, middle, and ending. The beginning, or introduction, provides background and introduces the topic. The middle paragraphs provide details and events leading up to the change. Finally, the ending, or conclusion, sums up the writer’s reflection about the change.

The following is an excerpt from a reflective narrative essay written by a student entitled “Not Taken for Granted” (read the full essay in our “Reflective Narrative Guide” ). In the writing piece, the writer reflects on his changing relationship with his little brother:

I guess I was spoiled. At first, I was an only child, cuddled and cooed over by parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Up until I was eight years old, life was sweet. Then along came Grant, and everything changed.

Grant is my little brother. I don’t remember all the details, but he was born a month prematurely, so he needed a lot of extra attention, especially from Mom. My mom and dad didn’t ignore me, but I was no longer the center of their universe, and I resented the change in dynamics. And at first, I also resented Grant.

Fortunately, Grant’s early birth didn’t cause any real problems in his growth, and he crawled, toddled, and talked pretty much on schedule. My parents were still somewhat protective of him, but as he got older, he developed the obnoxious habit of attaching himself to me, following my every move. My parents warned me to be nice to him, but I found him totally annoying. By the time I became a teenager, he was, at five, my shadow, following me around, copying my every move, asking questions, and generally being a pest.

Steps to Writing a Reflective Narrative Essay

How can Grades 3 and up students write a reflective narrative essay consisting of an engaging introduction, supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion that sums up the essay? Have your students follow these seven steps:

1. Select a Topic

The first step in prewriting is for students to select a topic. There is plenty for them to choose from, including life-altering events (such as a new experience or failing or succeeding at a new task or activity) or people or moments that made an impact and caused a change in your students’ lives (a teacher or a trip to a new city or country). Another way students can choose their topics is to think of ways they have changed and explore the reasons for those changes.

A Then/Now Chart can help students brainstorm changes in their lives. In this chart, they should list how things used to be and how they are now. Afterward, they’ll write why they changed. After brainstorming various changes, students can mark the one change they wish to write about. See below for an example of this type of chart:

2. Gather Relevant Details

After your students choose their topic, they must gather details that’ll help them outline their essay. A T-Chart is a tool that can help collect those details about their lives before and after the change took place.

3. Organize Details

The last step in prewriting consists of your students organizing the details of their essays. A reflective narrative may cover an extended period, so students should choose details that demonstrate their lives before, during, and after the change. A third tool students can use to help plot the narrative is a Time Line , where they focus on the background (before the change), realization (during the change), and finally, reflection (after the change).

4. Write the First Draft

Now, it’s time for your students to write their first drafts. The tools they used to brainstorm will come in handy! However, though their notes should guide them, they should remain open to any new ideas they may have during this writing step. Their essays should consist of a beginning, middle, and ending. The beginning, or introduction paragraph, provides background details and events that help build the narrative and lead to the change.

The middle, or body paragraphs, should include an anecdote that helps demonstrate the change. Your students should remember to show readers what is happening and use dialogue. Finally, the ending, or conclusion paragraph, should reflect on events after the change.

Allow your students to write freely—they shouldn’t worry too much about spelling and grammar. Freewriting consists of 5–10 minutes of writing as much as possible. For more information on freewriting, check out our lesson !

5. Revise and Improve Draft

Revising allows students to think about what they wrote and ways they can improve their drafts. When revising, students should check for: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, and sentence fluency . Here’s a list of questions they can ask themselves when reading their drafts:

• Is the topic interesting?
• Are there enough details and events to support the topic?

Organization

• Does the beginning provide background and introduce the topic?
• Do the middle paragraphs show how I changed?
• Does the ending reflect on how my life was altered by this experience?
• Do I sound interested in the topic?
• Does the dialogue sound natural?

Word Choice

• Have I used specific nouns and vivid verbs?
• Have I used descriptive modifiers?

Sentence Fluency

• Do the sentences read smoothly?
• Have I varied the lengths and beginnings of my sentences?

After identifying the parts of their drafts that need reworking, students should make another draft.

6. Edit as Needed

After revising their drafts, students should edit for conventions (spelling, capitalization, grammar, clarity, and punctuation errors). They could even exchange essays with one another to check each other’s work. Finally, after editing, they’ll have a final copy to proofread for any minor errors they or the other student might’ve missed.

7. Share with an Audience

Writing a reflective narrative essay is a meaningful way for students to reflect on their lives. Additionally, their writing pieces could help others understand more about them. Therefore, consider having your students share their essays. They could publish their writing pieces by making a class eBook or submitting them to relevant writing contests. Or students can read them aloud to their classmates or family members.

More Reflective Narrative Essay Writing Tips

Essay writing can be challenging as it requires proper brainstorming, organization, and creativity. That’s why it’s great for students to have writing guides to aid them in the writing process. This downloadable PDF handout for students provides tips for how to write a reflective narrative essay.

Try Writable to support your ELA curriculum, district benchmarks, and state standards with more than 600 fully customizable writing assignments and rubrics for students in Grades 3–12. Learn more .

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How to Write a Reflective Essay

To write a reflective essay, choose a personal experience and reflect on its impact. Outline your thoughts, starting with an introduction. In the body, describe the experience and your reflections. Conclude by summarizing your insights. Revise for clarity and coherence.

Reflective essay definition: "Reflective writing is a practice of analyzing a situation from a perspective that may differ from the viewpoint of the audience. Reflective writing entails the process of collecting data, organizing and synthesizing the gathered data, and expressing a personal opinion about the collected data and opinion." Reflection on one's experiences is reflected in one's writing.

This type of writing challenges your ability to look back onto one's own experiences and put it on paper in a well-structured and sort of a narrative way. The aim is to describe your feelings, a certain perspective on the event. Later on, you will need to make a conclusion on what impact something particular has had on you. There will be a need to describe what you have learned from that and how this new knowledge may have changed your perception.

Let's dive in!

What Is a Reflective Essay?

"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader – not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon." - E.L. Doctorow.

A reflective essay is a type of writing where the author explores and analyzes their life experiences. Through this exploration, the writer reflects on how these experiences have contributed to their personal evolution, growth, or development.

Knowing how to write a reflection essay involves more than a predetermined format but is an art of creative expression. As an aspiring writer, you must delve into personal experiences. From topics like your first day in college to pivotal global events, you must infuse unique perspectives into your narrative. *Choosing the Right Theme ‍

Whether given a prompt by a teacher or the autonomy to choose, theme selection is pivotal. Your topics may range widely, but remember to engage your emotions to breathe life into the words. If you’re unsure what to do, you can buy essays online to be your guide.

*Weaving a Compelling Narrative

Create a story that envelops the reader by ensuring meticulous attention to adjectives and details. A reflective essay transcends mere recounting and immerses readers in a world where emotions and experiences unfold naturally.

*The Power of Honest Reflection

Consistency and relevance are the bedrock of compelling reflective essays. Be clear and coherent so your readers can seamlessly follow your train of thought. Embrace your emotions for authenticity in expression.To craft an excellent reflection essay, blend creativity with honesty. Let emotions flow naturally, and carefully choose vocabulary that aligns with your chosen format.

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How to Start Writing a Reflection Essay

Follow these steps to get started:

• Comprehend and condense the content.
• Examine the material thoroughly.
• Choose a central theme.
• Draw connections among your viewpoints.
• Start with an introductory segment.
• Craft the main body of the essay.
• Conclude effectively.
• Review and refine your writing.

Now you might already have an idea of what the reflection writing is. Yet, before you get to the actual writing process, let's take a look at some steps that a student should take. Their overview is highly likely to help you define your course of action.

First, think of events, places, people, books, and whatnot. Pick a certain object or an event that has had an impact on you, notwithstanding whether it was negative or positive. 

Choose a certain thing that you really feel like talking about at this particular moment in time. Think of the effects it had on you; be ready to describe this experience in detail. 

A reflection essay requires having your thoughts and views on particular subjects on paper. Some students choose to abstain from storytelling here. Still, never forget to add your personality in writing, make your own voice heard. 

• Choose the topic
• Reflect on it
• Make an outline
• Write a draft
• Compose specific body parts
• Make a conclusion

So, let's proceed with answering the key question - how to write a reflective essay? What to start with? What is the structure? 

Although reflective writing has a similar format with any other essay, it has some special features that each writer working on such a piece should bear in mind. In the sections below, you will find answers to all these questions.

We will reveal the crucial components of A-grade worth writing for you. 

Reflective Essay Outline&Structure

As all the types of academic writing, a reflection essay requires a proper outline with all the crucial elements indicated. It will lead a writer throughout the whole piece as well as you as an author through each step of creating the material. 

In this case, it is even more essential, as while writing and reflecting on your own experience, it's risky to lose the train of thoughts and go the wrong direction. 

That is why you must have a clear structure at hand. Following it closely would guarantee a coherent writing piece as a result. 

Let's take a look at the basic parts that you may stick to while working on your reflective essay paragraphs.

This is a pretty common reflective essay scheme. Yet, it is still able to help you follow the topic without any risk of going too far or in a completely wrong direction with this text.

A reflection essay outline always consists of good old traditional parts, which are as follows:

• Introduction;
• Conclusion. 

An Introduction is a part where the main reflective essay thesis must be coherently outlined and presented. Readers should get to know at this point what the whole paper is going to be about. 

In this section, you are also free to convey to the audience a particular impression you might have had on the subject matter. It of crucial importance to be consistent here in this part. Don't forget to mention all the main points in the right order with appropriate linking. 

Example of the thesis: "The moment I'd read "Pride and Prejudice" when I was eleven, it was like my eyes opened for the first time. This masterpiece stirred unconditional love for classics within me that I didn't realize could exist." 

The Body part is usually the core of the work, and it must include all the main ideas. Each sentence must be well presented and clearly structured. 

In this part, a writer is answering the following question. How the event or a situation has changed him, and in what way? It is important to indicate several main effects and describe each one in a separate paragraph. A short summary must be provided by examples as supporting details. 

For example, if you write that something has made you more motivated, give a particular example from life. Note down when you felt motivated and how a certain situation has helped you succeed. 

In the Conclusion section the main points from the body of the text need to be re-translated. Recap the ideas you've already provided, offer some final thoughts. You may finish the paper with a rhetorical question aimed at the audience. You may also contemplate possible future events in your life that might result from the experience you've already covered. 

Having the main aspects covered, let's talk about the actual business now.

Did you like our inspiring Reflective Essay Guide?

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How to Start a Reflective Essay : Introduction ‍

In the introductory part of your reflective essay, you'll articulate the essay's objective and theme. It's here where you'll present the thesis of your paper and provide the reader with an understanding of the motivations behind your choice of subject.

If you’re stuck wondering “how do I write my essay ”, you are not alone. Completing this assignment is challenging for many students. The pivotal first sentence of the essay is often a stumbling block.

Pondering, how do you write a reflective essay? Remember that the introduction holds the power to captivate or lose your reader. You must enthrall your audience by weaving in a compelling hook like:

*Inspiring quote*Rhetorical question

*Interesting anecdote

*Intriguing fact

Capture attention by highlighting your narrative’s most intriguing facets. Unveil a potent thesis statement, making it succinct yet impactful.

Avoid delving into excessive details. Instead, kindle curiosity, inviting readers to journey through every line. Another approach is offering a glimpse of forthcoming conclusions, creating anticipation.

Check this example, "A childhood incident forced me into premature adulthood." Mastering this art ensures your introduction resonates, leaving readers eager for the rest of your narrative.

How to Write a Body Section

Ideally, the main part should be divided into three paragraphs. Each one should include a separate idea or reflect a particular thought on the matter. Here's how you can do it: 

1. In the first paragraph, mention one reason the subject impressed you and why. Give more details and describe your emotions. This piece is all about reflective writing, so there are no right answers. The core is to offer your original perspective. Speculate, be open, but don't forget about the "conclusion – reason – example" format that is key here. 

2. In the second part you should present the reasoning for choosing to write on a specific subject. Mention what impact it has had on you. Stick to the formula outline in the aforementioned paragraph.

3. In the third part, mention yet another point that you might have on your mind. You should write about how the person, event, book, news, etc. have influenced you and why. 

When reflecting on the subject, remember to ask yourself the following questions. They will give you more food for thought and will help in keeping you in the right direction:

• What have you found out about your personality after this experience? 
• Was it a good or bad experience?
• What are the lessons you've learned from it?
• Why do you think this specific event has happened? Did you make the right decision at a time?
• If you had a chance to change something, what exactly would it be?
• What are your general thoughts on a matter? Was it useful (rewarding?) experience or not? Why?

Bear these reflection examples in mind when you write each body part paragraph. Reflect on every chosen aspect in a separate paragraph.

The Conclusion of a Reflection Essay

There are several ways to finish writing a reflective essay. Let's take a look at some of them:

• Summarize all the points;
• Reflect on the "What if" situation. How would you act with your current experience and the views you have now? Would your actions remain the same, or would you change anything? 
• You can also approach this point in another way. Try to answer the following question in your text - how will you act in the future, if this event repeats? Will you do anything differently? Why?
• Formulate a rhetorical question aimed at your readers. 
• Outline what exactly you've learned from the situation in question. 

Your conclusion should be brief and comprehensive. Every reader should experience the feeling of a story that has been told with all the t's crossed.

Tips for Writing a Good Reflective Essay

• Even though you are working on a personal story, it is still academic writing, which requires appropriate language and sources.  ‍ So, do your research, study the subject from as many viewpoints as possible. Reference relevant sources. This will show your awareness of the topic and the ability to analyze the subject from different angles.
• Don't mention not credible resources like: "a friend of mine thinks," "my mom says," etc. ‍
• To get a deeper understanding of what reflective writing looks like, read some samples, and get used to the format.  ‍
• Use the first-person narrative like "I" or "Me," but don't overwork it. There is no need to get too personal. ‍
• To make your story more captivating and logical, don't forget to mention a turning point that has influenced you.

