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 Reflective essays are academic essays; what makes an essay “good” will work for a reflective essay. What is different about a reflective essay is that the essay is about you and your thinking. However, you will need evidence from your course to back up your reflections A reflection paper starts with a basic outlook on different thoughts and it is usually about the film, idea, lecture, or even a historical personality. Prior to starting a reflection paper, you need to articulate and integrate your classroom experiences and core theme of readings or observations
How to Write a Reflective Essay With Sample Essays - Owlcation
Virginia has been a university English instructor for over 20 years. She specializes in helping people write essays faster and easier. Reflective essays require the writer to analyze a past experience from the present. Jon Tyson, CC0, via Unsplash. Reflective essays describe an event or experience, then analyze the meaning of that experience and what can be learned from it.
What makes an essay reflective is that the writer is analyzing a past event from the present. Reflective essays require the writer to open up about their thoughts and emotions to paint a true picture of their history, personality, and individual traits. They should include a vivid summary and description of the experience so that the reader feels they have also experienced it.
They should also include an explanation of your thoughts, feelings, and reactions. The above subjects might have already sparked an idea of what you would like to write about. If how to begin a reflection paper example, below are some topics, or prompt ideas for a reflective essay. The organization of a reflective essay is very similar to other types of essays. An outline of a great reflective essay is laid out for your use below. Writing a reflective essay, also known as a reflective paper or reflection paper, is as easy as following the step-by-step instructions below.
If you haven't been assigned a topic and don't have a topic in mind, how to begin a reflection paper example, check the list of topics above for inspiration. If those aren't enough, take a look at these reflection topic ideas. The first step of writing a great reflective essay is choosing a topic, so choose wisely! Example: " I'm visiting my mom who lives near the beach that I went to a lot growing up, so I'm going to write about that.
Depending on your topic, you may need to close your eyes and remember, read, watch, listen, or imagine. Spend a few minutes vividly thinking or re-experiencing your subject. Example: " I went to walk along the beach today and just enjoyed the sand, water, and wind.
I thought about many other beach walks I've taken, and filled my mind with memories of other beach trips, how to begin a reflection paper example. Write down everything you can think about your subject, how to begin a reflection paper example. You want to describe this subject as vividly as you can, so think about smells, tastes, noises, and tastes along with what you see.
Try to write down vivid adjectives that describe these sensory experiences. Look up sense-describing words for help. You can write these down in sentences or in phrases. Just get as much down as you can. Later, you will turn this into a paragraph. Example: "I see the roll of the waves coming in a roar up to the shore. The waves beat over and over on the beach. Each wave is the same and yet every wave is unique. I saw the sun covered by a cloud which reflected the light so that rays spread out in all directions.
The salt smell of the spray felt fresh and clean. The cool foam of the edge of the wave covered my feet as they sank down in the sand. I walked along swinging my sandals in one hand. I took pictures of the sand, the gulls, the waves, then embarrassed, I took a selfie of myself against the ocean waves. Read through the list of reflection questions below and select at least three you want to answer. Example: "I picked the questions: What did I notice? What does this event mean to me?
How did this place shape my life? Read your questions, then answer them. This doesn't have to be in formal essay form or in perfect sentences. You just want to get as many ideas down as possible. Before you can begin writing your essay, you need to decide what is the most important thing you learned from this experience. That "most important thing" will be the thesis of your paper. Example: "What I learned from this trip to the beach is that I need to remember that in the midst of being a caregiver to my mother, how to begin a reflection paper example husband, my five kids, how to begin a reflection paper example, my students how to begin a reflection paper example my friends, that I also need to care for myself and create a space for myself where I can rest and renew.
If you'd like to see the final essay I've written using the pre-writing exercises I've done for this essay, take a look at my Reflective Essay Sample on a Visit to the Beach. The following is an excerpt from my sample reflective essay.
To read the essay in full, click on the link above. Even so, I sometimes forget to go there when I visit my mom. This week, I had come to take care of her during her cataract surgery. Along with helping her with appointments and remembering her eye drops, I'd been doing little chores around the house that are hard for her to do.
