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How to Write a Reflective Essay Outline: Tips And Example
09 Dec 2021
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❓What is a Reflective Essay Outline?
📑Reflective Essay Outline Structure
✍️Reflective Essay Format and Style
📄Outline Example for an Essay
When you are asked to write a reflective essay, it might feel like an unusual task. After all, what do they normally reflect? Well, your own beliefs and ideas! However, the difficulty of such an assignment lies in the fact that you need to explore your own ideas on a topic so thoroughly that you can then write about them at length.
Even though it can be challenging, especially when writing specific reflective essay topics for university students , they are also a great opportunity to showcase your best writing skills. Such papers require you as the writer to go beyond just stating your ideas and providing evidence for them.
In order to create a truly exceptional piece of work, you will need to put in some additional effort and planning. So, here’s how you can write a reflection essay template and knock it out of the park.
What is a Reflective Essay Outline?
Writing a reflective essay can be a difficult and challenging process, but it's also a very rewarding one. In order to write a successful one, you need to be able to articulate your thoughts and feelings about your experiences. The best way to do this is to use a reflective essay outline template.
An outline for a reflective essay is a plan for your academic paper, where you structure and break down the main points into logically ordered paragraphs in order to write it more efficiently. This is like a skeleton for your future work, which makes it easier and faster to write.
It helps to prevent writer’s block and organize your ideas. Whether you’re a beginner needing to write college admission essay or a seasoned essayist, having an outline is always a solid starting point.
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What is the Best Reflective Essay Outline Structure?
A reflective essay template is like a roadmap. It helps you organize your thoughts and plan what you're going to say in advance. It also makes it easier to write your paper because you know exactly what you're going to include in each section.
A typical reflective essay format includes three parts:
- Introduction: Introduce your topic.
- Body: Explore your topic in depth.
- Conclusion: Summarize your thoughts and reflect.
What Should be Included in the Introduction?
The introduction should begin with a hook that grabs the reader's attention. This can be a rhetorical question, a quote, or a shocking statistic. The goal is to get the reader engaged and interested in the material.
After the hook, the introduction should give some background information on the topic. This can help to provide context for the reader. The introduction should also include a strong thesis statement. This will be the main idea of your essay, and it should be clear and concise.
The introduction should not include any unnecessary details. The goal is to give the reader a general idea of what the paper will be about. Ensure that the introduction is engaging and makes the reader want to continue reading.
What Should be in the Body Paragraphs of a Self Reflective Essay?
In general, the body paragraphs should contain supporting evidence that backs up your thesis statement. This evidence can come in the form of quotes, statistics, real-life examples, or anything else that supports your claim. In addition to proof, your body paragraphs should also include analysis.
This is where you discuss how the evidence supports your thesis in the introduction and explain what it all means. Finally, each body paragraph should have a concluding sentence that sums up everything you've discussed and drives home your main point. By following this reflection paragraph template, you can ensure that your writing is well-organized and your argument is clear and convincing.
How to Write a Reflective Essay Conclusion?
When it comes to writing a conclusion, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind. First and foremost, you need to make sure that your conclusion is reflective of the rest of your essay. This means that it should maintain the same tone and style.
Secondly, your conclusion should be concise and to the point. You don't want to ramble on or include any new information. And finally, your final paragraph should leave the reader with something to think about. An excellent way to do this is to end with a question or a call to action.
If you are struggling with writing a reflective essay, one great solution would be to use an essay writing company . They can provide you with great support and guidance in developing your outline and structure for your reflective essay. PapersOwl is a reliable and trustworthy essay writing company that can help you with all your reflective essay needs.
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How Should One Choose a Reflective Essay Format and Style?
If you are working on or looking for process analysis essay ideas and are struggling to decide which referencing style to use, there are a few things you should keep in mind. First and most important is to get to know what your professor or institution requires.
If no style is specified, you can ask your professor for guidance. The second thing that you need to check is what format is most commonly used in your field of study. For example, if you are studying sciences, you will likely use the APA style. If you are studying humanities, you will likely use the MLA style.
Third, what style is most comfortable for you to use? This is a personal preference, and you should choose the style that you feel most comfortable with. Remember, whichever style you choose, you must be consistent throughout your writing.
How to Write a Reflective Essay Template: Example
A self reflection essay outline will help you better understand the purpose of what you're writing. If you're struggling, it is even possible to find a template in many academic writing textbooks or online, where you can pay someone to write an essay for you .
A compelling reflection essay format can be challenging and difficult to write, which is why there is a university essay writing service available anytime you need help. But it's also a very rewarding one, in which you are free to articulate your thoughts and feelings about your experiences. The best way to do this is to use a reflection paper outline template.
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- 1. The Reflective Essay Created by: Prof. I. Cortés Center for Language Development Across the Disciplines
- 2. What is an Essay? An ESSAY is a “short piece of writing on a particular subject” (Broukal 2010). Such essay could be: Argumentative Analytical Expository Reflective
- 3. What is a Reflective Essay?
- 4. What is a Reflective Essay? “A reflective essay is an exploration of a topic using personal thought and experience” (Farleigh).
- 5. Reflective Essay: As a Group Objectives: Combine reflections in an organized manner following the essay format. Showcase the group’s: 1. thoughts about the topic As a group, 2. experience/group interaction you may combine throughout the activity 1 and 2.
- 6. Reflective Essay: Language Write the essay as a group! Individual opinions Pronouns Subjects Name: Grimilda, 1st person plural “the group” Miguel Verde (we, us, our, “the team” 3rd person singular ourselves) “Pedro and I” (he, she) Example: “We chose this topic because… However, Sandra explains that… She then realized…”
- 7. Organizing the Reflective Essay
- 8. Break it into Pieces!
- 9. Break it into Pieces! Body • General • Summary of statements • Three to five (3-5) main points • Thesis paragraphs • Concluding statement • Three to five (3-5) Statement topic sentences Introduction Conclusion
- 10. Break it into Pieces! • Is the main idea of the • Is the main idea of a essay. paragraph (body). • Helps develop the topic • Connects the supporting sentences. sentences and the transition. • Goes hand in hand with • Is connected to the Thesis concluding statement. Statement. Thesis Topic Sentence Statement
- 11. Oh no… Do I have Yes! write a Thesis to Do not be scared; it is just a sentence. Statement?
- 12. Thesis Statement …is a sentence which is the main idea of the essay.
- 13. Thesis Statement …is the main idea of the essay. • Example: Upon researching on stem Implied Thesis cells, the group agreed that such topic was very controversial and, as “The main points such, there were differences of are not stated.” opinion among teammates.
- 14. Thesis Statement …is the main idea of the essay. Stated • Example: Upon writing about stem cell Thesis research, there were differences of opinion among group members because “The main half the team thought it was beneficial points are while the rest believed it was unethical. clearly stated.”
- 15. Thesis Statement Avoid these… Too vague: Scientists should understand stem cells are bad. Too broad: Scientists should understand everything about stem cell research. Too narrow: Scientists should understand stem cells research is bad because such cells are extracted from fetuses. - Strong Thesis: As a group, we believe stem cell research has both positive and negative aspects when used in the development of medicine.
- 16. Thesis Statement Topic sentence #1: positive aspects Thesis Statement: Topic sentence #2: Concluding “Stem cell research negative aspects Statement has both…” Topic sentence #3: positive or negative BodyParagraphs
- 17. The Conceptual Map of a Reflective Essay a.k.a. Graphic Organizer
- 18. The Conceptual Map in Groups: Essay Quote1: According to Body 2 Quote 2: Topic S = Topic Blake (2004)… Topic S Smith (2008) explains… Sentence Body 1 Body 3 Introduction Topic S Topic S As a group, we Thesis Statement believe stem cell research has both positive and negative Conclusion aspects when used in medicine.