Reflective Essay Examples

To make you have a more vivid picture of a reflection essay, we've prepared a sample, with a detailed description of its structure. 

The example above demonstrates a coherent story that covers the writer's feelings, one's standpoint, thought on the experience, and life-changing conclusions reached afterward. 

It is spiced with a nice choice of adjectives, so readers may vividly imagine the story and stay focused on it. Pay attention, that there is no extra information given, besides the actual subject and its impact. 

Reflective Essay Topics

A reflective essay topic may be assigned by a teacher or chosen by a student. Since the task is all contemplating personal experience, you may treat such a piece as an excerpt from a diary that you are ready to share with others. 

Choose something that does matter in your book. If you're a bit lost and don't have a clue about the right theme, here're some guiding examples.

Important people:

• Someone, you've enjoyed learning from (nor necessarily a teacher.) It may be your best friend, somebody from your family, etc.
• A house from your childhood;
• A city or a country you've been to;
• An important place that has inspired you.

Life-changing events: ‍

• A time of your biggest achievement\failure;
• An overwhelming experience;
• A concert, a match or a performance that you've visited;
• A significant memory from your childhood;
• An important dialog.
• A movie that has impressed you;
• A book that happened to change your perception;
• A magazine that you used to read a lot;
• Social media platform that has changed your life.

These are some reflective essay ideas, which you may consider covering in your writing. 

Whether you're good at reflecting on your life or not, mastering the skill of self-awareness is crucial. We all experience ups and downs, and it's important to learn from our mistakes and make conscious decisions in our lives.

To become self-aware, be willing to admit failure, accept critical feedback, consider different perspectives, and be open to changing your views. Reflective writing is not just about creating, but also about critical thinking. Be prepared to assess and evaluate your own choices and decisions.

Frequently asked questions

How to write a good reflective essay check out these helpful hacks .

Need to understand how to create a reflective essay? Worry not! Crafting a standout reflective essay is a breeze with these essential tips. Start by capturing attention with a compelling hook. Unveil intriguing aspects of your story, and wrap it up with a potent thesis statement. Keep it concise captivating, and let your personal journey shine through until the end.

How to End a Reflective Essay? Here’s How to Conclude with Impact

A professional custom essay writing service recommends ending your reflective essay with a bang! Wrap up your reflection writing with a strong conclusion. Make it impactful and memorable by summarizing key points, offering final thoughts, providing lessons, and perhaps posing a rhetorical question for more reflection. Keep things concise to ensure your ending leaves a lasting impression on your readers.

Writing a Reflective Essay? Do It Without Losing Your Focus

Discover how to do a reflective essay without losing focus by skillfully crafting a clear introduction that hooks your reader. Ensure a seamless flow by presenting the main ideas coherently in the body of your essay. Conclude with impact, leaving a lasting impression with a strong summary.

Engage your reader throughout, guaranteeing captivation from your opening lines to the concluding salvo. Let your body paragraphs tell an intimate story while your introduction captures the reader's attention.

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Reflective Essay Examples and Samples

Reflecting on a chosen topic requires deep insight, making reflective essays difficult to write. Read our samples of reflective essays to gain a greater understanding of how to write one on your own.

Introduction to Reflective Essay: An Exploration of Self

A reflective essay is a type of personal writing that allows you to explore and document your thoughts, feelings, and insights about a particular subject or experience. Unlike other forms of academic writing, a reflective essay is more subjective and focuses more on your personal perspectives and interpretations. Writing a reflective essay can be a powerful way to articulate your growth and discoveries, making it an essential tool for creative and personal writing.

The Importance of Personal Experiences in Reflective Writing

Reflective writing revolves around personal experiences. It’s through such experiences that we learn, grow, and evolve. As such, personal experience plays a crucial role in reflective essays. A well-written reflective essay should vividly describe the experience, delve into the feelings it evoked, and critically analyze the impact it had on you. Reflective essays are not just a recounting of events, but a deep exploration of how those events influenced your outlook on life, reshaped your beliefs, or contributed to your personal growth.

Creative Expression: The Heart of a Reflective Essay

Creative writing goes hand in hand with reflective essays. The very nature of reflective essays – introspective, personal, and subjective – calls for creative expression. The creative door is wide open when writing a reflective essay, allowing you to experiment with different writing styles, narrative structures, and descriptive techniques. The goal here is to create an engaging and compelling narrative that captures your personal insights and emotional journey in the most authentic way possible.

Examining Growth Through Reflective Essays: A Journey of Self-Discovery

Reflective essays often serve as a mirror, reflecting your journey of growth. Whether it’s overcoming a personal challenge, learning a new skill, or undergoing a transformative life experience, these growth narratives form the backbone of reflective essays. When writing a reflective essay, it’s essential to not only describe the event or experience but also to delve into how it contributed to your growth as a person. How did it change you? What did you learn about yourself? How have you evolved as a result? Answering these questions can lead to profound insights and self-discovery.

Using Books and Literature as a Catalyst for Reflection

Books and literature often serve as a catalyst for reflection. A classic novel, a thought-provoking non-fiction book, or a compelling piece of poetry can provoke deep reflection and become the subject of a reflective essay. Whether it’s a book that changed your perspective, a character you deeply resonated with, or a theme that made you rethink your beliefs, reflective essays about literature can be a powerful way to explore your thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the written word.

Emotional Intelligence: Exploring Your Emotions in a Reflective Essay

Exploring your emotions forms an essential part of the reflective writing process. In fact, reflecting on our feelings and emotions is an exercise in emotional intelligence. A reflective essay offers a safe space to navigate complex emotions, understand emotional responses, and articulate emotional growth. Whether reflecting on a life-changing event or exploring your reactions to a particular book, it’s crucial to delve into your emotional journey. By understanding your feelings, you can gain deeper insights into your emotional patterns, personal triggers, and coping mechanisms.

• Understanding Emotional Responses: When writing a reflective essay, it’s crucial to delve deep into the emotions experienced during a particular event or circumstance. This could range from joy and excitement to confusion, disappointment, or even grief.
• Navigating Complex Emotions: Sometimes, experiences can elicit complex emotions that are hard to navigate. Reflective writing offers a safe space to untangle these emotions and gain a clearer understanding of your emotional state.
• Articulating Emotional Growth: A reflective essay allows you to document your emotional growth. Overcoming a difficult situation, managing negative emotions, or discovering a new perspective all signify emotional growth that can be articulated through reflective writing.
• Identifying Emotional Patterns: By consistently writing reflective essays, you can identify patterns in your emotional responses. This can help you better understand your reactions to similar situations in the future.
• Recognizing Personal Triggers: Reflective writing can help you identify personal triggers that prompt specific emotional responses. This awareness can equip you to manage these triggers more effectively.
• Developing Coping Mechanisms: Understanding your emotions through reflective writing can lead to the development of effective coping mechanisms. Whether it’s mindfulness, meditation, or simply taking a walk, recognizing what helps you manage your emotions is a significant step towards emotional intelligence.

Reflecting on College Class Experiences

College classes offer rich experiences that can provide plenty of material for a reflective essay. Perhaps it’s a creative writing class that opened up a new world of expression for you, or a challenging science class that pushed you to your limits. Reflecting on these experiences can help you understand your academic journey, recognize your learning style, and appreciate the knowledge you’ve gained. Discuss the skills you’ve acquired, the challenges you’ve faced, the friendships you’ve made, and how these experiences have contributed to your growth and development.

Time Management Reflections: Overcoming Procrastination

Reflecting on time management can lead to valuable insights about your work habits and productivity. Have you struggled with procrastination? Have you discovered effective time management skills? A reflective essay on this topic can discuss your past struggles, the strategies you’ve employed to overcome them, and the progress you’ve made. By examining your relationship with time, you can uncover patterns, identify areas for improvement, and devise strategies to enhance your productivity.

Reflective Essay Examples: Lessons and Insights

One of the best ways to understand reflective essays is by reading and analyzing examples. These examples can serve as a guide, offering insights into the structure, tone, and style of reflective writing. Whether it’s an essay reflecting on personal growth, a transformative travel experience, or a powerful book that left an impression, reflective essay examples can provide inspiration for your own writing. Using a paraphraser can also help you rephrase and improve your writing, ensuring your reflections are expressed clearly and effectively.

In conclusion, reflective essays are a powerful form of personal and creative writing. They allow you to explore your experiences, emotions, and growth in a deeply personal way. Through reflective writing, you can gain valuable insights about yourself and your journey, making it a rewarding and transformative process.

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Reflective Essay Examples

• DESCRIPTION Woman Using Laptop Writing a Reflective Essay
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Self-reflection might seem like a no-brainer when you start a reflective paper. But, delving into your thoughts and experiences is harder than you might think. Learn what a reflective essay is and how to write one through a few examples. Plus, explore several topics to get you started.

What Is Reflective Writing?

Reflective writing is a form of creative writing where you examine an experience or situation through self-reflection. Through the course of creating the reflective paper, you describe insights that you gained or express your views on some experience. Reflective essays are typically personal writings about an experience, but they can be made up as well.

Tone and Structure

Self-reflection is a personal experience. Therefore, the tone and voice of the writing are personal as well. Written typically from a first-person point of view , these types of essays take the reader through a journey of growth and discovery.

The structure and format follow a typical essay writing outline . Begin with a great hook and a strong introduction . Pull the reader in without giving too much away, then provide a quick overview of the reflective topic. Next, in the body of the essay, move into the meat of the paper by describing your experiences and growth. Round out your writing with a solid conclusion that concisely restates what you learned.

Examples of Reflective Essays

Now that you have an understanding of what it takes to write a reflective essay, check out a few examples for inspiration.

My Little Brother

This essay example is written at a middle or high school level, reflecting on the arrival of a younger sibling.

In my short life, there are many experiences that could qualify as life-changing. Every new experience was, at one time or another, the first experience. For good or bad, each instance changed the course that my life has taken. But, the most transformative experience was the birth of my youngest brother. Joel is someone my parents often call a happy accident. At the time that my mother became pregnant, I was 13, and my other brother, Jake, was 10. We were what you would call a well-rounded, perfect family of four. We neatly fit into the perfect classification in nearly every way. We didn't realize what we were missing until the moment that my youngest brother first opened his striking blue eyes. In truth, I resented the fact that I would be having another sibling. Nothing needed to be added to our family, and my mother, already 38 at the time, was considered high risk because of her age. The pregnancy itself was full of complications that sent the straight course of my life into rollercoaster-like loops that my 13-year-old mind had a hard time comprehending. But now, I can see how forging through those loops helped me to roll with the punches that life inevitably brings The day Joel was born, my mother took me with her to the hospital rather than my father. It wasn't a planned move, but Jake and my father were both feverish; I was the next best alternative. Sitting with her through every contraction, I gained a new respect for just how powerful and strong a woman could be in what might be considered their weakest moment. Holding her hand and feeding her ice chips, I gained a connection with my mother that I didn't realize we were lacking. The moment my new baby brother came into this world, I realized two things nearly simultaneously. First, you don't realize how much you need something until it's sitting in your lap. Second, my life after this moment would never be the same. The moment he curled his chubby little finger around mine, I understood the words "happy accident" completely. There are many different experiences in life that have changed a part of me as a person. But, nothing so profoundly changed my views and outlook on life like the birth of my youngest brother. Joel's arrival was a life-altering event that caused me to see the world through new eyes.

Reading My Favorite Book

This reflective essay example about a favorite book is something you might find at the middle or high school level.

When it comes to books, I didn’t understand the appeal. I’d read one after another for each assignment not understanding what all the fuss was about. However, the moment I read Pride and Prejudice , it was like my literary eyes opened for the first time. It stirred love within me for classics I didn’t realize could exist. When I was first given the assignment of reading Pride and Prejudice , like many of my friends, I scoffed. With an eye roll, I internally calculated how much time I would have to read the book and write a report. I sighed at the loss of time with my friends for a stupid classic. Cracking open the cover, I was determined to hate it before even reading the first words. By the time I reached page 3, I nearly called it quits. But there was something about Elizabeth Bennet that quietly piqued my interest. I can’t say where, but somewhere along the way, my eyes devoured the pages instead of trudging along. The moment I reached the end, I was ecstatic and disappointed at the same time. Their ending had been perfect, but I realized I would miss them. Not only them, but I would also miss being part of their world. It was the first time characters of a story had affected me this way, so I tried to shake it off. However, after several days, that sadness carried me to the classics section of the school library. The moment I cracked open my next classic, my soul instantly felt more at ease, and I’ve never looked back. I never thought I’d say a book changed me, but in this case, it’s true. The love I found in Pride and Prejudice introduced me to a beautiful world of classic literature I can’t imagine living without. Despite not reading Pride and Prejudice for a while, it will always be my favorite book.

Reflective Essay Book

Creative communication.

This reflective essay example about the topic of creative writing is what you might expect to see at the college level.