We'd also taken a visit to see my cousin and visit the Rose garden where my grandmother's ashes are buried. Moreover, we'd had a lot of good conversation, which was probably the most important part of my visit. The day before I was supposed to leave, I still hadn't visited the beach.
That's when I remembered what my friend Rhonda had said to me the day I left, "Go to the beach for me when you are there! Like me, Rhonda cares for her mother, but she does it every day, all year long. Her only break over the past few years since her father died was a one week trip her husband took her to the beach in California. So, thinking about Rhonda, I had decided I needed to take my own trip to the beach.
Teachers often assign these sorts of essays to get students to think about what they are learning, and to delve deeper into an experience. Aside from school assignments, reflective essays are used in the professional sphere to help workers learn. Here is how professionals and students use these sorts of essays. This type of essay asks you to summarize and then respond to a piece of literature to understand it better and relate it to your own life and experiences. Teachers, doctors, and social workers often use this type of writing in their training.
It helps employers and employees learn how to better do their jobs. Sometimes instructors will ask students to respond to a lecture or other school assignment so that they can show what they understand.
Writing about what you are learning can also help you share and interact with other students, as well as the how to begin a reflection paper example. This kind of writing can help you learn how to understand and analyze your own life experiences.
It can also help you grow emotionally as you learn to understand yourself better. Answer: Explaining the meaning of the event or memory is the best way to end your reflection essay. Answer: You should always have a title for your essay. If you use one of my essay topic how to begin a reflection paper example, you can often use a short version of the question as the title of your essay.
Titles can be clever or just straightforward but don't make them too long or too obscure. Never forget a title because it tells your reader what your essay is about. Answer: If you are writing your reflections about a lecture, you can write about the following:. Is there something this lecture made you think of? Perhaps a personal experience, how to begin a reflection paper example, something in the news or something in the media? Answer: An excellent way to convey your thoughts is to tell what you are thinking or feeling directly.
You can use these sentence starters:. Answer: Avoid writing personal details that you would be embarrassed for other people in your class to know. I also tell my students to not write something they would not want their mother to hear.
Sometimes people have had very difficult experiences in their lives, and it can be very healing to write about those experiences, but a class essay may not be the right venue. The point of a class writing exercise is to learn more about writing clearly and effectively, and it may be difficult for a teacher or other students to critique an essay that is about a very personal and emotional subject. Answer: Make sure that you describe the meaning of each part of your story.
Explain what you learned, how this relates to other parts of your life, and why this is important to you. Question: When writing a reflective essay, how do I introduce a reflective conclusion on the entire learning and evaluation process? Answer: Here are some phrases that can help you move from the description section of an evaluation essay to the conclusion:.
Answer: Reflection essays are generally about experiences you have had in your life. However, it is certainly possible that reading a story or hearing one can have an important impact on the way we think or even our actions.
If you want to write a reflection about the story, you will need to include all of the events in your life that made that story important how to begin a reflection paper example tell the situation that you were in when you read the story. Unlike a Summary Response essay which is another way for you to explain your response to a storyhow to begin a reflection paper example, you will not tell the story in detail.
Instead, just explain the basic outlines how to begin a reflection paper example the story and focus on how this story impacted your own thoughts, feelings, and actions. Answer: Most of the time, a reflective essay doesn't have references because it is based on your own observations and experiences. However, if you are going to refer to some research or an article, you should include that by using the name of the person and the title of the article, or by using whatever reference style your instructor has required MLA, APA or Chicago.
I tell my students to use this simple format:, how to begin a reflection paper example. According to James Jones in his article, "How I Know How to Cite References," the best way to cite is Question: I'm writing a reflective essay on overthinking, but I don't know how to start. Can you help?
Reflection Paper The Test Tips and Examples
, time: 11:47Reflective Essay Writing Made Easy: Here’s an Example on Personal Development
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 23/4/ · 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, how to begin a reflection paper example, 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 4/12/ · Here are the pointers for writing a reflection paper in APA Format: Use Times New Roman 12 point Font, Double Spaced The margins should be 1." Insert a page header on the top of each page
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