- 19. The Conceptual Map: Body Paragraph Quote 1 Supp 1 Topic Sentence #1 Quote 2 Supp 2 Two members of the Supp 3 group believe stem cell research is beneficial. Supp = SupportingSenten Transition ces
- 20. The Conceptual Map: Body Paragraph The supporting sentences develop the topic sentence. They give the reader: •Reasons •Examples •Details All supporting sentences must be related to the topic of the paragraph.
- 21. Conclusion
- 22. Conclusion: Final Paragraph Concluding statement: 1. Sums up the main points 2. Restates the main idea in a different way —Broukal 2010
- 23. Conclusion: Final Paragraph • As a group, we believe stem cell research Thesis has both positive and negative aspects Statement when used in the development of medicine. • Even if we disagree whether stem cell Concluding research is negative or positive, we cannot Statement deny that it has been important in the development of medicine.
- 24. Examples
- 25. Sample Introduction: Math According to Sullivan (2001), pre-calculus provides the background for the mathematical concepts, problems and techniques that mathematicians confront (25). Although true, this definition makes it sound as if the only importance of pre-calculus is to lay a foundation for mathematics. On the other hand, Blake (2005) explains that “math and medicine have had a long affair” (2). Upon researching and presenting on the importance of mathematics in medicine, half of the group agrees that pre- calculus is essential in medical research while the rest believes that it is only useful to mathematicians.
- 26. Activity As a group, work on a graphic organizer in which you include: 1. One (1) clear thesis statement (complete sentence) 2. Three (3) topic sentences, one for each of the three body paragraphs 3. One (1) concluding statement (complete sentence)
- 27. References Broukal, Milada. Weaving it Together: Connecting Reading and Writing, Third Edition. Boston: Heinle, 2010. Folse, Keith, Vestri, Elena and David Clabeaux. From Great Paragraphs to Great Essays. Boston: Heinle, 2001. Folse, Keith, Vestri, Elena and April Muchmore-Vokoun. Great Paragraphs. Boston: Heinle, 2004. http//: owl.english.purdue.edu “Reflection.” Oxford English Dictionary. NY: Oxford UP, 2002. Strausser, Jeffrey. Painless Writing. NY: Barron’s, 2001. Strumpf, Michael. The Grammar Bible. NY: Owl Books, 2004. Strunk, William and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. NY: Longman, 2000.
- 28. Questions? Comments? Barat Norte 223 (BN 223) 787-728-1515 ext. 2294 E-mail:[email protected] Web: http://www.sagrado.edu/lad
Editor's Notes
- Could be done individualy or as a group.
- I think it’s important to point out that a concluding sentence (and concluding paragraph) should not introduce any new information.
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Reflective Essay
Reflective Essay. A draft of the assignment description is on the course web page. Your reflective essay will be evaluated according to the criteria in the portfolio scoring guide.
- Thomas R Selph
- pie paragraphs
- quotation information
- quotations information
- consecutive quotations
- quotation information citation
- More by User
Presentation Transcript
Reflective Essay A draft of the assignment description is on the course web page. Your reflective essay will be evaluated according to the criteria in the portfolio scoring guide. When you discuss your writing this quarter keep in mind that you will need quotations (information) and explanations. In other words, you will need PIE paragraphs.
PIE Paragraphs PIE-structure is most applicable to paragraphs that contain quotations.
PIE Paragraphs With a PIE paragraph you will create a “quote sandwich.” Here is the basic structure of a PIE paragraph: Transition, Topic (Point) Introduction for quotation (Information) Quotation (Information) + Citation Interpretation of quotation (Information) Explanation for how the quotation is related to the topic of the paragraph or the part of your essay. (Explanation)
PIE Paragraphs Examples from the sample MLA essay. After you finish EWRT1A you should be able to write an essay as good as this one. Page 5: What was the topic of the previous paragraph/part? How are quotations introduced? Where are citations? How can you identify citations? Where is the interpretation? Where does the explanation begin?
PIE Paragraphs Rules: Always introduce a quotation. Never begin or end a paragraph in the body of your essay with a quotation. Never put two consecutive quotations into your essays. At minimum, an explanation, transition, and introduction should go in between two quotations. Always cite quotations and indicate who made the quotation.
Analytical Essay 2 In Analytical Essay 2 you should demonstrate that you have mastered the technique for writing PIE paragraphs. You should use PIE paragraphs when you are discussing comments.
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How to Write a Reflective Essay - Expert Tips - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
How to Write a Reflective Essay - Expert Tips
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A Simple Guide on How to Write a Reflective Essay
Table of Contents
Are you assigned a task to write a reflective essay? If yes, then you are in the right place. In this blog post, we have shared the step-by-step guide on how to write a reflective essay and the structure and format of a reflective essay. Check this and learn the effective ways for writing a reflective essay.
Before you begin writing your reflective essay, you should first know the meaning and purpose of that particular essay type.
What is a Reflective Essay?
A reflective essay is a type of essay that not only describes an event or experience but also examines its significance and lessons learned from it.
With regards to the reflective essay, as an essayist, you ought to dissect an occasion of the past from the present. Also, when writing a reflective essay, be open about your thoughts, feelings, and emotions to show a clear picture of your personality, traits, and history. If you want your readers to be able to easily relate your experience to their own lives, it is always best to provide a brief summary and description of it.
Steps for writing a Reflective Essay
To write a reflective essay, you should possess excellent creativity and good writing skills. You may think that writing a reflective essay is easy, but actually, it is not. Just because this essay is all about your personal experience, doesn’t mean that you can write it in an informal way. Remember, your reflective essay should always be written in a formal tone only.
If you are asked to write a reflective essay, then make sure to follow the below-mentioned steps.
Identify your essay topic
Your essay will stand unique in the crowd only when you write about an impressive topic. So, choosing a great topic for your essay is an important step in the reflective essay writing process. If you are given the freedom to choose your reflective essay topic, then spend some time and search for the top ideas or think about any event or experience in your life that has a good space for discussion. Always pick a topic that is too broad.
Before selecting an event that happened in your life as your essay topic, be sure to analyze it. Ask yourself the below-mentioned questions and choose that event as your essay topic if you are satisfied with the answers.
- How do you feel about that event?
- How does the event affect your life?
- What lesson do you learn from the event?
- Why does the event create an impact on your life?
Research your topic
After you select a topic for your reflective essay, go ahead and research the topic. To write an essay, you should have some core content. In order to gain information about the topic, think, read, listen, or watch any resources that are related to the topic and then generate the points for your essay with the help of those resources. You can brainstorm about the topic to get more ideas.
Create an outline
Now, you have identified the essay topic and the main points to be discussed in the essay. Next, you have to prepare an outline for your essay. In this step, find a thesis statement and the arguments or examples supporting the thesis statement. Also, categorize the main points in the form of paragraphs. To develop your essay easily, you can create hints in the form of text or flow diagrams.
Write the essay
Now, it is time for you to start writing your reflective essay. So, how to write a reflective essay effectively? After following all the above-mentioned steps one by one, then you have to move forward to develop the essay content with the help of the outline you have prepared.
Remember, you should write a reflective essay by following its standard structure and format. All the paragraphs in the essay should address the core ideas of the essay with proper evidence. When you write a reflective essay, be sure to attract your readers with your engaging writing style and hold your readers’ attention with your persuasive content.