I’ve always felt I excel in written communication. The skill of effectively communicating my thoughts and feelings through words and expressions seemed to come easily to me. However, I didn't realize how much my writing was lacking until my thoughts and feelings on writing were pushed nearly to their breaking point through my creative writing course. Learning the best way to manage time was a huge hurdle for me. I've always been a procrastinator. However, after the first day of class, I realized I would need to modify my thinking and approach to homework. I wasn't able to completely kill the procrastination habit I developed in high school, but I did learn some much-needed time management skills. I also learned how writing without the looming cloud of a deadline could open a creative door. A natural thinker and writer at heart, I thought I understood creative expression and wordplay... until my professor handed me my first grade. Upon looking at that striking "D" on the paper, I realized I would have to push myself harder and explore the depths my writing could reach. Not only did I learn to sharpen my technical writing chops, but I have found out how to dig into my creative soul to view my emotions and experiences in a whole new way. Going beyond the five-paragraph essay and fully exploring my feelings about a situation or action was challenging. This creative writing class pushed me to realize there isn't a limit on words when it comes to expressing something. I can convey a simple action a million different ways, and I mastered how to explore each one to find perfection in my written words. I also picked up new flexibility in my writing by opening my mind to different scopes of expression. Expressing all the changes that this class wrought in my writing is truly difficult. But, over the course of the eight weeks we spent together, I became a more competent writer. Not only do my words contain more depth and soul, but my writing itself has entered a whole new arena I didn't realize was possible. By studying new techniques and researching other approaches, I now have a sturdy foundation and a robust writing arsenal for future endeavors.

Reflective Essay Communication

Finding the perfect topic.

Half the battle in creating a great reflective paper is finding the perfect topic to write about. Your topic should be something that you experienced, learned, or grew from. It could also be a topic that requires you to think more deeply about a place or book.

Some fun, creative topics for self-reflection include:

• A fight with a family member - Why did it impact you? What did it change about you?
• The moment you feel in love - Explore the feelings and emotions that come with love and how it changes you.
• A sunset - What is it about the beauty of a sunset that impacts you?
• Your secret spot in your house - What about that spot is so important?
• Your first job - What was the experience like? Why was it meaningful?
• Your first date - Examine your emotions on the first date. Did it live up to the hype or fall short?
• Getting engaged - Discuss your feelings and the meaning of the experience.
• Experience in a college class - Class experiences are designed to change or mold you in some way. Discuss how you grew and fell short.
• Your first year in college - This is another larger-than-life event full of self-reflection.
• Is college important? - People feel strongly one way or another about college. What are your experiences?
• What college has taught you - How has attending college changed you and your thinking? Has it helped you grow as a person?
• A vacation you'll never forget - What about the vacation was so memorable?
• An incident you can't forget - Why can't you forget it? Explore your thoughts and emotions.
• Your most embarrassing moment - Everyone's most embarrassing moment is different, but there is always a lot of growth.
• Birth or death of a loved one - This can have a very profound effect on a person.
• Public speaking - People are either good or bad at public speaking. How did you feel?
• First fight with a friend - Were you able to get past the fight? How old were you? How did it change your relationship?
• Big win or loss of a sports team - This could be a sports team you were on or a sports team you love.
• Moving - This could be moving to college or moving away. Explore the way that the move affected you.
• Helping someone - Did you ever help a family or someone in need? What was the experience like? How did it make you feel as a person?

The Art of Self-Reflection

Reflecting on a personal experience might seem like an easy essay to write. However, to ace your reflection paper, dive deeply into your feelings and choose a topic that triggers a strong emotional response.

If a reflective essay doesn't fit you, try exploring more about argumentative essays , including tips for making a compelling argument.

8 Tips For Writing A Great Reflective Essay (With Examples)

By writing a reflective essay, you can capture some of these ephemeral emotions and make sense of who you are. Below, I share eight tips (and a few examples) that will help you do it in a better way. You may have to write a reflective essay as a part of an academic assignment or a college paper. Or perhaps you want to create it for yourself and never show it to anyone. Regardless of the reason, after reading this article, you will hopefully become better at it. They helped a lot of students over the years, so you may check them out.

Here’s how to write a great reflective essay:

1. first, what is a reflective essay, 2. the power of writing introspectively.

Many great men and women (like Charles Darwin or Frida Kahlo ) had a habit of keeping a journal. This seems to be forgotten these days as we record everything through our mobile devices. But the habit of introspective writing and journaling helps you get in touch with your inner self and even improves your mental health. The reflective essay serves a similar purpose. It lets you search for meaning in your life and lets you discover the underlying causes of your actions.

“Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forwards.” – Søren Kierkegaard

3. How do you start your essay?

This beginning has certain elements that make it effective:.

“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.” – Ralph Ellison

4. Learn how to structure your essay

In terms of length, it all depends on your assignment, but usually, the reflective essay has between 300 and 700 words . It has a rather informal structure and the use of language. After all, you’re drilling into your personal experiences, and often, this requires a poetic turn of the phrase. You’re more than welcome to use a wide range of advanced vocabulary .

Introduction

5. create an outline for your essay.

As with most writing assignments , the work begins with ideation and then creating some sort of outline . Here’s a simple process you can use to get everything ready before you start writing: a) Scan your mind in search of powerful experiences, meaningful memories, and thoughts about your past. This will serve as a raw material from which you’ll sculpt a piece of prose. b) Consider the attractiveness of your topic from the reader’s point of view. You certainly don’t want to bore anyone, so pick something interesting, but important. c) Organize your essay and divide it into a couple of paragraphs. Each paragraph should contain one important idea. d) Decide in which sequence you would like to share your ideas. Put some logic and chronology behind it. e) Jot down any side notes included in the essay. It’s always better to have an overabundance of material.

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” – C.G. Jung

6. The essay-writing process

Once you have the idea, you can follow a simple process:, 7. how to pick the right topic for your essay.

If you’re writing an assignment, you’ll probably receive the prompt from your professor. If that’s the case, follow it diligently. This may be something like: a) Reflect on what you learned during your first year of high school. b) Think about your favorite book and how it changed your life . c) How did your writing skills change over the years? And why? Or it might be something really specific like Write a two-page reflection paper on the Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Here, it’s not only about your personal experience, but about your interaction with a specific text, event, play, or movie and the effect it had on you. But what if you want to write an essay on your own? Which topic would you choose then? First, pick something meaningful to you. Second, pick something that you know well. Third, pick something that you want to explore and get deep into.

Here’s some more inspiration in the area of topics:

Personal reflection:, reflection on life and meaning:, reflection on events:.

“Reflect upon your present blessings — of which every man has many — not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” – Charles Dickens

8. Learn from the masters

Montaigne was the father of the essay as a literary form. He was the first writer to use informal tone, colloquial language, and rather prosaic themes to get to the deeper truth about human nature.

I recommend you check his essays for inspiration, along with other masterworks:

And here are a few books filled with great reflective essays:.

And here you may find a huge list of 450+ essay books on Goodreads.

“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.” – Albert Einstein

Example #1 of a reflective essay:

The misgivings about the high school football, here’s a second, shorter sample of a reflective essay:, the sources of love for instrumental music., looking backward, moving forward.

There are certain milestones in your life: finishing high school, falling in love for the first time, your first journey abroad, the first kiss, the first psychedelic trip, graduating from the university, getting your first job, getting married, having children… Each of these brings something new and unexpected and makes you grow as an individual. But you can run through life and never reflect on how it all changed , how silly and incompetent you were just a few years ago. And how you’ll think the same thing about the present in a few years. Perhaps you should compose a reflective essay and think about all of this, and about what’s coming. Next up, you may want to explore a list of the best essays of all time .

Rafal Reyzer

Hey there, welcome to my blog! I'm a full-time entrepreneur building two companies, a digital marketer, and a content creator with 10+ years of experience. I started RafalReyzer.com to provide you with great tools and strategies you can use to become a proficient digital marketer and achieve freedom through online creativity. My site is a one-stop shop for digital marketers, and content enthusiasts who want to be independent, earn more money, and create beautiful things. Explore my journey here , and don't miss out on my AI Marketing Mastery online course.

How to write a reflective essay

Published September 27, 2020. Updated May 19, 2022.

Reflective Essay Definition

A reflective essay is a type of writing that examines an experience from the past by looking through the lens of the present.

Overview of reflective Essay

The purpose of a reflective essay is to explore an impression you had, looking into the reasons for that impression.  A reflective essay is not writing about an experience. It is writing about your reaction to that experience. A reflective essay is not learning from doing. It is about learning from thinking about what you did. A reflective essay is not about trying to influence anyone of anything. It is about drawing the meaning from your own experience. A reflective essay is not about being correct. It is about being honest. A reflective essay is actually designed to help you improve how you think and learn.

Key takeaways

• A reflective essay examines an experience from the past looking through the lens of the present.
• The purpose of a reflective essay is to explore an impression you had, looking into reasons for that impression.
• A reflective essay is very personal: the topic isn’t so much the experience but how YOU felt ABOUT the experience.

What is a reflective essay?

Sometimes it’s easier to explain what something is NOT.

• A reflective essay is not writing about an experience. It’s writing about your reaction to that experience.
• A reflective essay is not learning from doing. It’s about learning from thinking about what you did.
• A reflective essay is not about trying to convince anyone of anything. It’s about drawing meaning from your own experience.
• A reflective essay is not about being correct. It’s about being honest.

Think about the word “reflection.” What you see in the mirror is not you; it is a reflection of you.

Do you realize that you can never really see yourself? You can only see a reflection of yourself.

Every life experience is like that. You never really see the experience as it’s happening. You only see it and learn from it when you see it through reflection.

Also, you cannot see your reflection if you are too close to the mirror. You need to step back in order to see yourself clearly.

Reflective writing is like that.

A reflective essay is a way of writing where you, as the writer, take a step back from your experience and write about it with some distance.

It is a way of writing about the past from the perspective of the present.

You are no longer going through an experience. Rather, you are reflecting on it to see it more clearly.

Worried about your writing? Submit your paper for a Chegg Writing essay check , or for an Expert Check proofreading . Both can help you find and fix potential writing issues.

Purpose of a reflective essay

Regardless of how you feel about writing essays, most essays are designed to help you improve how you write. A reflective essay is actually designed to help you improve how you think and learn.

The reflective essay can be very helpful because writing it helps you process whatever you are writing about. That act of processing leads to deeper understanding.

John Dewey, an American scholar, said: “We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.”

Difference between a personal essay and a reflective essay

More than other essays, a reflection is about YOU. Unlike a personal essay, however, a reflective essay requires you to take a step back from an experience and write about it from a distance.

Where a personal essay might say, “Here is something I did,” a reflective essay would try to answer, “Why did I do what I did?”

A reflective essay is a good place to explore questions like, “How did I feel before and after I did that?”, “If I encountered a similar experience, would I do the same thing again?”, and “What did I learn from this experience?”

As you can see, all of the questions are personal: they are not asking about the experience itself, they are asking how YOU felt ABOUT the experience.

Don’t worry about finding the “right” answer. There is no such thing. Every person’s experience and interpretation is unique, and you are writing about your own. You don’t need to compare it to anyone else’s.

Make sure you write the essay in the first person.

Possible topics for a reflective essay

When choosing your topic for a reflective essay, think about whether it caused an impression on you.  Remember that the topic you write about isn’t the focus – the focus is your interpretation of it.

• A teacher who believed in you
• A friend who betrayed you
• A family member
• A place in nature where you feel most comfortable
• The house you grew up in
• A place you visited for the first time, that felt “familiar”
• Going somewhere very foreign
• A new experience
• Failing or succeeding at something
• Learning something new
• Something you’ve done before, but this time something was different

Questions to ask about your topic

Since you want to go deeper with your understanding of the topic, the questions that you ask yourself as you write are important.

• How did I feel, and why did I feel this way?
• How did I react, and why did I react like this?
• Did this change me? Why or why not?
• Would I do something differently next time?
• Was this experience positive or negative for me?
• What does this mean in my life?
• What did I learn from this experience?

Parts of an essay

Every essay you write, including reflective essays, should have three parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The reflective essay should have those parts as well.

However, the way a reflective essay is organized might be a little different.

Let’s go through each of those parts for a reflective essay. Each part will include a sample.

Introduction

You want to begin your essay with a hook. A hook is an interesting opening that “catches” your readers and makes them want to read more. Your hook is usually the first sentence.

After you’ve hooked the readers, you want to give some context, or background information. In a reflective essay, use the introduction to mention the experience that you will be writing about. Think of each sentence in your intro as a stepping point. Each sentence brings you closer to your thesis statement.

Once you’ve given some context, write a thesis statement, which tells the readers exactly what they’re going to read about. For a reflective essay, the thesis statement should give the readers an idea of the impression the experience made on you. Think of it like a map to the rest of your essay.

Sample introduction

Can you identify the hook, background information, and thesis statement in this sample?

I had seen pictures of the Mona Lisa my whole life. Last summer, I went to Paris and got to see the original painting in the Louvre Museum. As I stood looking at the Mona Lisa, I really was seeing her for the first time. What I found surprising is that I felt the woman in the painting was seeing me as well. I actually felt a connection to the painting.

A typical essay will have from one to three body paragraphs, though you can write as many as you need (or as many as your teacher assigns you). Regardless of how many body paragraphs you have, they will all be organized in a similar manner.

Start with a topic sentence to show your reader what is coming up. This is a general sentence that gives an overview of that paragraph. Since your thesis statement should be about the impression your experience made on you, each topic sentence should be a reason for that impression.

The body paragraph should explain the reason for your impression in depth.

End a body paragraph with a sentence that summarizes what you wrote or that leads into the next paragraph.

Sample body paragraphs

Can you identify the topic sentences? Do the body paragraphs discuss the reasons in depth

I first felt a connection because of the Mona Lisa’s expression. Her face looks calm and seems to give nothing away. Every time I had seen the picture before, I felt like her expression was empty, with nothing behind it. As if the subject was a rich, carefree woman who was just sitting to have her portrait painted. When I stood in front of the original masterpiece, though, her expression opened up. At the time, all I knew was that I was seeing something I hadn’t seen before. Now I know that I saw a woman trying to get through life while feeling like she didn’t know what she was doing. I have often felt the same way. I may look calm to the outside world, but I am trying to hide anxiety. Now I recognize that the Mona Lisa was doing the same thing.

The second reason I felt a connection was because of the Mona Lisa’s posture. The subject looks like she’s sitting in a chair. Her body is facing to the left, but her face is looking at the viewer. It seems as if she wants to go in one direction but is forced to face another. I have felt that way. Like when my parents suggest which future would be better for me. Like when my friends want to do something I’m not comfortable doing. Like when I want to stay home and read but my boyfriend wants us to go to a party. Which way should I go?

Lastly, I felt a connection to the background in the painting. Behind the Mona Lisa is a natural vista with a road and mountains and a lake. The landscape itself seems improbable. Why is there a road when there is no other sign of life? There are no buildings or people in the background. Having the Mona Lisa placed in such a strange background adds to the feeling of anxiety and uncertainty. Again, it seems like the Mona Lisa is talking to me: “Do you ever feel like you don’t know where you are? Or where you belong?” Yes, I feel that way a lot.

Before you turn in that paper, don’t forget to cite your sources in APA format , MLA format , or a style of your choice.

This is how your essay ends and includes the last impression your reader takes away.

In a reflective essay, you may use your conclusion to give closure to the experience you’re writing about.

Add any insights to explain your reasons for your impression.

Finally, remember that a reflection is a way to write about the past from the perspective of the present. Make a clear connection from the past to the present.

Sample conclusion

Does this conclusion give a sense of closure? Does it add any insights? Does it make a connection between past and present?

That summer in Paris was supposed to be an exciting trip for me, but it was actually a difficult time in my life. I was trying to decide what university to go to, what major I should choose, and whether my boyfriend and I should break up or try a long-distance relationship. I had questions brewing in my head and it was difficult to appreciate the beauty of Paris. Seeing the Mona Lisa at that time in my life made me feel at peace. Now I understand what I saw in her that made me feel connected: I saw someone else with doubt and uncertainty, but I knew she would be okay in the end, and so will I. 

Example reflective essay on the Mona Lisa

Example reflective essay on environmental troubles.

By Halina Stolar. Halina has a master’s degree in teaching and taught English as a second language and writing for almost 15 years overseas. She now works as a freelance writer, and geeks out over grammar for fun.

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Guide on How to Write a Reflection Paper with Free Tips and Example

A reflection paper is a very common type of paper among college students. Almost any subject you enroll in requires you to express your opinion on certain matters. In this article, we will explain how to write a reflection paper and provide examples and useful tips to make the essay writing process easier.

Reflection papers should have an academic tone yet be personal and subjective. In this paper, you should analyze and reflect upon how an experience, academic task, article, or lecture shaped your perception and thoughts on a subject.

Here is what you need to know about writing an effective critical reflection paper. Stick around until the end of our guide to get some useful writing tips from the writing team at EssayPro — a research paper writing service

What Is a Reflection Paper

A reflection paper is a type of paper that requires you to write your opinion on a topic, supporting it with your observations and personal experiences. As opposed to presenting your reader with the views of other academics and writers, in this essay, you get an opportunity to write your point of view—and the best part is that there is no wrong answer. It is YOUR opinion, and it is your job to express your thoughts in a manner that will be understandable and clear for all readers that will read your paper. The topic range is endless. Here are some examples: whether or not you think aliens exist, your favorite TV show, or your opinion on the outcome of WWII. You can write about pretty much anything.

There are three types of reflection paper; depending on which one you end up with, the tone you write with can be slightly different. The first type is the educational reflective paper. Here your job is to write feedback about a book, movie, or seminar you attended—in a manner that teaches the reader about it. The second is the professional paper. Usually, it is written by people who study or work in education or psychology. For example, it can be a reflection of someone’s behavior. And the last is the personal type, which explores your thoughts and feelings about an individual subject.

However, reflection paper writing will stop eventually with one very important final paper to write - your resume. This is where you will need to reflect on your entire life leading up to that moment. To learn how to list education on resume perfectly, follow the link on our dissertation writing services .

Unlock the potential of your thoughts with EssayPro . Order a reflection paper and explore a range of other academic services tailored to your needs. Dive deep into your experiences, analyze them with expert guidance, and turn your insights into an impactful reflection paper.

Free Reflection Paper Example

Now that we went over all of the essentials about a reflection paper and how to approach it, we would like to show you some examples that will definitely help you with getting started on your paper.

Reflection Paper Format

Reflection papers typically do not follow any specific format. Since it is your opinion, professors usually let you handle them in any comfortable way. It is best to write your thoughts freely, without guideline constraints. If a personal reflection paper was assigned to you, the format of your paper might depend on the criteria set by your professor. College reflection papers (also known as reflection essays) can typically range from about 400-800 words in length.

Here’s how we can suggest you format your reflection paper:

Reflection Paper - How to Video Guide

Our experts have created a video guide on how to write a reflection paper step-by-step:

How to Start a Reflection Paper

The first thing to do when beginning to work on a reflection essay is to read your article thoroughly while taking notes. Whether you are reflecting on, for example, an activity, book/newspaper, or academic essay, you want to highlight key ideas and concepts.

You can start writing your reflection paper by summarizing the main concept of your notes to see if your essay includes all the information needed for your readers. It is helpful to add charts, diagrams, and lists to deliver your ideas to the audience in a better fashion.

After you have finished reading your article, it’s time to brainstorm. We’ve got a simple brainstorming technique for writing reflection papers. Just answer some of the basic questions below:

• How did the article affect you?
• How does this article catch the reader’s attention (or does it all)?
• Has the article changed your mind about something? If so, explain how.
• Has the article left you with any questions?
• Were there any unaddressed critical issues that didn’t appear in the article?
• Does the article relate to anything from your past reading experiences?
• Does the article agree with any of your past reading experiences?

Here are some reflection paper topic examples for you to keep in mind before preparing to write your own:

• How my views on rap music have changed over time
• My reflection and interpretation of Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Why my theory about the size of the universe has changed over time
• How my observations for clinical psychological studies have developed in the last year

The result of your brainstorming should be a written outline of the contents of your future paper. Do not skip this step, as it will ensure that your essay will have a proper flow and appropriate organization.

Another good way to organize your ideas is to write them down in a 3-column chart or table.

Do you want your task look awesome?

If you would like your reflection paper to look professional, feel free to check out one of our articles on how to format MLA, APA or Chicago style

Writing a Reflection Paper Outline

Reflection paper should contain few key elements:

Introduction

Your introduction should specify what you’re reflecting upon. Make sure that your thesis informs your reader about your general position, or opinion, toward your subject.

• State what you are analyzing: a passage, a lecture, an academic article, an experience, etc...)
• Briefly summarize the work.
• Write a thesis statement stating how your subject has affected you.

One way you can start your thesis is to write:

Example: “After reading/experiencing (your chosen topic), I gained the knowledge of…”

Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs should examine your ideas and experiences in context to your topic. Make sure each new body paragraph starts with a topic sentence.

Your reflection may include quotes and passages if you are writing about a book or an academic paper. They give your reader a point of reference to fully understand your feedback. Feel free to describe what you saw, what you heard, and how you felt.

Example: “I saw many people participating in our weight experiment. The atmosphere felt nervous yet inspiring. I was amazed by the excitement of the event.”

As with any conclusion, you should summarize what you’ve learned from the experience. Next, tell the reader how your newfound knowledge has affected your understanding of the subject in general. Finally, describe the feeling and overall lesson you had from the reading or experience.

There are a few good ways to conclude a reflection paper:

• Tie all the ideas from your body paragraphs together, and generalize the major insights you’ve experienced.
• Restate your thesis and summarize the content of your paper.

We have a separate blog post dedicated to writing a great conclusion. Be sure to check it out for an in-depth look at how to make a good final impression on your reader.

Need a hand? Get help from our writers. Edit, proofread or buy essay .

How to Write a Reflection Paper: Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: create a main theme.

After you choose your topic, write a short summary about what you have learned about your experience with that topic. Then, let readers know how you feel about your case — and be honest. Chances are that your readers will likely be able to relate to your opinion or at least the way you form your perspective, which will help them better understand your reflection.

For example: After watching a TEDx episode on Wim Hof, I was able to reevaluate my preconceived notions about the negative effects of cold exposure.

Step 2: Brainstorm Ideas and Experiences You’ve Had Related to Your Topic

You can write down specific quotes, predispositions you have, things that influenced you, or anything memorable. Be personal and explain, in simple words, how you felt.

For example: • A lot of people think that even a small amount of carbohydrates will make people gain weight • A specific moment when I struggled with an excess weight where I avoided carbohydrates entirely • The consequences of my actions that gave rise to my research • The evidence and studies of nutritional science that claim carbohydrates alone are to blame for making people obese • My new experience with having a healthy diet with a well-balanced intake of nutrients • The influence of other people’s perceptions on the harm of carbohydrates, and the role their influence has had on me • New ideas I’ve created as a result of my shift in perspective

Step 3: Analyze How and Why These Ideas and Experiences Have Affected Your Interpretation of Your Theme

Pick an idea or experience you had from the last step, and analyze it further. Then, write your reasoning for agreeing or disagreeing with it.

For example, Idea: I was raised to think that carbohydrates make people gain weight.

Analysis: Most people think that if they eat any carbohydrates, such as bread, cereal, and sugar, they will gain weight. I believe in this misconception to such a great extent that I avoided carbohydrates entirely. As a result, my blood glucose levels were very low. I needed to do a lot of research to overcome my beliefs finally. Afterward, I adopted the philosophy of “everything in moderation” as a key to a healthy lifestyle.

For example: Idea: I was brought up to think that carbohydrates make people gain weight. Analysis: Most people think that if they eat any carbohydrates, such as bread, cereal, and sugar, they will gain weight. I believe in this misconception to such a great extent that I avoided carbohydrates entirely. As a result, my blood glucose levels were very low. I needed to do a lot of my own research to finally overcome my beliefs. After, I adopted the philosophy of “everything in moderation” as a key for having a healthy lifestyle.

Step 4: Make Connections Between Your Observations, Experiences, and Opinions

Try to connect your ideas and insights to form a cohesive picture for your theme. You can also try to recognize and break down your assumptions, which you may challenge in the future.

There are some subjects for reflection papers that are most commonly written about. They include:

• Book – Start by writing some information about the author’s biography and summarize the plot—without revealing the ending to keep your readers interested. Make sure to include the names of the characters, the main themes, and any issues mentioned in the book. Finally, express your thoughts and reflect on the book itself.
• Course – Including the course name and description is a good place to start. Then, you can write about the course flow, explain why you took this course, and tell readers what you learned from it. Since it is a reflection paper, express your opinion, supporting it with examples from the course.
• Project – The structure for a reflection paper about a project has identical guidelines to that of a course. One of the things you might want to add would be the pros and cons of the course. Also, mention some changes you might want to see, and evaluate how relevant the skills you acquired are to real life.
• Interview – First, introduce the person and briefly mention the discussion. Touch on the main points, controversies, and your opinion of that person.

Writing Tips

Everyone has their style of writing a reflective essay – and that's the beauty of it; you have plenty of leeway with this type of paper – but there are still a few tips everyone should incorporate.

Before you start your piece, read some examples of other papers; they will likely help you better understand what they are and how to approach yours. When picking your subject, try to write about something unusual and memorable — it is more likely to capture your readers' attention. Never write the whole essay at once. Space out the time slots when you work on your reflection paper to at least a day apart. This will allow your brain to generate new thoughts and reflections.

• Short and Sweet – Most reflection papers are between 250 and 750 words. Don't go off on tangents. Only include relevant information.
• Clear and Concise – Make your paper as clear and concise as possible. Use a strong thesis statement so your essay can follow it with the same strength.
• Maintain the Right Tone – Use a professional and academic tone—even though the writing is personal.
• Cite Your Sources – Try to cite authoritative sources and experts to back up your personal opinions.
• Proofreading – Not only should you proofread for spelling and grammatical errors, but you should proofread to focus on your organization as well. Answer the question presented in the introduction.

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How To Write A Reflection Paper?

How to start a reflection paper, how long should a reflection paper be.

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is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.

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How to Write a Reflective Essay That Is Interesting

Ever sit under a tree on a beautiful summer day and reflect about your life and what you’ve learned?

No? That’s okay if you haven’t. A lot of students are way too busy to spend their days reflecting. But if you’ve been assigned to write a reflective essay, here’s your chance to do so.

Are you reflecting on the writing assignment right now?  Perhaps you’re thinking, “I don’t even know what a reflective essay is and have no idea how to write one.”

If that’s the case, then you should stop reflecting and start reading, as this blog post will teach you how to write a reflective essay that’s interesting.

What Is a Reflective Essay?

The goal of the reflective essay is to describe how a person, event, or experience affected you. Your objective is to reflect upon your personal growth.

To do this, you’ll need to share your thoughts and emotions. Don’t worry; you don’t have to share your deepest, darkest secrets (unless, of course, you want to).

While this definition might sound a lot like a narrative essay, be careful not to confuse the two.  A reflective essay doesn’t simply tell a story or explain an event like a narrative essay does.

Here’s an example from a narrative essay written by the classic cartoon mischief-maker Bart Simpson.

Last week at church I switched the organist’s music. I would’ve gotten away with it, but Milhouse snitched on me, and the reverend ordered us to clean the organ as punishment. Milhouse cleaned the organ because he feared for his soul. I didn’t believe in souls, so I sold mine to Milhouse for $5. When bad things started happening to me, I quickly realized I needed to get my soul back.  

Bart tells the story of selling his soul and finding a way to get it back. He’s not reflecting about how the experience affected him.

Narrative essays don’t usually reflect upon events or explain how they changed you. (If they do, the reflection is kept brief, as the narrative’s purpose is to tell the story.)