Proofread and Edit
After you have completed writing your reflective essay, then check for errors in it and rectify them, if there are any. Proofreading is one of the mandatory steps that should be done after an essay is written. Your final draft should not contain any grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors. So, never skip revision. You can also seek help from your friends to proofread your content and then, based on their comments, you can update the final draft of your reflective essay.
Standard Structure and Format of a Reflective Essay
As said earlier, when writing a reflective essay, you should present them by following a standard structure and format. To craft your essay in a readable and understandable form, you should write by including the following elements of the reflective essay structure.
Introduction
It is the opening part of your reflective essay where you should have a catchy introduction. The introduction should be engaging and hold the attention of the readers. So, be careful when writing the introduction. To attract your readers, you can crack a joke about yourself, state an interesting fact about yourself, or share any details of your personal story without mentioning your problem’s solutions in the introduction paragraph.
As the reflective essay is all about the personal event or experience, you can start the introduction by including quotes or any relevant dramatic and emotional statement. Whenever you write the introduction section of the reflective essay, make sure to add a thesis statement relevant to the essay topic. Also, briefly specify the points that you are going to discuss in the body of the essay.
The body is the soul of the essay. In this section, explain all the main points with supporting pieces of evidence. Present the main ideas of the essay by adding two or three paragraphs. The content of your body paragraphs should be clear and concise. Remember, your body should be structured properly and all the important ideas should be narrated in a natural flow. So, maintain a proper structure and convey your ideas in a coherent way.
Never miss the major points that you have mentioned in your outline. When writing your body paragraphs, explain all the points that you have included in your outline. All your body paragraphs should have the proper facts and cover all the aspects of your experience or event. Each and every paragraph should discuss the subtopics of your thesis and must have an opening and closing sentence. For natural narration, use transition words or phrases when shifting from one paragraph to another.
Be descriptive when discussing the main ideas of your essay in the body section. Never dump all your experience in the essay, include only the significant events that are relevant to your essay topic. As the reflective essay is about personal experiences, you can write the essay using the personal pronoun “I”. In the body section, make sure to highlight your personality versions by comparing your present with the past.
It is the closing section of your essay. In the conclusion part, briefly summarize your entire essay. Here, restate your thesis statement, specify what you have learned from the event or experience that you were speaking about in the essay and then, mention how beneficial the event or experience would be to others. Like the introduction, the conclusion paragraph should also be captivating and hence conclude the essay with some powerful statements relevant to your topic.
Related post: Reflection Paper | Complete Guide with Writing Tips & Example
List of Reflective Essay Topic Ideas
Your reflective essay can be on any topic like love, communication, friendship, etc. Also, you can choose to write about an object or something from your imagination, real life, or about something that you have seen, read, touched, heard, or smelled.
To help you in choosing the right topic, here we have shared some common reflective essay topics that you can consider.
- An important memory in life
- Significant conversation
- New experiences
- A special room or place
- The house you grew up in
- Desert, Beach, or Mountains
- A special date
- An event when you overcame your fear
- A book that impressed you
- A turning point event in your life
Read here for more topics: Argumentative Essay Topics That You Must Consider
Final Words
Writing a reflective essay is not a hard rock to break. You can effortlessly write a reflective essay if you have a clear understanding of your essay topic and the ideas that you have decided to share. Since it is an academic essay, be careful when sharing your thoughts and feelings about your personal event or experience. In order to make your essay more attractive when compared to your classmates’ essays, use a creative writing style and share your personal experience or event in a way relatable to your readers.
If you want to score high grades, then write an engaging reflective essay by following the steps mentioned in this blog post, or else reach out to us, our Australian assignment helpers will help you in writing an interesting reflective essay for you.
1. How do you start a reflective essay?
To start a reflective essay, a crisp and to-the-point introduction is very essential. The best way to start a reflective essay is by writing about the topic itself without diverting the readers to other topics.
2. What is a reflective essay format?
The ideal format to write a reflective essay is to make 3 paragraphs in it. Introduction, body, and conclusion – this is the ideal format of a reflective essay and in the body part, you are free to include sub-paragraphs with different headings.
3. How do you structure a reflective essay?
To structure a reflective essay, it is essential to make 3 main paragraphs in it: the introduction, body, and conclusion. A body paragraph is the most essential and carefully constructed part of this essay where different sub-headings are needed.
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Reflective writing is a process of identifying, questioning, and critically evaluating course-based learning opportunities, integrated with your own observations, experiences, impressions, beliefs, assumptions, or biases, and which describes how this process stimulated new or creative understanding about the content of the course. A reflective paper describes and explains in an introspective, first person narrative, your reactions and feelings about either a specific element of the class [e.g., a required reading; a film shown in class] or more generally how you experienced learning throughout the course. Reflective writing assignments can be in the form of a single paper, essays, portfolios, journals, diaries, or blogs.
How to Write a Reflection Paper . Academic Skills, Trent University; Writing a Reflection Paper . Writing Center, Lewis University; Critical Reflection . Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo; Tsingos-Lucas et al. "Using Reflective Writing as a Predictor of Academic Success in Different Assessment Formats." American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 81 (2017): Article 8.
Benefits of Reflective Writing Assignments
As the term implies, a reflective paper involves looking inward at oneself in contemplating and bringing meaning to the relationship between course content and the acquisition of new knowledge . Educational research [Bolton, 2010; Ryan, 2011; Tsingos-Lucas et al., 2017] demonstrates that assigning reflective writing tasks enhances learning because it challenges students to confront their own assumptions, biases, and belief systems around what is being taught in class and, in so doing, stimulate student’s decisions, actions, attitudes, and understanding about themselves as learners and in relation to having mastery over their learning. Reflection assignments are also an opportunity to write in a first person narrative about elements of the course, such as the required readings, separate from the exegetic and analytical prose of academic research papers.
Reflection writing often serves multiple purposes simultaneously. In no particular order, here are some of reasons why professors assign reflection papers:
- Enhances learning from previous knowledge and experience in order to improve future decision-making and reasoning in practice . Reflective writing in the applied social sciences enhances decision-making skills and academic performance in ways that can inform professional practice. The act of reflective writing creates self-awareness and understanding of others. This is particularly important in clinical and service-oriented professional settings.
- Allows students to make sense of classroom content and overall learning experiences in relation to oneself, others, and the conditions that shaped the content and classroom experiences . Reflective writing places you within the course content in ways that can deepen your understanding of the material. Because reflective thinking can help reveal hidden biases, it can help you critically interrogate moments when you do not like or agree with discussions, readings, or other aspects of the course.
- Increases awareness of one’s cognitive abilities and the evidence for these attributes . Reflective writing can break down personal doubts about yourself as a learner and highlight specific abilities that may have been hidden or suppressed due to prior assumptions about the strength of your academic abilities [e.g., reading comprehension; problem-solving skills]. Reflective writing, therefore, can have a positive affective [i.e., emotional] impact on your sense of self-worth.
- Applying theoretical knowledge and frameworks to real experiences . Reflective writing can help build a bridge of relevancy between theoretical knowledge and the real world. In so doing, this form of writing can lead to a better understanding of underlying theories and their analytical properties applied to professional practice.
- Reveals shortcomings that the reader will identify . Evidence suggests that reflective writing can uncover your own shortcomings as a learner, thereby, creating opportunities to anticipate the responses of your professor may have about the quality of your coursework. This can be particularly productive if the reflective paper is written before final submission of an assignment.
- Helps students identify their tacit [a.k.a., implicit] knowledge and possible gaps in that knowledge . Tacit knowledge refers to ways of knowing rooted in lived experience, insight, and intuition rather than formal, codified, categorical, or explicit knowledge. In so doing, reflective writing can stimulate students to question their beliefs about a research problem or an element of the course content beyond positivist modes of understanding and representation.
- Encourages students to actively monitor their learning processes over a period of time . On-going reflective writing in journals or blogs, for example, can help you maintain or adapt learning strategies in other contexts. The regular, purposeful act of reflection can facilitate continuous deep thinking about the course content as it evolves and changes throughout the term. This, in turn, can increase your overall confidence as a learner.
- Relates a student’s personal experience to a wider perspective . Reflection papers can help you see the big picture associated with the content of a course by forcing you to think about the connections between scholarly content and your lived experiences outside of school. It can provide a macro-level understanding of one’s own experiences in relation to the specifics of what is being taught.
- If reflective writing is shared, students can exchange stories about their learning experiences, thereby, creating an opportunity to reevaluate their original assumptions or perspectives . In most cases, reflective writing is only viewed by your professor in order to ensure candid feedback from students. However, occasionally, reflective writing is shared and openly discussed in class. During these discussions, new or different perspectives and alternative approaches to solving problems can be generated that would otherwise be hidden. Sharing student's reflections can also reveal collective patterns of thought and emotions about a particular element of the course.
Bolton, Gillie. Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development . London: Sage, 2010; Chang, Bo. "Reflection in Learning." Online Learning 23 (2019), 95-110; Cavilla, Derek. "The Effects of Student Reflection on Academic Performance and Motivation." Sage Open 7 (July-September 2017): 1–13; Culbert, Patrick. “Better Teaching? You Can Write On It “ Liberal Education (February 2022); McCabe, Gavin and Tobias Thejll-Madsen. The Reflection Toolkit . University of Edinburgh; The Purpose of Reflection . Introductory Composition at Purdue University; Practice-based and Reflective Learning . Study Advice Study Guides, University of Reading; Ryan, Mary. "Improving Reflective Writing in Higher Education: A Social Semiotic Perspective." Teaching in Higher Education 16 (2011): 99-111; Tsingos-Lucas et al. "Using Reflective Writing as a Predictor of Academic Success in Different Assessment Formats." American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 81 (2017): Article 8; What Benefits Might Reflective Writing Have for My Students? Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse; Rykkje, Linda. "The Tacit Care Knowledge in Reflective Writing: A Practical Wisdom." International Practice Development Journal 7 (September 2017): Article 5; Using Reflective Writing to Deepen Student Learning . Center for Writing, University of Minnesota.
How to Approach Writing a Reflection Paper
Thinking About Reflective Thinking
Educational theorists have developed numerous models of reflective thinking that your professor may use to frame a reflective writing assignment. These models can help you systematically interpret your learning experiences, thereby ensuring that you ask the right questions and have a clear understanding of what should be covered. A model can also represent the overall structure of a reflective paper. Each model establishes a different approach to reflection and will require you to think about your writing differently. If you are unclear how to fit your writing within a particular reflective model, seek clarification from your professor. There are generally two types of reflective writing assignments, each approached in slightly different ways.
1. Reflective Thinking about Course Readings
This type of reflective writing focuses on thoughtfully thinking about the course readings that underpin how most students acquire new knowledge and understanding about the subject of a course. Reflecting on course readings is often assigned in freshmen-level, interdisciplinary courses where the required readings examine topics viewed from multiple perspectives and, as such, provide different ways of analyzing a topic, issue, event, or phenomenon. The purpose of reflective thinking about course readings in the social and behavioral sciences is to elicit your opinions, beliefs, and feelings about the research and its significance. This type of writing can provide an opportunity to break down key assumptions you may have and, in so doing, reveal potential biases in how you interpret the scholarship.
If you are assigned to reflect on course readings, consider the following methods of analysis as prompts that can help you get started :
- Examine carefully the main introductory elements of the reading, including the purpose of the study, the theoretical framework being used to test assumptions, and the research questions being addressed. Think about what ideas stood out to you. Why did they? Were these ideas new to you or familiar in some way based on your own lived experiences or prior knowledge?
- Develop your ideas around the readings by asking yourself, what do I know about this topic? Where does my existing knowledge about this topic come from? What are the observations or experiences in my life that influence my understanding of the topic? Do I agree or disagree with the main arguments, recommended course of actions, or conclusions made by the author(s)? Why do I feel this way and what is the basis of these feelings?
- Make connections between the text and your own beliefs, opinions, or feelings by considering questions like, how do the readings reinforce my existing ideas or assumptions? How the readings challenge these ideas or assumptions? How does this text help me to better understand this topic or research in ways that motivate me to learn more about this area of study?
2. Reflective Thinking about Course Experiences
This type of reflective writing asks you to critically reflect on locating yourself at the conceptual intersection of theory and practice. The purpose of experiential reflection is to evaluate theories or disciplinary-based analytical models based on your introspective assessment of the relationship between hypothetical thinking and practical reality; it offers a way to consider how your own knowledge and skills fit within professional practice. This type of writing also provides an opportunity to evaluate your decisions and actions, as well as how you managed your subsequent successes and failures, within a specific theoretical framework. As a result, abstract concepts can crystallize and become more relevant to you when considered within your own experiences. This can help you formulate plans for self-improvement as you learn.
If you are assigned to reflect on your experiences, consider the following questions as prompts to help you get started :
- Contextualize your reflection in relation to the overarching purpose of the course by asking yourself, what did you hope to learn from this course? What were the learning objectives for the course and how did I fit within each of them? How did these goals relate to the main themes or concepts of the course?
- Analyze how you experienced the course by asking yourself, what did I learn from this experience? What did I learn about myself? About working in this area of research and study? About how the course relates to my place in society? What assumptions about the course were supported or refuted?
- Think introspectively about the ways you experienced learning during the course by asking yourself, did your learning experiences align with the goals or concepts of the course? Why or why do you not feel this way? What was successful and why do you believe this? What would you do differently and why is this important? How will you prepare for a future experience in this area of study?
NOTE: If you are assigned to write a journal or other type of on-going reflection exercise, a helpful approach is to reflect on your reflections by re-reading what you have already written. In other words, review your previous entries as a way to contextualize your feelings, opinions, or beliefs regarding your overall learning experiences. Over time, this can also help reveal hidden patterns or themes related to how you processed your learning experiences. Consider concluding your reflective journal with a summary of how you felt about your learning experiences at critical junctures throughout the course, then use these to write about how you grew as a student learner and how the act of reflecting helped you gain new understanding about the subject of the course and its content.
ANOTHER NOTE: Regardless of whether you write a reflection paper or a journal, do not focus your writing on the past. The act of reflection is intended to think introspectively about previous learning experiences. However, reflective thinking should document the ways in which you progressed in obtaining new insights and understandings about your growth as a learner that can be carried forward in subsequent coursework or in future professional practice. Your writing should reflect a furtherance of increasing personal autonomy and confidence gained from understanding more about yourself as a learner.
Structure and Writing Style
There are no strict academic rules for writing a reflective paper. Reflective writing may be assigned in any class taught in the social and behavioral sciences and, therefore, requirements for the assignment can vary depending on disciplinary-based models of inquiry and learning. The organization of content can also depend on what your professor wants you to write about or based on the type of reflective model used to frame the writing assignment. Despite these possible variations, below is a basic approach to organizing and writing a good reflective paper, followed by a list of problems to avoid.
Pre-flection
In most cases, it's helpful to begin by thinking about your learning experiences and outline what you want to focus on before you begin to write the paper. This can help you organize your thoughts around what was most important to you and what experiences [good or bad] had the most impact on your learning. As described by the University of Waterloo Writing and Communication Centre, preparing to write a reflective paper involves a process of self-analysis that can help organize your thoughts around significant moments of in-class knowledge discovery.