Okay, so now you know how a narrative essay is different from a reflective essay. But, what the heck is a reflective essay anyway? Let’s use another example.

Here’s an example from a reflective essay written by Bart Simpson.

When I sold my soul to Milhouse for $5, I thought it was a great deal, but soon after the sale my life took a turn for the worse. My pets hated me, and I couldn’t even laugh at Itchy & Scratchy cartoons. I knew I had made a terrible mistake. Thanks to Lisa, I was able to get my soul back, and I’m a new man; I definitely learned an important lesson.

See the difference?  The narrative essay describes events. A reflective essay explains how the events shaped you.

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Bart briefly retells the story of selling his soul, but the focus of the essay will be the lesson he learned and how the event changed him.

Though you’ll still need to tell your story in a reflective essay, it will only be a small part of your paper. In other words, don’t spend too much time explaining the details of the events. If you do, you won’t have enough space to reflect.

Still wondering how to actually write a reflective essay that’s interesting? Read the following for some helpful advice.

How to Write a Reflective Essay: Q & A

Q: How do I know what to write about?

A: Sometimes your professor will decide this for you. You might have to reflect on your learning in a course or, perhaps, during field experience or internship.

If you’re writing about your learning in a course, think about the course content. (Pull out the syllabus if you need to remember the key topics of the course.)

Or, you might write about how a specific teacher changed your life.

Lisa Simpson might write about how a substitute teacher inspired her and taught her that life was worth living.

If you are allowed to choose your own topic, pick something that has affected you on meaningful level.

Don’t write about how your new XBox changed your life because you can now play your favorite games at any time.

Do write about something that will allow you to reflect on the subject in a meaningful way.

Lisa Simpson might write about how entering a beauty contest as a feminist really did make her a stronger person and helped her self esteem.

Q: What does it really mean to reflect?

A: Reflecting means you’ll have to think more deeply about your subject. Don’t just write about anything that comes to mind.

Reflection takes time.

Think about cause and effect, how ideas compare, how you feel about the topic, and how you have been affected.

Lisa Simpson might write about the time she fell in love with a lamb at the petting zoo. When her mom served lamb chops for dinner, she struggled with the idea of lambs as living creatures and animals as food. Her inner struggles led her to become a vegetarian.

Like Lisa, you may have a lot to consider, and it may take a while to actually decide how you feel about an experience.

Keep reflecting, and, before you write, jot down as many feelings and reflections as you can on your topic. You won’t end up writing about everything you put in your notes, but this process will help you decide what’s most important and will allow you to narrow your focus.

Q: How do I make my reflective essay interesting?

A: Choose relevant content. If you’re writing about how volunteering at a homeless shelter affected you, choose key points that really changed your life in a significant way.

You may have realized the importance of wearing comfortable shoes while standing and serving meals for hours, but did the revelation about proper footwear really change your life? Is this really what your audience wants to read about? I doubt it.

Choose more complex insights. Consider how and why the events, the interactions, and your experiences changed your outlook or your goals for your own life.

Homer Simpson might write about the time doctors found a crayon lodged in his brain, and how when they removed it, he instantly became smarter. His story would focus on how the events changed him and how he felt when he was finally able to relate to his daughter, Lisa.

In Homer’s reflective essay, stories of driving to work or sitting at Moe’s drinking a beer wouldn’t be relevant, as they don’t offer any insight to his reflections about his relationship with Lisa.

Q: Can I write in first person ?

A: Yes (unless your professor says otherwise). Most academic writing is formal and requires you to write in third person , but because reflective essays are more personal, and you’re reflecting about your thoughts and experiences, in most cases you may use first person.

Q: If I can use first person, does that mean I can write like I talk?

A: No. Remember, you’re still writing an academic essay. Your tone should be formal, and you should avoid slang and jargon .

Q: How do I structure a reflective essay?

A: The structure of a reflective essay is like most other essays. You need to include an introduction, body, and conclusion . You’ll also need a strong thesis that informs readers of the focus of your paper. (Read Use This Reflective Essay Outline to Get Your Paper Started)

Reflective Essay Checklist

Now that you know how to write a reflective essay, don’t forget to proofread and revise your paper once it’s done.

Here’s a quick proofreading and revision checklist to help polish your essay.

Check the opening. Have you used a good hook sentence ? Does your opening grab readers’ attention? Does anyone actually want to read your reflection?

Check transitions . Have you used appropriate transition words to link ideas? Have you used transitional sentences to move readers from one point to the next?

Check essay format . Are your margins correct? Have you used an acceptable font? Is your spacing correct?

Ask for help. Don’t forget to have a friend, family member, or expert Kibin editor help polish your reflective essay.

Psst... 98% of Kibin users report better grades! Get inspiration from over 500,000 example essays .

About the Author

Susan M. Inez is a professor of English and writing goddess based out of the Northeast. In addition to a BA in English Education, an MA in Composition, and an MS in Education, Susan has 20 years of experience teaching courses on composition, writing in the professions, literature, and more. She also served as co-director of a campus writing center for 2 years.

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• reflective essay

Reflective Essay: Introduction, Structure, Topics, Examples For University

Table of Contents

If you’re not quite sure how to go about writing reflective essays, they can be a real stumbling block. Reflective essays are essentially a critical examination of a life experience, and with the right guidance, they don’t have to be too difficult to write. As with other essays, a reflective essay needs to be well structured and easily understood, but its content is more like a diary entry.

This guide discusses how to write a successful reflective essay, including what makes a great structure and some tips on the writing process. To make this guide the ultimate guide for anyone who needs help with reflective essays, we’ve included an example reflective essay as well.

Reflective Essay

Reflective essays require students to examine their life experiences, especially those which left an impact.

The purpose of writing a reflective essay is to challenge students to think deeply and to learn from their experiences. This is done by describing their thoughts and feelings regarding a certain experience and analyzing its impact.

Reflective essays are a unique form of academic writing that encourages introspection and self-analysis. They provide an opportunity for individuals to reflect upon their experiences, thoughts, and emotions, and effectively communicate their insights. In this article, we will explore the essential components of a reflective essay, discuss popular topics, provide guidance on how to start and structure the essay, and offer examples to inspire your writing.

I. Understanding Reflective Essays:

• Definition and purpose of reflective essays
• Key characteristics that distinguish them from other types of essays
• Benefits of writing reflective essays for personal growth and development

II. Choosing a Reflective Essay Topic:

• Exploring personal experiences and their impact
• Analyzing significant life events or milestones
• Examining challenges, successes, or failures and lessons learned
• Reflecting on personal growth and transformation
• Discussing the impact of specific books, movies, or artworks
• Analyzing the influence of cultural or social experiences
• Reflecting on internships, volunteer work, or professional experiences

III. Starting a Reflective Essay:

• Engage the reader with a captivating hook or anecdote
• Introduce the topic and provide context
• Clearly state the purpose and objectives of the reflection
• Include a thesis statement that highlights the main insights to be discussed

IV. Writing a Reflective Essay on a Class:

• Assessing the overall learning experience and objectives of the class
• Analyzing personal growth and development throughout the course
• Reflecting on challenges, achievements, and lessons learned
• Discussing the impact of specific assignments, projects, or discussions
• Evaluating the effectiveness of teaching methods and materials

V. Common Mistakes to Avoid in Reflective Essay Writing:

• Superficial reflection without deep analysis
• Overuse of personal opinions without supporting evidence
• Lack of organization and coherence in presenting ideas
• Neglecting to connect personal experiences to broader concepts or theories
• Failing to provide specific examples to illustrate key points

VI. Why “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell is Classified as a Reflective Essay:

• Briefly summarize the essay’s content and context
• Analyze the introspective and self-analytical elements in Orwell’s narrative
• Discuss the themes of moral conflict, imperialism, and personal conscience
• Highlight Orwell’s reflections on the psychological and emotional impact of his actions

VII. Reflective Essay Structure:

• Engaging opening statement or anecdote
• Background information and context
• Clear thesis statement
• Present and analyze personal experiences, thoughts, and emotions
• Reflect on the significance and impact of those experiences
• Connect personal reflections to broader concepts or theories
• Provide supporting evidence and specific examples
• Summarize key insights and reflections
• Emphasize the personal growth or lessons learned
• Conclude with a thought-provoking statement or call to action

VIII. Reflective Essay Examples:

• Example 1: Reflecting on a life-changing travel experience
• Example 2: Analyzing personal growth during a challenging academic year
• Example 3: Reflecting on the impact of volunteering at a local shelter

During a reflective essay, the writer examines his or her own experiences, hence the term ‘reflection’. The purpose of a reflective essay is to allow the author to recount a particular life experience. However, it should also explore how he or she has changed or grown as a result of the experience.

The format of reflective writing can vary, but you’ll most likely see it in the form of a learning log or diary entry. The author’s diary entries demonstrate how the author’s thoughts have developed and evolved over the course of a particular period of time.

The format of a reflective essay can vary depending on the intended audience. A reflective essay might be academic or part of a broader piece of writing for a magazine, for example.

While the format for class assignments may vary, the purpose generally remains the same: tutors want students to think deeply and critically about a particular learning experience. Here are some examples of reflective essay formats you may need to write:

Focusing on personal growth:

Tutors often use this type of paper to help students develop their ability to analyze their personal life experiences so that they can grow and develop emotionally. As a result of the essay, the student gains a better understanding of themselves and their behaviors.

Taking a closer look at the literature:

The purpose of this type of essay is for students to summarize the literature, after which it is applied to their own experiences.

What am I supposed to write about?

When deciding on the content of your reflective essay, you need to keep in mind that it is highly personal and is intended to engage the reader. Reflective essays are much more than just recounting a story. As you reflect on your experience (more on this later), you will need to demonstrate how it influenced your subsequent behavior and how your life has consequently changed.

Start by thinking about some important experiences in your life that have had a profound impact on you, either positively or negatively. A reflection essay topic could be a real-life experience, an imagined experience, a special object or place, a person who influenced you, or something you’ve seen or read.

If you are asked to write a reflective essay for an academic assignment, it is likely that you will be asked to focus on a particular episode – such as a time when you had to make an influential decision – and explain the results. In a reflective essay, the aftermath of the experience is especially significant; miss this out and you will simply be telling a story.

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Considerations

In this type of essay, the reflective process is at the core, so it’s important that you get it right from the beginning. Think deeply about how the experience you have chosen to focus on impacted or changed you. Consider the implications for you on a personal level based on your memories and feelings.

Once you have chosen the topic of your essay, it is imperative that you spend a lot of time thinking about it and studying it thoroughly. Write down everything you remember about it, describing it as clearly and completely as you can. Use your five senses to describe your experience, and be sure to use adjectives. During this stage, you can simply take notes using short phrases, but make sure to record your reactions, perceptions, and experiences.

As soon as you’ve emptied your memory, you should begin reflecting. Choosing some reflection questions that will help you think deeply about the impact and lasting effects of your experience is a helpful way to do this. Here are some suggestions:

• As a result of the experience, what have you learned about yourself?
• What have you developed as a result? How?
• Has it had a positive or negative impact on your life?
• Looking back, what would you do differently?
• If you could go back, what would you do differently? Did you make the right decisions?
• How would you describe the experience in general? What did you learn from the experience? What skills or perspectives did you acquire?

You can use these signpost questions to kick-start your reflective process. Remember that asking yourself lots of questions is crucial to ensuring that you think deeply and critically about your experiences – a skill at the heart of a great reflective essay.

Use models of reflection (like the Gibbs or Kolb cycles) before, during, and after the learning process to ensure that you maintain a high standard of analysis. Before you get to the nitty-gritty of the process, consider questions such as: what might happen (in regards to the experience)?

Will there be any challenges? What knowledge will be needed to best prepare? When you are planning and writing, these questions may be helpful: what is happening within the learning process? Has everything worked according to plan? How am I handling the challenges that come with it?

Do you need to do anything else to ensure that the learning process is successful? Is there anything I can learn from this? Using a framework like this will enable you to keep track of the reflective process that should guide your work.

Here’s a useful tip: no matter how well prepared you feel with all that time spent reflecting in your arsenal, don’t start writing your essay until you have developed a comprehensive, well-rounded plan. There will be so much more coherence in what you write, your ideas will be expressed with structure and clarity, and your essay will probably receive higher marks as a result.

It’s especially important when writing a reflective essay as it’s possible for people to get a little ‘lost’ or disorganized as they recount their own experiences in an erratic and often unsystematic manner since it’s an incredibly personal topic. But if you outline thoroughly (this is the same thing as a ‘plan’) and adhere to it like Christopher Columbus adhered to a map, you should be fine as you embark on the ultimate step of writing your essay. We’ve summarized the benefits of creating a detailed essay outline below if you’re still not convinced of the value of planning:

An outline can help you identify all the details you plan to include in your essay, allowing you to remove all superfluous details so that your essay is concise and to the point.

Think of the outline as a map – you plan in advance which points you will navigate through and discuss in your writing. You will more likely have a clear line of thought, making your work easier to understand. You’ll be less likely to miss out on any pertinent details, and you won’t have to go back at the end and try to fit them in.

This is a real-time-saver! When you use the outline as an essay’s skeleton, you’ll save a tremendous amount of time when writing because you’ll know exactly what you want to say. Due to this, you will be able to devote more time to editing the paper and ensuring it meets high standards.

As you now know the advantages of using an outline for your reflective essay, it is important that you know how to create one. There can be significant differences between it and other typical essay outlines, mostly due to the varying topics. As always, you need to begin your outline by drafting the introduction, body, and conclusion. We will discuss this in more detail below.