- Using a thesis statement as a guide, note what experiences or course content stood out to you , then place these within the context of your observations, reactions, feelings, and opinions. This will help you develop a rough outline of key moments during the course that reflect your growth as a learner. To identify these moments, pose these questions to yourself: What happened? What was my reaction? What were my expectations and how were they different from what transpired? What did I learn?
- Critically think about your learning experiences and the course content . This will help you develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding about why these moments were significant or relevant to you. Use the ideas you formulated during the first stage of reflecting to help you think through these moments from both an academic and personal perspective. From an academic perspective, contemplate how the experience enhanced your understanding of a concept, theory, or skill. Ask yourself, did the experience confirm my previous understanding or challenge it in some way. As a result, did this highlight strengths or gaps in your current knowledge? From a personal perspective, think introspectively about why these experiences mattered, if previous expectations or assumptions were confirmed or refuted, and if this surprised, confused, or unnerved you in some way.
- Analyze how these experiences and your reactions to them will shape your future thinking and behavior . Reflection implies looking back, but the most important act of reflective writing is considering how beliefs, assumptions, opinions, and feelings were transformed in ways that better prepare you as a learner in the future. Note how this reflective analysis can lead to actions you will take as a result of your experiences, what you will do differently, and how you will apply what you learned in other courses or in professional practice.
Basic Structure and Writing Style
Reflective Background and Context
The first part of your reflection paper should briefly provide background and context in relation to the content or experiences that stood out to you. Highlight the settings, summarize the key readings, or narrate the experiences in relation to the course objectives. Provide background that sets the stage for your reflection. You do not need to go into great detail, but you should provide enough information for the reader to understand what sources of learning you are writing about [e.g., course readings, field experience, guest lecture, class discussions] and why they were important. This section should end with an explanatory thesis statement that expresses the central ideas of your paper and what you want the readers to know, believe, or understand after they finish reading your paper.
Reflective Interpretation
Drawing from your reflective analysis, this is where you can be personal, critical, and creative in expressing how you felt about the course content and learning experiences and how they influenced or altered your feelings, beliefs, assumptions, or biases about the subject of the course. This section is also where you explore the meaning of these experiences in the context of the course and how you gained an awareness of the connections between these moments and your own prior knowledge.
Guided by your thesis statement, a helpful approach is to interpret your learning throughout the course with a series of specific examples drawn from the course content and your learning experiences. These examples should be arranged in sequential order that illustrate your growth as a learner. Reflecting on each example can be done by: 1) introducing a theme or moment that was meaningful to you, 2) describing your previous position about the learning moment and what you thought about it, 3) explaining how your perspective was challenged and/or changed and why, and 4) introspectively stating your current or new feelings, opinions, or beliefs about that experience in class.
It is important to include specific examples drawn from the course and placed within the context of your assumptions, thoughts, opinions, and feelings. A reflective narrative without specific examples does not provide an effective way for the reader to understand the relationship between the course content and how you grew as a learner.
Reflective Conclusions
The conclusion of your reflective paper should provide a summary of your thoughts, feelings, or opinions regarding what you learned about yourself as a result of taking the course. Here are several ways you can frame your conclusions based on the examples you interpreted and reflected on what they meant to you. Each example would need to be tied to the basic theme [thesis statement] of your reflective background section.
- Your reflective conclusions can be described in relation to any expectations you had before taking the class [e.g., “I expected the readings to not be relevant to my own experiences growing up in a rural community, but the research actually helped me see that the challenges of developing my identity as a child of immigrants was not that unusual...”].
- Your reflective conclusions can explain how what you learned about yourself will change your actions in the future [e.g., “During a discussion in class about the challenges of helping homeless people, I realized that many of these people hate living on the street but lack the ability to see a way out. This made me realize that I wanted to take more classes in psychology...”].
- Your reflective conclusions can describe major insights you experienced a critical junctures during the course and how these moments enhanced how you see yourself as a student learner [e.g., "The guest speaker from the Head Start program made me realize why I wanted to pursue a career in elementary education..."].
- Your reflective conclusions can reconfigure or reframe how you will approach professional practice and your understanding of your future career aspirations [e.g.,, "The course changed my perceptions about seeking a career in business finance because it made me realize I want to be more engaged in customer service..."]
- Your reflective conclusions can explore any learning you derived from the act of reflecting itself [e.g., “Reflecting on the course readings that described how minority students perceive campus activities helped me identify my own biases about the benefits of those activities in acclimating to campus life...”].
NOTE: The length of a reflective paper in the social sciences is usually less than a traditional research paper. However, don’t assume that writing a reflective paper is easier than writing a research paper. A well-conceived critical reflection paper often requires as much time and effort as a research paper because you must purposeful engage in thinking about your learning in ways that you may not comfortable with or used to. This is particular true while preparing to write because reflective papers are not as structured as a traditional research paper and, therefore, you have to think deliberately about how you want to organize the paper and what elements of the course you want to reflect upon.
ANOTHER NOTE: Do not limit yourself to using only text in reflecting on your learning. If you believe it would be helpful, consider using creative modes of thought or expression such as, illustrations, photographs, or material objects that reflects an experience related to the subject of the course that was important to you [e.g., like a ticket stub to a renowned speaker on campus]. Whatever non-textual element you include, be sure to describe the object's relevance to your personal relationship to the course content.
Problems to Avoid
A reflective paper is not a “mind dump” . Reflective papers document your personal and emotional experiences and, therefore, they do not conform to rigid structures, or schema, to organize information. However, the paper should not be a disjointed, stream-of-consciousness narrative. Reflective papers are still academic pieces of writing that require organized thought, that use academic language and tone , and that apply intellectually-driven critical thinking to the course content and your learning experiences and their significance.
A reflective paper is not a research paper . If you are asked to reflect on a course reading, the reflection will obviously include some description of the research. However, the goal of reflective writing is not to present extraneous ideas to the reader or to "educate" them about the course. The goal is to share a story about your relationship with the learning objectives of the course. Therefore, unlike research papers, you are expected to write from a first person point of view which includes an introspective examination of your own opinions, feelings, and personal assumptions.
A reflection paper is not a book review . Descriptions of the course readings using your own words is not a reflective paper. Reflective writing should focus on how you understood the implications of and were challenged by the course in relation to your own lived experiences or personal assumptions, combined with explanations of how you grew as a student learner based on this internal dialogue. Remember that you are the central object of the paper, not the research materials.
A reflective paper is not an all-inclusive meditation. Do not try to cover everything. The scope of your paper should be well-defined and limited to your specific opinions, feelings, and beliefs about what you determine to be the most significant content of the course and in relation to the learning that took place. Reflections should be detailed enough to covey what you think is important, but your thoughts should be expressed concisely and coherently [as is true for any academic writing assignment].
Critical Reflection . Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo; Critical Reflection: Journals, Opinions, & Reactions . University Writing Center, Texas A&M University; Connor-Greene, Patricia A. “Making Connections: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Journal Writing in Enhancing Student Learning.” Teaching of Psychology 27 (2000): 44-46; Good vs. Bad Reflection Papers , Franklin University; Dyment, Janet E. and Timothy S. O’Connell. "The Quality of Reflection in Student Journals: A Review of Limiting and Enabling Factors." Innovative Higher Education 35 (2010): 233-244: How to Write a Reflection Paper . Academic Skills, Trent University; Amelia TaraJane House. Reflection Paper . Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence, University of Arkansas; Ramlal, Alana, and Désirée S. Augustin. “Engaging Students in Reflective Writing: An Action Research Project.” Educational Action Research 28 (2020): 518-533; Writing a Reflection Paper . Writing Center, Lewis University; McGuire, Lisa, Kathy Lay, and Jon Peters. “Pedagogy of Reflective Writing in Professional Education.” Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2009): 93-107; Critical Reflection . Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo; How Do I Write Reflectively? Academic Skills Toolkit, University of New South Wales Sydney; Reflective Writing . [email protected] University of Leeds; Walling, Anne, Johanna Shapiro, and Terry Ast. “What Makes a Good Reflective Paper?” Family Medicine 45 (2013): 7-12; Williams, Kate, Mary Woolliams, and Jane Spiro. Reflective Writing . 2nd edition. London: Red Globe Press, 2020; Yeh, Hui-Chin, Shih-hsien Yang, Jo Shan Fu, and Yen-Chen Shih. “Developing College Students’ Critical Thinking through Reflective Writing.” Higher Education Research and Development (2022): 1-16.
Writing Tip
Focus on Reflecting, Not on Describing
Minimal time and effort should be spent describing the course content you are asked to reflect upon. The purpose of a reflection assignment is to introspectively contemplate your reactions to and feeling about an element of the course. D eflecting the focus away from your own feelings by concentrating on describing the course content can happen particularly if "talking about yourself" [i.e., reflecting] makes you uncomfortable or it is intimidating. However, the intent of reflective writing is to overcome these inhibitions so as to maximize the benefits of introspectively assessing your learning experiences. Keep in mind that, if it is relevant, your feelings of discomfort could be a part of how you critically reflect on any challenges you had during the course [e.g., you realize this discomfort inhibited your willingness to ask questions during class, it fed into your propensity to procrastinate, or it made it difficult participating in groups].
Writing a Reflection Paper . Writing Center, Lewis University; Reflection Paper . Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence, University of Arkansas.
Another Writing Tip
Helpful Videos about Reflective Writing
These two short videos succinctly describe how to approach a reflective writing assignment. They are produced by the Academic Skills department at the University of Melbourne and the Skills Team of the University of Hull, respectively.
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Find out more about the different types of reflective assignment and reflective writing style.
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- Assignment Types
Reflective writing encourages ‘metacognition’ (thinking about your own thinking) to help you engage more deeply with your learning and development. It helps you to review your progress as a learner and/or practitioner and consider how you might apply, or already have applied, what you have learned to aid your future development. Reflective writing may be set as an assignment, or you might be asked to keep a reflective log for your own purposes. You don’t need to write in order to reflect, but it is a good way to ‘think out loud’ and keep a record of your reflections, and also to demonstrate to lecturers and employers that you can learn from your own experience and evidence development. Reflective writing has some key differences with traditional academic writing, but also some characteristics that are familiar.
Different kinds of reflective writing
There are several different types of reflective assignment, and therefore more than one way to write reflectively. Your assignment might fit clearly into one of these types or blend elements of more than one.
Critical incident analysis
This form of reflective writing is common in professional practitioner subjects such as Health and Social care or Teaching. It asks you to look closely at a single event from your own practice (for example, on a placement) that you’ve identified as challenging in some way. The aim is to analyse why it was challenging for you, evaluate your decisions and actions at the time and identify ways to change your practice or learning which could be implemented in similar circumstances. You might choose to structure a critical incident analysis around a reflective cycle such as Kolb or Gibbs.
Reflective report
The reflective report is looser in focus and structure than the Critical Incident Report. You might choose to focus on one or more events over a period of time, focussing on an aspect of your practice or emerging themes. The incident or events you select needn’t necessarily be challenging ones, simply something you would find it productive and interesting to reflect on. You could use a chronological approach, base it on one of the reflective models, or decide on a thematic approach, around different aspects of your learning.
Demonstrating professional attributes
This type of assignment focusses very much on identifying and evidencing your development, often to specific attributes. It is closely related to the kind of writing you would do in a job application, professional accreditation or annual appraisal. The focus here is about drawing on your experience across your studies or a placement or volunteer work to show how you have developed and met certain criteria, rather than analysing and evaluating your own responses to a challenging incident. A reflective model might be helpful to prompt you to spot opportunities to reflect on and unpack them, but this assignment type is likely to be structured around the attributes you are reflecting on rather than the incident or model.
Reflective journal or learning log
This is an ongoing activity often for the duration of a period of training and development, for example, on a placement or course. It is related to a diary or blog in that it is structured around regular, chronological entries, perhaps weekly. Its purpose is to help you develop the habit of reflecting regularly on your learning during this time to help you get the most out of it. You might be asked to submit the whole of your journal or a sample of entries from it as a portfolio, for assessment. It might be helpful to use a reflective model to underpin each entry.
Case study
Case studies can be reflective if they are drawing from your own experience, rather than examples from elsewhere. The aim is often to demonstrate that you have understood a theory, concept or model by applying it to your own practice and showing how it explains, typifies or predicts it. A case study is a case example of something in particular, so theory and practice will need to be in balance, and your own experience needs to be directly related to and clearly reflect your understanding of the wider principles.
Reflective writing style
Personal .
The key difference between reflective writing and most forms of academic writing style is that you are writing in the first person ‘I’. Your voice is very present in the text because you are writing about yourself. You have to write ‘I’ when you are describing things that you did, thought and felt, and things that happened to you: “I did’, ‘I decided’, ‘I was frustrated’, ‘he said to me’. You also write ‘I’ when you are reflecting on these past events in the present, so you can write ‘I think’, ‘I will’, ‘I now understand’ ‘I need to’.
Formality
You are also often quoting or paraphrasing things that you or others said and writing about perceptions and feelings and other ‘real life’ things that are hard to scientifically quantify or characterise. Your language can therefore be a little less formal than in traditional academic writing: ‘he was really annoyed’ ‘I don’t think it matters that much’, ‘it was just too important’. Reflective writing is still a professional form though, so it needs to keep some formality and neutrality.
Critical analysis
Writing in the first person in a slightly less formal tone can sometimes lead us to overlook the need to be objective and unpack your reasoning for the reader. Reflection can then become a descriptive, unselective account of everything that happened, or a series of unsubstantiated statements which are easy to say, but too generic or too sweeping to be credible.
Reflective writing is still quite academic in that it is critical, reasoned and evidenced, demonstrating higher level thinking beyond description, and your style will demonstrate this. To be critical of your own experience doesn’t mean criticising your own performance but to ask yourself critical questions to unpack it fully for yourself and the reader, such as
- Why is that significant? How is it relevant?
- How do I know that? What makes me think that?
- What do I mean by that?
- Why did that happen? What explains that?
- Am I sure of that? How else could I see it?
To help you answer these questions, you will be using evidence and often academic literature as part of your account.
Using evidence and theory
You will be presenting evidence in the form of concrete examples from your experience, but these still need to be analysed and interpreted, just as you would for evidence from scholarship and research. Rather than just a list of things you’ve done with your own assessment of how successful they were, you need to explain and interpret these examples to show how they demonstrate your development and how you know they were successful (or not). It is useful where possible to include external forms of evidence, such as feedback from other people or tangible, measurable outcomes.
You may also be interpreting your experiences in the light of theory, using academic research or professional frameworks to help explain and analyse your experiences, contextualise them in the light of what we know more generally to see if your experience is common, unusual or meeting the criteria, and help underpin your decision making. Reflective writing doesn’t always have references to literature in it as it’s mainly about you, but bringing in some theory might be helpful, depending on the assignment type.