Introduction

Your reflective essay must begin with an introduction that contains both a hook and a thesis statement. The goal of a ‘hook’ is to capture the attention of your audience or reader from the very beginning. In the first paragraph of your story, you should convey the exciting aspects of your story so that you can succeed in

If you think about the opening quote of this article, did it grab your attention and make you want to read more? This thesis statement summarizes the essay’s focus, which in this case is a particular experience that left a lasting impression on you. Give a quick overview of your experience – don’t give too much information away or you’ll lose readers’ interest.

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Reflection Essay Structure

A reflective essay differs greatly from an argumentative or research paper in its format. Reflective essays are more like well-structured stories or diary entries that are rife with insights and reflections. Your essay may need to be formatted according to the APA style or MLA style.

In general, the length of a reflection paper varies between 300 and 700 words, but it is a good idea to check with your instructor or employer about the word count. Even though this is an essay about you, you should try to avoid using too much informal language.

The following shortcuts can help you format your paper according to APA or MLA style if your instructor asks:

MLA Format for Reflective Essay

• Times New Roman 12 pt font double spaced;
• 1” margins;
• The top right includes the last name and page number on every page;
• Titles are centered;
• The header should include your name, your professor’s name, course number, and the date (dd/mm/yy);
• The last page contains a Works Cited list.

Reflective Essay in APA Style

• Include a page header on the top of every page;
• Insert page number on the right;
• Your reflective essay should be divided into four parts: Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References.

Reflective Essay Outline

Look at your brainstorming table to start organizing your reflective essay. ‘Past experience’ and ‘description’ should make up less than 10% of your essay.

You should include the following in your introduction:

• Grab the reader’s attention with a short preview of what you’ll be writing about.

Example:  We found Buffy head-to-toe covered in tar, starved and fur in patches, under an abandoned garbage truck.

• It is important to include ‘past experiences’ in a reflective essay thesis statement; a brief description of what the essay is about.

Example:  My summer volunteering experience at the animal shelter inspired me to pursue this type of work in the future.

Chronological events are the best way to explain the structure of body paragraphs. Respond to the bold questions in the ‘reflection’ section of the table to create a linear storyline.

Here’s an example of what the body paragraph outline should look like:

• Explicit expectations about the shelter

Example:  I thought it was going to be boring and mundane.

• The first impression
• Experience at the shelter

Example:  Finding and rescuing Buffy.

• Other experiences with rescuing animals
• Discoveries

Example:  Newly found passion and feelings toward the work.

• A newly developed mindset

Example:  How your thoughts about animal treatment have changed.

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Here’s How You Can Submit a Well-Written Reflective Essay for University

Even though writing a reflective essay may seem difficult at first, once you have a clear idea of what you will write and more importantly, how to write, it often gets easier as you go along. Here are five key writing tips to keep in mind when writing a reflective essay.

Choosing a Topic for Reflection

As a busy student, when was the last time you drowned yourself in thoughts and reflected on past experiences? Here is an assignment that intentionally puts you in that position.

Think about all of the experiences which have shaped you – a life-changing event, an interaction with someone you admire, a movie character that appealed to you, a book that gave you perspective, or any other experience which contributed to your character or thought process.

You should choose a topic that will help you reflect on your growth as an individual. Start brainstorming and record every idea that comes to mind.

Organize your thoughts in a mind map

The next step is to create a mind map to help you organize your essay once you have a rough idea of what you want to write.

You can use your mind map to quiz yourself by asking questions of relevance and putting together perspectives for your essay.

The purpose of this exercise is to give you an idea of what you want your essay to be about. It is important to keep pushing yourself to think more deeply and find meaning in your experiences in order to create a successful reflective essay.

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Start Freewriting

Sometimes, all you have to do is start writing. Essentially, that’s what freewriting is all about.

After brainstorming, creating a mind map, and organizing your thoughts, open a blank document and start writing. Do not stop to think or to edit – just write as your thoughts come to you.

The best part of freewriting is that it results in a steady flow of ideas you may not have thought of otherwise.

In other words, whether or not you’re motivated to write or are constantly second-guessing your ideas, it helps to let your ideas guide you and put them down on paper.

Structure the Essay

It’s time to put your ideas and thoughts into words and give them a proper structure. A reflective essay should have the following parts:

You should begin your essay with a hook to grab the reader’s attention. While setting the tone for the rest of the essay, your thesis statement should introduce the past experience you will be reflecting on;

In this section, you will elaborate on the experience and its significance, as well as its impact on your life. Avoid rambling on and on about the experience for readers to want to read more of your essay, you need to use your storytelling skills. If you can, use examples to strengthen your narrative;

A summary of your reflections is provided in the concluding paragraph. In your essay, you should describe how the experience shaped your life and how you intend to take your learnings and apply them.

Proofread, Proofread and Proofread

Be sure to proofread your reflective essay before submitting it. Before finalizing it, you need to do thorough proofreading. You will be surprised to see how many silly mistakes are made in the first draft.

Be on the lookout for grammatical, spelling, and sentence formation mistakes. Make sure your essay flows well and avoids plagiarism. If you want a fresh set of eyes on your essay, have a family member or friend read it too.

Reflective Essay Topics

Many students find choosing the right topic for a reflective essay difficult. Writing a reflective essay requires creativity and strong writing skills to express your emotions.

Reflective essays can be inspired by nature, places, relationships, and events. Here are some tips that will help you choose the right essay topic.

• Decide on a topic idea for your reflective essay that you are familiar with. You will find it easier to write an essay about a topic you are interested in. Never choose a topic that is new to you. This makes the writing phase difficult.
• Research your topic: Try to recollect minor details about it. Remember all the things that are related to your topic, and include them in your essay. Take notes about your topic.
• Pick a topic that you can explain from a unique viewpoint: Choose a topic that you can explain from a different perspective. Writing something unique that demonstrates your personality in an interesting way is a good technique. Share a memorable and meaningful experience from your life.

Topics for Reflective Essays for Middle School Students

Essay topics can be difficult to choose for some students. The following list of topics can be classified according to grade level. Pick from them and make topic selection easier.

Topics for Reflective Essays in Grade 7

• Taking a trip
• To go scuba diving
• Within your hometown
• Was something you were proud of
• Even when you were lost
• To your favorite cartoon
• During that time you lied
• When you were hunting
• Did your family play an important role in your life?
• Spending time outdoors

Topics for Reflective Essays in Grade 8

• Running in the outdoors
• While picking berries
• Will be your biggest loss
• Who is your biggest inspiration?
• What is your greatest fear?
• Tell me about your most exciting moment.
• What is your least favorite course?
• When you go on a date
• To a birthday party
• Which is your favorite online space?

Topics for Reflective Essays in Grade 9

• A new school
• Makes me think about the future.
• You participated in or watched a sporting event.
• You moved to a new city.
• You had an unforgettable dream.
• You were running and hunting.
• You cannot forget that dream.
• It was your childhood home.
• Watching the sunrise
• An award ceremony

Topics for Reflective Essays in Grade 10

• Defending someone in a situation
• While playing with friends
• It was a memorable dream
• About lying and hiding
• The most recent meal
• While getting lost in the dark
• As an intern at a hospital
• Or when someone’s life inspired you to change your own
• Challenges as a college freshman
• By participating in sports

Topics for Reflective Essays for College Students

For college students, the most difficult part of writing a reflective essay is choosing a topic. Some students are better at choosing the essay topic than others, but some will get stuck in this phase.

Here are some excellent reflective essay topics for college students for your convenience. Choose one and write a well-written essay.

• First time writing a thesis statement
• Your favorite video game
• The impact of social media on students
• A place you always try to avoid
• What was the best birthday memory you had?
• What is your favorite restaurant?
• The moment when you were proud of yourself
• The bravest moment of your life
• The most beautiful thing you have ever seen
• A time you were embarrassed

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Topics for Reflective Essays for High School Students

The choice of a topic for a reflective essay can be confusing for high school students. Your topic should be engaging and you should be able to explain your personal experience easily. Here is a list of good topics for high school students; choose something from the list for your essay.

• Shop at your favorite outlet store
• To relive your favorite childhood memory
• Of the most memorable holiday
• That scared you?
• That’s when you met your best friend
• And what you love about yourself
• Is playing with friends.
• What’s your favorite book?
• I loved playing in the mud as a kid.
• Having to move to a new town or city

Topics for Reflective Essays about Places

Reflective essays should be based on strong emotions and memories. You could write an essay about a day spent at your favorite café, favorite restaurant, etc.

It is easy to write a reflective essay about a place where you have really good memories. Here are some topic ideas that you can use and write an essay on.

• Your grandparents’ house
• A skating rink
• A place where you feel safe
• A favorite vacation spot
• A popular lunch spot
• On your first day at the circus
• The mall or your favorite store
• Your first trip abroad
• Best park in your town
• Your most memorable adventure

Topics for Reflective Essays about Events

A good way to grab the reader’s attention is to write about any event. Your essay can be about a birthday party, a farewell, or any other event that you have enough information about.

If you are writing a reflective essay about an event, include vivid details. Here are some interesting topics for reflection essays, choose one and write a good essay.

• Unexpected gift
• To travel on vacation
• While you were lost
• The first time you voted
• On your trip to the zoo
• When you got a new job
• It was one of your most memorable trips
• During the holiday season
• When you moved to a new city
• Or when you swam fishing

Topics for Reflective Essays on Nature

A reflective essay should provide the reader with a deeper and more meaningful experience. In addition to making your writing process more interesting, writing about nature also stimulates your imagination.

The following are some good reflective essay topics about nature:

• Mountain climbing
• Ocean diving
• Hiking in the woods
• Climbing rocks
• And watching the sunset
• While running in the forest.
• Spending quality time with your pet.
• Taking a hike in the woods
• And going swimming
• While watching animals at a zoo

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Topics for reflection on relationships

As relationships are filled with strong emotions, writing a reflective essay about them means expressing those emotions. The following are some good reflective essay topics about relationships:

• A wonderful family reunion
• When you spoke publicly for the first time
• What friendship means to me
• When you were punished by your parents
• During a family reunion
• When you apologized
• For a time you spent with friends without parental supervision
• Tell me about your relationship with a family member
• An angry conversation
• Or a genuinely funny laugh

Some reflective essay topics are the same as some of the questions you may ask in a job interview.

Examples of Reflective Essay

Check out some examples for inspiration now that you know what it takes to write a reflective essay.

An Example of a Reflective Essay on “My Little Brother”

Essay example reflecting on the arrival of a younger sibling, written at a middle or high school level.

“There have been many life-changing experiences in my short life. Every new experience has been the first experience at one point in time. For good or for bad, each event altered the course of my life. But, the most transformative event was the birth of my youngest brother.”.

Joel is someone my parents often refer to as a happy accident. My mother became pregnant when I was 13 and my other brother, Jake, was 10. We were what you would call a well-rounded family of four. In almost every way, we fit the ideal classification. My youngest brother’s striking blue eyes were the moment when we realized what we were missing.

Honestly, I resented having another sibling. It wasn’t necessary to add to our family, and my mother, already 38 at the time, was considered high risk because of her age. A pregnancy full of complications sent my life on a rollercoaster-like ride that my 13-year-old mind could not comprehend. Now I can see how forging through those loops helped me cope with the unforeseen challenges of life.

My mother took me to the hospital instead of my father on the day Joel was born. I was the next best alternative because Jake and my father were both feverish; it wasn’t a planned move. With each contraction, I gained a new appreciation for just how strong and powerful a woman could be at her weakest. Through holding her hand and feeding her ice chips, I gained a connection with my mother that I didn’t realize we lacked.

Almost simultaneously, my new baby brother entered this world. One doesn’t realize how much you need something until it’s sitting in your lap. Secondly, my life after this moment would never be the same the moment he curled his chubby little finger around mine, I understood the meaning of the words “happy accident.”.y.

Life has given me many experiences that have shaped me as a person. But, nothing so profoundly changed my views and outlook on life as the birth of my youngest brother. Joel’s arrival was a life-altering event that caused me to see the world through new eyes.”

Assignment Writing Purposes You Need to Know

Reflective Essay Example for “ Reading My Favorite Book”

This reflective essay example about a favorite book is something you might find at the middle or high school level.

When it comes to books, I don’t understand the appeal. Every time I was given an assignment, I would read one after another, not understanding what all the fuss was about. Nevertheless, the moment I read Pride and Prejudice, it was as if my literary eyes were opened for the first time. It stirred love within me for classics I didn’t realize could exist.

When I was first given the assignment of reading Pride and Prejudice, like many of my friends, I scoffed. With an eye roll, I internally calculated how much time I would have to read the book and write a report. I sighed at the loss of time with my friends for a stupid classic.

Cracking open the cover, I was determined to hate it before even reading the first words. By the time I reached page 3, I nearly stopped reading. But there was something about Elizabeth Bennet that quietly piqued my interest. I can’t say where, but somewhere along the way, my eyes devoured the pages instead of trudging along.

The moment I reached the end, I was ecstatic and disappointed at the same time. Their ending had been perfect, but I realized I would miss them. Not just them, but I would also miss being a part of their world.

It was the first time the characters of a story had affected me this way, so I tried to shake it off. However, after several days, that sadness carried me to the classics section of the school library. The moment I cracked open my next classic, my soul instantly felt more at ease, and I’ve never looked back.

I never thought I’d say a book changed me, but in this case, it’s true. The love I found in Pride and Prejudice introduced me to a beautiful world of classic literature I can’t imagine living without. Despite not reading Pride and Prejudice for a while, it will always be my favorite book.

In the conclusion of your reflective essay, you should focus on bringing your piece together. This will include providing a summary of both the points made throughout and what you have learned as a result. Try to include a few points on why and how your attitudes and behaviors have been changed.

Consider also how your character and skills have been affected, for example: what conclusions can be drawn about your problem-solving skills? What can be concluded about your approach to specific situations? What might you do differently in similar situations in the future? What steps have you taken to consolidate everything that you have learned from your experience?

Keep in mind that your tutor will be looking out for evidence of reflection at a very high standard.

Congratulations – you now have the tools to create a thorough and accurate plan which should put you in good stead for the ultimate phase indeed of any essay, the writing process.

Oxbridge Notes  offers a wide array of meticulously crafted study resources tailored for law students, providing invaluable support for academic endeavors. Our platform boasts a comprehensive collection of notes, essays, and revision materials covering a diverse range of legal topics, meticulously curated by top students and academics from esteemed universities. Whether you’re preparing for exams, writing essays, or seeking to deepen your understanding of legal concepts, Oxbridge Notes is your trusted companion on the journey to legal excellence.

How do you start off a reflective essay?

As is the case with all essays, your reflective essay must begin with an introduction that contains both a hook and a thesis statement. The point of having a ‘hook’ is to grab the attention of your audience or reader from the very beginning.

Can you say I in a reflective essay?

In your reflective essay, you should use the first person with terms like I, me, my, and mine. The essay is an account of something that actually happened to you as well as your thoughts on the event.

What is an example of a reflection?

Common examples include the reflection of light, sound, and water waves. The law of reflection says that for specular reflection the angle at which the wave is incident on the surface equals the angle at which it is reflected. Mirrors exhibit specular reflection.

How do you start the first paragraph of a reflective essay?

Describe the subject matter of the paper in more detail. Include one or two sentences after the first sentence in which you describe the basic features of whatever topic you will be discussing in your essay. Describe them in terms of your feelings, and how you felt and experienced whatever you are discussing.

How many paragraphs should a reflective essay have?

The number of paragraphs depends on the requested essay length. However, it is recommended to write at least three paragraphs in this part. In the body, present your main points, arguments, and examples. This is the part of an essay where you express all your main ideas, develop them, and express your feelings and emotions.

What are the three parts of a reflective essay?

However, some major elements go into a typical reflective essay: introduction, body, and conclusion.

How Do You Write A Reflective Essay?

To write a reflective essay, follow these steps:

• Choose a topic: Select a specific event, experience, or concept that you want to reflect upon.
• Brainstorm and outline: Reflect on your chosen topic and jot down key points, thoughts, and emotions associated with it. Create an outline to organize your ideas.
• Introduction: Begin with an engaging hook to grab the reader’s attention. Provide background information and context related to the topic. End the introduction with a clear thesis statement that expresses the main insights or lessons you will discuss.
• Body paragraphs: Each paragraph should focus on a specific aspect or experience related to your topic. Reflect on your thoughts, feelings, and observations, and support them with specific examples or evidence. Analyze the significance and impact of these experiences.
• Use reflection techniques: Incorporate reflection techniques such as asking yourself questions, exploring the “why” behind your thoughts and emotions, and connecting your experiences to broader concepts or theories.
• Conclusion: Summarize your key insights and reflections from the essay. Emphasize personal growth, lessons learned, or changes in perspective. Leave the reader with a thought-provoking statement or a call to action.

Which Of These Best Describes A Reflective Essay?

A reflective essay is best described as a type of academic or personal writing that allows individuals to examine and reflect upon their experiences, thoughts, and emotions. It involves introspection, self-analysis, and the exploration of lessons learned or personal growth. Reflective essays provide a platform for individuals to communicate their insights and understanding of a particular event, concept, or life experience.

What Is A Reflective Essay And Examples?

A reflective essay is a form of writing where individuals express their thoughts, feelings, and observations about a specific experience, event, or topic. It goes beyond simply describing the experience and delves into analyzing the impact, significance, and lessons learned. Reflective essays encourage self-reflection and introspection, allowing writers to gain deeper understanding and insight.

Examples of reflective essay topics include:

• Reflecting on a life-changing travel experience and its impact on personal growth.
• Analyzing the challenges and successes encountered during a group project and the lessons learned.
• Reflecting on the influence of a particular book, film, or artwork and its effect on personal perspectives.
• Examining the role of personal values and beliefs in decision-making processes.

What Are The Parts Of A Typical Reflective Essay?

A typical reflective essay consists of the following parts:

• Introduction: It provides an engaging hook, background information, and context for the topic. The introduction ends with a clear thesis statement that states the main insights or lessons to be discussed.
• Body paragraphs: Each paragraph focuses on a specific aspect or experience related to the topic. Writers reflect on their thoughts, feelings, and observations, supporting them with examples or evidence. They analyze the significance and impact of these experiences and connect them to broader concepts or theories.
• Conclusion: The conclusion summarizes the key insights and reflections from the essay. It emphasizes personal growth, lessons learned, or changes in perspective. A thought-provoking statement or a call to action is often included to leave a lasting impression on the reader.

What Is A Goal Of The Introduction In A Reflective Essay?

The goal of the introduction in a reflective essay is to capture the reader’s attention and provide them with the necessary background information and context related to the topic. It should set the stage for the reflective journey that follows. The introduction concludes with a clear thesis statement that outlines the main insights or lessons the writer will discuss in the essay. It acts as a roadmap, guiding the reader through the writer’s reflections.

What Idea Would Most Likely Make The Best Reflective Essay?

The best idea for a reflective essay is a topic that holds personal significance and offers opportunities for introspection and deep reflection. An idea that involves a transformative experience, a significant life event, or a challenging situation often makes for a compelling reflective essay. It should be something that evokes strong emotions, prompts critical thinking, and allows for self-analysis. The best reflective essays are those that offer meaningful insights, growth, or lessons learned.

What Makes A Good Reflective Essay?

A good reflective essay possesses several key qualities:

• Authenticity: It reflects the writer’s genuine thoughts, emotions, and observations.
• Depth of reflection: It goes beyond surface-level descriptions and delves into meaningful analysis, exploring the “why” behind the experiences.
• Coherence and organization: The essay is well-structured, with clear paragraphs and logical flow of ideas.
• Use of specific examples: It supports reflections with specific examples, evidence, or anecdotes to enhance understanding and engagement.
• Connection to broader concepts or theories: It links personal experiences to broader concepts, theories, or societal issues to demonstrate critical thinking and understanding.
• Insight and personal growth: The essay offers meaningful insights, lessons learned, or personal growth as a result of the reflection.

By incorporating these elements, a good reflective essay effectively communicates the writer’s introspection and provides a thought-provoking reading experience.

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WTO / Education / How to Write a Reflective Essay | 48 Essay Examples

How to Write a Reflective Essay | 48 Essay Examples

A Reflective Essay is a form of writing that describes a writer’s thoughts, feelings, actions, or a particular occurrence in a writer’s life.

This essay is about your reflection that brings out a specific image that the reader tends to picture after reading it. When writing this essay, you have to give detailed information about the event or a particular action. In the essay, you will analyze a past event from your present perspective and point to the relevant lessons you learned.

Reflective essay examples act as an inspiration for those who have no clue about writing essays by giving them an overview of how it is written. In addition, someone who is not conversant with writing the essays may look for examples of essays and read through to see the structure, format, and ideas for writing his essay.

The essays may be written from a personal experience or perhaps made up through imagination. You should discuss how the event happened and how it made you feel, including the lessons learned.

Reflective Essay Examples

Purpose of Reflective Essay

The essay is written from personal insight and self-reflection to help recount a particular event. These essays are written in school as assignments to connect the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching. Professionally written essays enable workers to reflect on their experiences and what they have learned from the job.

The following are some of the types of reflective essays that you can write:

A literary self-reflection is based on your thoughts about a literary piece you have read. You are supposed to give your opinion based on your experiences to demonstrate how you relate to the piece of literature .

Professional

Employers and employees use professional essays to gauge their knowledge about a particular aspect and how they can handle it.

The following are some of the fields that frequently use reflective essays:

Medical students

Medical students use these essays to describe patients based on their interactions to help suggest correct medication. Through these essays, students can reflect on their examination of a patient and conclusions made and later determine if it worked or what can be changed later.

Medical doctors use the essays to evaluate their interactions with customers to gauge their strengths and weaknesses in service delivery and providing treatment. Doctors use these essays to internalize their communication methods , treatment processes, and body language when treating a patient to establish areas that need improvement for increased effectiveness.

Nurses and medical assistants

By writing such essays, nurses and medical assistants can reflect on certain incidents they have encountered in the past and better handle stress, pain, and illness. Nurses and medical assistants experience stress and emotions from patients, having self-reflection can help them deal with it and perform their roles.

Lecturers and teachers

In the teaching profession, these essays help the lecturers learn and understand students’ strengths and weaknesses. They help teachers understand the growth and development of the students by reviewing their emotions.

Social workers

Social workers can write a reflection on various environmental issues and problems their clients face. They also use these essays written by their clients to find the causes of certain experiences and how they can solve developing issues highlighted.

Entrepreneurs

The business field uses such essays to analyze certain aspects of the business that they are experiencing. These essays help them come up with possible solutions for the challenges faced and offer better services.

Educational

In educational institutions, lecturers and tutors use such essays to gauge the level of understanding on a particular assignment or topic covered. When students write these essays, they can create a form of interaction with the lecturers. In addition, the lecturers can understand the students’ views on particular topics in learning through the essays.

Writing personal reflective essays can enable one to learn and understand specific experiences in their life and how to handle them. Reflective writing can enable you to understand your emotions, and you can be able to grow as a person.

Reflective Essay Example Ideas

From our definition above, you can write the essays from various perspectives. There are multiple ideas from which you can write your essay without being limited. These essays are written from an actual event or imagination.

The following are example ideas for reflective essays you can write:

A real experience

The essay is written based on a real-life experience that you had a personal connection with. In this real experience essay, you will talk about something factual rather than imagination.

You may write the essay based on a job you lost, a wedding event you attended, or an emotion you felt.

In this type of the essay, you have to give a detailed description of the particular events and the lessons learned.

Something you imagined

An imagination reflective essay is written about a creative feeling or an event that comes from your mind. This type has no facts and is an idea that has been thought of or speculated.

A place or a special object

The essay about a place or an object may be written about a town you had visited or a car you love. This essay talks about that specific place or objects positively or negatively depending on the writer’s perspective.

An indirect experience

The essay may be written from something that you have read, such as a book. It can also be written from what you have seen, such as an event or about a meal you have tasted or something that you have smelled, or a story you have heard. You should portray what you felt to the reader and its effect on you with the above-mentioned ideas.

Pre-Writing Essentials

Before writing the essay, you need to have a clear plan on what to write. First, take your time and list all the ideas and topics you want to write about. Then, you need to brainstorm and have some questions about the topic ideas.

The following part will highlight some of the steps you may follow to attain the perfect outcome, whether it is a school essay or a professional one:

Identify the topic you will be writing on

The first step in writing the essay is coming up with the topic you want to write on. In the institutions of learning, a subject is given for you to write. To write it excellent, you have to choose a topic you are confident with and have a vivid description. In cases where the topic is not given, you will need to employ your imagination and creativity to develop a topic.

Study your subject

When writing the essay on a specific topic, you may have to relive that moment to have a clear picture of the events. In addition, you may need to meditate and note down the key points you intend to write.

Note down the relevant ideas

In this step of writing the essay, you might have to take notes of the relevant ideas related to your topic. This will help you connect the ideas, simplify writing, and give you a clear direction. You might also try to sketch a diagram and link related topics, ideas, and theories that you intend to write in your essay.

Pick reflection questions

Reflective questions are questions that you ask yourself to help you plan your work when writing the essay.

Some of the examples of thoughtful questions are stated below to help you:

• What did I find out?
• What was my feeling towards this?
• What made me feel this way?
• What lessons have I learned?
• What impact has it had on me?
• What effect did it have on people around me?

 These questions will act as your compass when writing your essays. You can have as many questions as you want, as this will give you many ideas to write in your essay.

Answer the questions you selected

After formulating the reflective questions that will guide you in writing your essay, you have to develop the relevant answers to your questions. The answers to these questions will be the ideas that you will write.

What did I find out? While on my short holiday I took my time off and went hiking on the mountains. This hike happened to be one of my toughest hikes. The hill has a thick forest, and I had to navigate through it to find the way. Also, the place is cold, and I had to keep myself warm during my hike.

What impact has it had on me? My time at the university was very interesting because of the people I met from different background races and cultures. Having lived in the countryside, I can appreciate people from diverse cultures and their beliefs. In addition, I was able to attend different festivals and interact with classmates on a personal level.

Identify the meaning of your experience

Before you embark on your essay writing, you need to identify the most crucial lesson you learned through that experience. This will form the basis on which you will be writing your essay. This experience will be your main subject in your essay.

Keep your ideas connected

At this point of our planning, you have the topic you want to write and the ideas connecting. You can now use the ideas you have come up with to guide you through your essay writing. Also, note the primary experience in your writing so as not to go out of the topic.

How to Write a Reflective Essay

When writing the essay, you need to follow the standard for writing a typical essay.

The following steps outline a step-by-step that you follow to write a great essay:

Introduction

In the introduction part of the essay , you have to outline the topic you want to write about and give the reader a general view of the event’s effect on you. When writing your introduction, interesting aspects of your story have to be indicated to increase your chances of getting your reader’s attention.

The hook in the introductory paragraph is to bring your audience or reader to attention from the very start. You need to describe exciting and interesting aspects of your essay to make the reader motivated to continue reading. For example, there is a thin line between life and death, one moment, you are happy and healthy but you don’t know what the next minute holds.

 A thesis statement summarizes the main subject of your essay and it’s usually the main experience and the influence it had on you.

My passion for cars and machines was one reason that made me pursue a mechanical engineering career.