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How to start a reflective essay + Introduction Examples
When you are assigned a reflective essay , one of the hardest things to do is to come up with a good introduction. A good introduction sets the tone for your essay and engages your reader. It is important to make your introduction interesting so that your reader will want to keep reading. In this introduction writing guide, we will discuss 5 steps in writing an engaging introduction for your reflective essay!
How to Start a Reflective Essay
Before you start writing a reflective essay, it is important to understand what this type of paper actually is and what it should include.
A reflective essay is a piece of writing that explores your personal thoughts and experiences on a certain subject. In most cases,reflective essays focus on recent events or experiences and how they have affected you.
reflective essay outline
Reflective essay examples, write a nursing reflective essay, reflective summary essay.
- Reflective Essay Topics & Ideas
Writing a Reflective analysis essay
When writing about past events, it is important to reflect on how these experiences have shaped your current beliefs and opinions. It is also helpful to consider how these events may have impacted your future choices.
By understanding the purpose of a reflective essay, you will be able to develop an effective and well-organized introduction for your reflective paper.
Here are 4 steps in writing great reflective essay introduction paragraphs:
1. Introduce your topic
Before you can start writing your reflective essay, you need to have something to reflect on. That something is usually an event, a memory, or an experience. Once you have something to work with, you can start introducing your topic. Introducing your topic means more than just saying what it is. It also means giving some context and background information. For example, if you’re writing about a time when you got lost in the city, you might want to provide some information about the city itself. What is it like? What was the weather like that day? How did you feel? By providing this context, you give your readers a better understanding of what happened and why it was significant to you. With that said, there are a few thing yous should avoid doing in your introduction:
- -Don’t give too much detail. You don’t want to bore your reader or ruin the element of surprise.
- -Don’t provide too much background information. As we said, you need to provide some context, but you don’t want to write a whole history lesson.
- -Don’t make it too long. An introduction should be around one paragraph, or around five to seven sentences.
These are just a few tips to keep in mind when introducing your topic. Now let’s move on to the next tip!
2: Make a Thesis Statement
Every essay needs a thesis statement , and a reflective essay is no different. A thesis statement is a one-sentence summary of your essay. It tells the reader what your essay is about and sets the tone for your writing. For example, if you’re writing about a time when you got lost in the city, your thesis statement might be something like this: “That day, I learned that it’s important to always be aware of your surroundings.”
Your thesis statement should be clear, concise, and easy to understand. It should also be arguable, which means that someone could disagree with it. If you’re having trouble coming up with a good thesis statement, try this exercise:
- -Write down everything you want to say about your topic in one sentence.
- -Now, look at that sentence and see if you can make it more concise.
- -Finally, ask yourself if someone could disagree with your statement. If they could, then you have a good thesis statement!
If you can’t seem to come up with a good thesis statement, don’t worry. This is something that you can always revise later on. Now let’s move on to the next tip!
3: Use a Hook
A hook is a way to grab your reader’s attention and make them want to keep reading. There are a few different ways that you can do this, but some of the most common reflective essay hooks include quotes, questions, and statistics .
For example, let’s say you’re writing about a time when you got lost in the city. You could start your essay with a quote like this: “The first rule of thumb is never to go anywhere without knowing where you’re going.” This quote is from the book How to Get Lost by Margaret Atwood. It’s a short and attention-grabbing way to start your essay.
You could also start with a question like this: “Have you ever felt like you’re the only one who knows where you’re going?” This is a good hook because it’s relatable and it will make your readers want to know more.
Finally, you could start with a statistic like this: “According to a study by the American Psychological Association, 60% of people have felt lost at least once in their lives.” This is a good hook because it’s interesting and it will make your readers want to know more.
4. Use descriptive language to set the tone for your essay.
The language that you use in your essay introduction should be reflective of the tone that you want to set. For example, if you’re writing about a time when you got lost in the city, you might want to use descriptive language to set the tone of your essay. You could say something like this: “I was lost in a sea of people, all moving in different directions.” This paints a picture for the reader and sets the tone for your essay.
If you’re not sure what kind of language to use, try this exercise:
- Read over your introduction and highlight any words or phrases that are particularly strong or vivid.
- Now, look at the tone of your essay and see if the language you’ve used reflects that tone.
- If it doesn’t, try to find a way to make it more reflective of the tone you want to set.
Remember, the language you use in your introduction should be reflective of the tone that you want to set for your essay.
5. Create an outline.
Before you begin writing a reflective essay, it’s important to create an outline. This will help you organize your thoughts and structure your essay in a way that is easy to follow.
Here’s a basic outline for a reflective essay:
- Introduction
- Body paragraphs
Now you can start writing your reflective paper based on your teacher’s requirements. Let’s look at a few examples on how to begin a reflective essay effectively.
Reflective essay introduction examples
Here are eight reflective essay introduction paragraph examples that you can use as inspiration for your own writing:
Reflective Essay Introduction Paragraph Example 2:
Topic: A time when you faced a challenge:
“ It was the middle of winter and all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball under my blankets. But I had a paper due for my English class, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t make myself start writing. I was about to give up when… ”
Topic: A time when you were proud of yourself:
“ I remember the first time I ever rode a bike. I was so excited, but also really scared. My dad held onto the back of the seat and ran next to me as I pedaled my legs as fast as I could. And then, suddenly, I was riding all by myself. ”
Reflective Essay Introduction Paragraph Example 3:
Topic: A time when you had to make a difficult choice:
“ It was my senior year of high school and I had been accepted to both my dream school and my safety school. I didn’t know what to do. Both schools were amazing, but in different ways. After a lot of thought, I finally made my decision… ”
Reflective Essay Introduction Paragraph Example 4:
Topic: A time when you learned something new:
“ I remember the first day of my cooking class. I was so excited to learn how to cook, but also really nervous. I didn’t know if I would be able to keep up with the other students. But from the very first lesson, I was hooked. ”
Reflective Essay Introduction Paragraph Example 5:
Topic: A time when you failed:
“ I’ll never forget the time I failed my driving test. I was so confident that I was going to pass, but I made a silly mistake and ended up failing. It was really frustrating, but I’m glad that I didn’t give up. ”
Reflective Essay Introduction Paragraph Example 6:
Topic: A time when you were disappointed:
“ I remember the first time I didn’t get the grade I wanted on a test. I had studied so hard, but I still didn’t do as well as I wanted. I was really disappointed in myself, but my mom told me that it wasn’t the end of the world. ”
In conclusion, the introduction paragraph of a reflective essay is very important. You need to make sure that you use descriptive language, set the tone for your essay, and give your readers a good sense of what the essay will be about.
By following these 5 tips, you can write an engaging reflective essay introduction that will set the stage for your entire essay.
Reflective Essay Topics & Ideas
Personal reflection essay, process essay introduction, related guides, how to write a reflective journal.
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Research in learning sciences illustrates the many benefits of reflective writing. When provided with clear and authentic prompts and given repeated opportunities to think about their course work and educational, professional, or clinical experiences, students are better able to retain and transfer learning to new contexts. Reflective writing often serves multiple purposes simultaneously, enabling students to deepen their component skills and conceptual understanding within a specific field of study while also developing their metacognitive knowledge of their own learning habits and practices. In effect, while reflection involves looking back, it also serves as a mental rehearsal for future practice.
Why should I assign reflective writing?