When writing an introduction, you should start your paragraph with a catchy phrase that can easily capture the reader’s attention and motivate them to continue reading your essay

The body of the essay is the most integral part of your writing and carries the whole message and clear description of the events. You can have several paragraphs to talk about your reflection from your perspective and the impression the experience had on you and those around you.

In the essay on “Why Money is Important,” you can discuss the reason why money is important to you like “ I think money is a valuable asset because you need it to afford the basic things in life”.

In paragraph one, you need to talk about the experience you had. Since this is a reflective essay, you need to write with an open mind and write your thoughts.

I lived in the streets when growing up because my single mum could not afford rent money

You need to discuss another reason in your second paragraph further why the subject you are talking about had an impression on you by giving detailed information to portray the picture to the reader of the essay.

Inability to afford basic necessities like education, food, clothing, and shelter because of poverty reminds me of all the opportunities I missed because of lack of proper education.

The third paragraph of your essay writing is a continuation of the previous and a different experience that should be discussed in detail and the impression it made on you. ” We lost our dignity begging on the streets to feed our hungry stomachs, which is part of the reason why I  assert that money is important to feel accomplished and help you reserve some self-dignity.”

In the conclusion of your essay, you need to discuss your thesis statement and the key points you have highlighted in your essay. Then, you can conclude by giving your thoughts about the experience and what you will do differently in the future in case of such an event.

The closing paragraph or conclusion of the essay should include a recap of your thesis statement, followed by the reason for discussing the subject. Finally, the thesis statement states the essay’s objective, which should be included as a summary in the conclusion.

In my life, I never understood much about life. However, my experience as a volunteer with sick people in the hospital made me appreciate life and all the good things.

Reflective Essay Samples

Reflective Paper Examples

Tips for Efficient Results

There are a few tips, if which are kept in consideration while writing the essay, efficient results can be attained.

If you want to write a great essay, here are writing tips that you have to take note of:

Allow your ideas to flow freely

After choosing the topic to write about, have an open mind when writing your essay and write from a personal perspective. Let your ideas flow freely without limiting yourself, considering that you will always have time to go through your essay to edit.

Maintain a high standard of analysis

When writing your essays, you need to analyze the experiences you are writing about by continually asking yourself questions about the incidents. Take note of the challenges that you might encounter and your knowledge in handling such challenges. By having this in mind while writing, you will be able to handle your essay paper and capture all the experiences, making the reader relive your experience. When writing, you need to ask yourself relevant questions that will keep you on the topic.

What challenges are you facing? What are the lessons learned? What knowledge do I need for me to handle this experience?

Well-rounded plan

After coming up with your topic and gathering all the required information, you need to work out a well-rounded plan. Having a plan before writing ensures that you have a logical flow of writing with ideas clearly conveyed. This is a crucial step in writing thee essays as some people may tend to have a poor recount of the incidents and have a disorganized essay. A clear plan will act as your guide, which will ensure a good flow of your essay.

Try adopting a chronological approach

By adopting a chronological approach, you can arrange the flow of events so that the reader gets a flow of the events. This approach will prevent you from confusing the reader of your essay with a chaotic collection of events.

Keep the body of the essay focused and relevant

The body of your essay should contain a vivid explanation of the experiences and the impact it has had on you and people around you. In addition, you should show the reader what character you portray through the way you handled the experience and your ability to cope with such in the future.

 Write using the first-person narrative

The essay is written from a personal perspective and reflective of your behavior. Therefore, a first-person narrative is used when writing the essay since you are writing from a personal experience.

Choose vocabulary carefully

When writing the essay, always choose the most appropriate vocabulary that portrays the feelings and emotions that the reader can easily relate to .

Be honest with your feelings and opinions

The essays are about feelings and emotions; thus, you need to be honest in your writing. The reader expects a deep reflection of your honest experiences, feelings, and opinions.

 Use a variety of punctuation

In your writing, you can engage a lot of punctuation to keep your writing lively. In addition, including expressions in your writing will create a clear picture for your reader about the experiences in your writing.

Use wider sources

A reflective paper is about personal experience, but you are free to refer to outside sources related to your writing experience. Referencing a broader source to validate your experiences show deep understanding and research on your writing topic. Also, analyze other sources such as books, journals, newspapers, and magazines for experiences. Quoting from comprehensive sources also indicates your knowledge about the topic that you are writing about.

Consider tone and structure

A reflective paper is written from a personal experience, and it carries a personal tone. Therefore, the essay should follow the standard format and structure for writing essays.

Reflective Paper Samples

Reflective essays are an important type of writing that you can use to understand various experiences by profoundly analyzing the situations. They allow you to openly discuss your honest opinions, experiences, and personality to help draw important lessons learned from a past event and determine areas of improvement.

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Learn how to effectively write reflective essays and improve your writing skills.

In the realm of the written word, there exists a distinctive genre that invites a deep exploration of personal experiences and thoughts. These compositions, known as reflective essays, offer a unique opportunity for individuals to delve into the depths of their own minds and emerge with a newfound understanding of themselves and their experiences. Through the artful weaving of narratives, insights, and emotions, reflective essays serve as a powerful tool for self-reflection and growth.

Within these reflective compositions, one can find a wealth of tips and techniques that elevate the quality of the writing, thereby enabling individuals to convey their thoughts and feelings with precision and clarity. From the careful selection of language to the strategic deployment of literary devices, these strategies serve as guideposts as writers embark on their introspective journey. By employing these techniques, one can transform a mere collection of anecdotes into a cohesive and resonant piece of literature, capable of stirring the hearts and minds of its readers.

Embracing the inherent strength of these essays lies in the ability to capture the essence of one’s experiences and thoughts through the lens of introspection. By cultivating a strong sense of self-awareness, writers can effectively convey their emotions and perceptions, allowing their words to reach the hearts of their audience. The reflective essay, at its core, seeks to create a connection, a bond between the writer and reader, as they embark on a shared voyage of understanding and introspection. Through the power of vulnerability and honesty, these essays possess the ability to touch the souls of those who encounter them, fostering a sense of unity and empathy in an increasingly disconnected world.

Tips for Writing Reflective Essays

In this section, we will explore some valuable advice for crafting thoughtful and engaging reflective essays. By following these tips, you can enhance your writing skills and effectively convey your personal experiences and insights.

By incorporating these tips into your writing process, you can create insightful and impactful reflective essays that captivate readers and evoke thoughtful contemplation.

Choosing a Meaningful Topic

When starting a reflective essay, one of the most important steps is choosing a meaningful and engaging topic to write about. Selecting a topic that resonates with you personally will not only make the writing process more enjoyable, but it will also allow for a deeper exploration of your thoughts and emotions.

Instead of simply choosing a generic or common topic, try to think of an experience or event in your life that has had a significant impact on you. This could be a personal achievement, a challenging obstacle you overcame, or a meaningful relationship or friendship. By selecting a topic that holds personal significance, you will be able to connect more intimately with your writing and convey your thoughts and feelings more authentically.

In addition to personal significance, it is also important to consider the potential for growth and self-reflection within a chosen topic. Reflective essays are meant to encourage introspection and self-awareness, so be sure to choose a topic that allows for this exploration. Look for topics that offer the opportunity to analyze your thoughts and actions, and consider how they have shaped your personal growth and development.

Finally, consider the potential audience for your essay when selecting a topic. While reflective writing is deeply personal, it is still important to consider who will be reading your essay and what they may find interesting or meaningful. If your essay is for a specific class or instructor, think about how you can select a topic that aligns with the course material or objectives. If the essay is for a wider audience, such as a personal blog or publication, consider selecting a topic that may resonate with a broader range of readers.

In conclusion, choosing a meaningful topic for your reflective essay is crucial to the success of your writing. By selecting a topic that holds personal significance, offers room for growth and self-reflection, and considers your audience, you can create a reflective essay that truly engages and resonates with your readers.

Organizing Your Thoughts and Ideas

Arranging and structuring your thoughts and ideas is essential when it comes to effectively expressing your reflective thoughts in an essay. Developing a clear and coherent framework enables you to convey your reflections in a logical and organized manner.

One practical approach to organizing your thoughts and ideas is to start by brainstorming or mind mapping. This technique allows you to generate a variety of ideas and connections related to your topic. By jotting down these initial thoughts and arranging them spatially, you can visually see the relationships between different concepts and identify potential themes or patterns.

After brainstorming, it is helpful to create an outline for your reflective essay. Outlining helps you structure your essay and provides a roadmap for your writing process. Consider dividing your essay into sections or paragraphs based on the main topics or ideas you want to discuss. This will help you maintain a clear and logical flow throughout your essay.

Within each section of your essay, consider using transitional phrases and sentences to connect your thoughts and ideas smoothly. Transitional words and phrases such as “however,” “in addition,” or “therefore” can help you establish relationships between different points and ensure your essay’s coherence.

Furthermore, consider using headings and subheadings to provide an additional level of organization and clarity. Headings can help guide your reader through your essay and make it easier for them to follow your train of thought. Additionally, using headings can help you stay focused on specific aspects of your reflections.

Lastly, revisiting and revising your essay is crucial for ensuring that your thoughts and ideas are effectively organized. Take the time to read through your essay and check for any inconsistencies or gaps in your reasoning. Consider seeking feedback from others to gain different perspectives and to ensure that your essay effectively conveys your reflective thoughts.

In conclusion, organizing your thoughts and ideas is a vital step in writing a reflective essay. By brainstorming, creating an outline, using transitional phrases, incorporating headings, and revising your work, you can ensure that your essay effectively conveys your reflections in a logical and coherent manner.

Using Personal Examples and Anecdotes

Utilizing personal experiences and anecdotes can greatly enhance the quality and effectiveness of your reflective essay. By incorporating your own unique stories, you can help readers connect with your ideas on a deeper level and make your essay more relatable.

Sharing personal examples allows you to illustrate the concepts and themes you are discussing in a tangible and memorable way. Through these stories, you can provide concrete evidence and real-life situations that support your argument or reflection. Additionally, personal anecdotes can add authenticity and emotional appeal to your writing, making it more engaging and compelling for your audience.

When utilizing personal examples and anecdotes, it is vital to choose stories that are relevant to your topic and align with your main points. Consider experiences that have had a significant impact on your life or have shaped your perspective. These stories should help to illustrate your main themes and offer a unique insight into your reflections.

Furthermore, be sure to provide enough detail in your anecdotes to paint a vivid picture for your readers. Describe the setting, the people involved, and the emotions you felt during the experience. By providing this level of detail, you can transport your readers into the moment and help them better understand your perspective.

However, it is important to strike a balance when using personal examples and anecdotes. While they can be valuable tools for enhancing your writing, it is crucial not to overuse them. Your essay should still maintain a sense of coherence and flow, with the main focus remaining on your reflective analysis.

Reflecting on Your Emotions and Feelings

Examining and understanding your emotions and feelings is a crucial part of the reflective essay-writing process. In this section, we will explore the various ways in which you can reflect on your emotional experiences and delve into the depths of your innermost thoughts. By doing so, you will be able to gain insights into your own personal growth and development, as well as enhance your self-awareness.

When reflecting on your emotions and feelings, it is important to delve beneath the surface and explore the underlying reasons behind them. Sometimes our emotions can be influenced by past experiences, cultural background, or even societal expectations. By taking the time to understand the root causes of our emotions, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and our reactions to certain situations.

• Consider the context: Reflecting on your emotions involves considering the context in which they arise. Analyze the specific circumstances, events, or interactions that trigger strong emotional responses. Ask yourself why certain situations provoke certain emotions and what you can learn from them.
• Identify patterns: Look for recurring themes or patterns in your emotional reactions. Do you notice a tendency to feel anxious in certain situations or to become overly excited in others? Recognizing these patterns can help you gain valuable insights into your emotional tendencies and may lead to personal growth.
• Use descriptive language: When reflecting on your emotions and feelings, try to express them using descriptive language. This will help you capture the depth and intensity of your emotional experiences, allowing you to reflect on them more effectively.
• Consider the impact: Reflecting on your emotions involves not only understanding how they affect you, but also considering how they impact others. Reflect on how your emotional reactions may have influenced your relationships, decision-making, or overall well-being.
• Seek feedback: Sometimes, gaining an outside perspective can provide valuable insights into your own emotions. Consider seeking feedback from trusted friends, family members, or mentors who can offer a different perspective on your emotional experiences.

Overall, reflecting on your emotions and feelings is an integral part of the reflective essay-writing process. By engaging in self-reflection and introspection, you can gain a deeper understanding of yourself and your emotional responses. This will not only enhance your writing but also contribute to personal growth and self-awareness.

Providing Concrete Examples and Evidence

When crafting reflective essays, it is crucial to support your thoughts and ideas with concrete examples and evidence. By doing so, you can effectively convey your experiences and observations while making your writing more engaging and credible.

Utilizing specific examples allows you to delve into the details of your experiences, providing a vivid picture for your readers. Instead of simply stating that you had a challenging experience, describing a particular instance or interaction helps paint a clearer picture and allows your readers to connect with your story on a deeper level.

In addition to providing specific examples, incorporating evidence further strengthens your reflective essays. This can include references to academic studies, research findings, or expert perspectives that support your claims and enhance the validity of your arguments. By backing up your thoughts and ideas with evidence, you demonstrate that you have thoroughly researched and considered the topic at hand.

When selecting examples and evidence to include in your reflective essay, it is essential to choose ones that are relevant and directly support your main points. Be sure to use a variety of sources and perspectives to provide a well-rounded view of your experiences and insights.

In conclusion, providing concrete examples and evidence is a crucial aspect of writing reflective essays. By including specific instances and supporting your ideas with relevant evidence, you not only engage your readers but also strengthen the credibility of your writing. Remember to choose examples and evidence that directly support your main points and provide a well-rounded perspective on your experiences.

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