Because the act of reflecting requires retrieval, elaboration, and generation of information, it can make learning more durable for students, as Brown, Roediger III, and McDaniel demonstrate in Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (2014). Simply worded prompts—such as What went well? What could have gone better? What other knowledge or experiences does this remind you of? and What other strategies might you use next time to get better results? (210)— encourage students to actively monitor their learning processes, which can then cue them to maintain or adapt their strategies in other contexts. Reflective writing prompts can also be used to cue students to think about their conceptual learning: What do I already know? What do I wonder? What do I want to find out? How does this new information relate to the old stuff I thought I knew? How does this new knowledge impact other things I think I know? As detailed by Ambrose et al. (2010 ), becoming more “consciously competent''—developing component skills, becoming fluent with them, and applying them to relevant contexts—enables mastery of concepts (95).
Beyond the rich gains it provides students, reflective writing can also yield valuable insights for instructors about how to adjust their teaching, their course designs, and their assignments to address student-identified areas of struggle.
How and when should I use reflective writing?
Reflective writing can take many different forms, including routine entries in lab, design, or fieldwork notebooks, revision memos , and blog and video postings; and it can range from brief, informal assignments (such as one-minute papers , muddiest points , or exit slips ) to formal components of large capstone-level projects. Reflective writing can even be used beyond one’s course to integrate and deepen learning across the curriculum when integrated with eportfolios .
Regardless of its form or length, reflective writing is most effective when it is integrated into the design of a course, when it supports key learning aims, and when it is intentionally sequenced within an assignment—that is, when its purpose and relevance are clear to students. If students are asked to reflect on their learning experiences only once at the end of a course, they might approach such a task as a course evaluation or a generic description of their learning experiences.
Providing specific and purposeful reflective activities throughout the semester—before a unit of study, during or after a course lecture or class discussion, or before and after an exam—can help students identify challenges and setbacks along with developing strategies for overcoming them. For example, Dr. Mary Pat Wenderoth assigns weekly learning paragraphs in her large physiology class in order to (1) have students identify their preconceptions about biological systems so those preconceptions can be challenged and prevented from interfering with their learning; (2) develop students’ conceptual frameworks to better retain factual knowledge; and (3) offer practice in metacognition.
Here are seven ways to integrate authentic and purposeful reflective writing.
- Ask students to combine reflective writing with goal setting. Prior to reviewing for a test or drafting an essay, ask students to anticipate concerns and challenges they may face and the strategies they might use to overcome them. For example, if students identify procrastination as a key challenge to producing a full draft of a paper or project, they can then identify strategies such as turning off their phones, working in wi-fi cold spots, or meeting with a consultant at Student Writing Support —strategies that may help them to get started with their drafts. Inviting students to share their methods for overcoming procrastination can also be an easy, useful, and inclusive way to crowdsource effective strategies.
- Ask students to reflect on their work before they revise it . When students write a reflective or revision memo to themselves, they can better process the feedback they have received and determine how they are going to use it. Likewise, asking students to insert a reflective comment (pdf) on a draft of their paper that they are going to discuss with others, either in a peer response session , an appointment with Student Writing Support , or a conference with the instructor, can establish more agency for the student writer.
- Ask students to reflect throughout the process of writing a paper, preparing for and taking an exam, or during a group project. Jose Bowen (2012) provides a number of examples for how to integrate exam or cognitive wrappers into assignments that can help students to process and self-regulate their learning experiences over the course of a project.
- Ask students to reflect on their learning throughout the entire term . Learning logs with simple prompts that ask students to summarize their learning at the end of class, identify points of insight and confusion, and establish connections between key concepts can motivate students to participate more actively in their learning and provide instructors with an important gauge for modifying their teaching.
- Ask students to reflect at the end of the term on their development as a writer. An end-of-the term reflective essay that requires students to cite passages from their own work and to reflect on the ways those passages indicate growth, struggle, and learning can provide a strong impetus for writing transfer .
- Ask students to reflect upon completion of a major task or learning event. Many reflective writing tasks can take just a few minutes to complete. However, a significant learning milestone, such as an internship, a mentorship project, or a capstone assignment, will likely benefit from a more extensive reflective writing task. For these kinds of reflective writing tasks, it is helpful to offer guidelines and a series of open-ended prompts, such as those provided by Grose, Burke and Toston (2017) , that will encourage students to elaborate on and synthesize their learning experiences.
- Ask students to reflect on their learning for future students of your course. As recounted by James Lang (2014) , a professor at the University of Richmond invites students to share their most effective learning strategies with future students in their accounting course. The incoming students read the former students’ reflections and use those insights to guide their study habits. Adapting this practice to your own course has two vital benefits: it acknowledges the hard work and successes of current students, and it clearly signals the importance and value of reflective writing in your course.
How do I respond to and assess reflective writing?
Reflective writing can generate quite a bit of reading for instructors. However, responses to reflective writing can be brief, synthetic, and periodic. For more developed reflective writing assignments, such as those described in five and six above, instructors will want to allot more time for providing feedback, and they should consider developing a rubric that identifies the key criteria used to evaluate the reflective writing. Members of the Writing Across the Curriculum team are pleased to consult with instructors on developing reflective assignments and assessments.
For the majority of reflective tasks students do, instructors can respond with a strategy of minimal marking (pdf) and a simplified grading scheme (credit/partial credit/no credit). Since a primary goal of reflective writing is for the student writer to become more aware of their own learning and writing processes, instructors can respond in ways that affirm students' insights and encourage their ongoing efforts of reflection and transfer. While such responses can be brief, they are vital and should be timely. Responses can be written, oral, or presented in audio-video formats, depending on the medium.
Here are four ways to ensure responses to reflective writing are timely and manageable.
- Afterclass, quickly read student responses and then summarize key themes from the responses at the start of the next class . If instructors are teaching a large class, they and their teaching assistants can read and respond to half of the class responses and then read and respond to the other half in subsequent reflective responses.
- Upon completion of in-class reflective writing tasks, invite students to share their responses with a partner or in small groups.
- For reflective pieces submitted through Canvas, instructors can provide brief responses that use the audio feedback tool , which can take less than a minute while also establishing instructor presence .
- For multimodal reflections using tools such as flipgrid , instructors can respond in writing or video and encourage classmates to respond to each other’s postings as well .
How can I foster authentic reflective writing?
For some students, reflecting on their learning may be difficult, and it may be an unfamiliar practice based on socio-cultural backgrounds and schooling histories. For neurodivergent students, reflective activities may require additional or modified instructions and different ways of responding to a prompt. To accommodate all learners and to demonstrate the value of reflective writing, instructors should consider the following:
- Signal the importance of reflective writing by including a rationale for its use in the course syllabus. When students know in advance that they will be asked occasionally to reflect on their learning, they can seek out clarification and accommodations based on their needs.
- Model reflective practice in your class. For flipgrid assignments , for example, where responses are visible to the entire class, it is useful for instructors to post their own responses. Likewise, similar to metateaching , modelling reflective practice in class can demonstrate its utility to students.
- For most reflective activities, particularly informal ones, simplify the assessment schema. Grading students on their use of grammar, mechanics, and standard written conventions may undercut the purpose of a quick reflective activity.
- When possible, allow students the opportunity to opt out of sharing their reflections. If students do share their reflections in class, a quick word of thanks for sharing is valuable.
- When conferring with students about their work, call attention to the insights they have generated about their learning and experiences. Building on the reflective work of students can be a powerful way to leverage feedback.
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Download Now Download to read offline This is a presentation explaining the process of writing reflective essays. It includes structuring the essay using a reflective model and suggestions for introductions and conclusions. Barbara Nicolls Follow Senior Lecturer at Bucks New University at Buckinghamshire New University Advertisement Advertisement
A typical reflective essay format includes three parts: Introduction: Introduce your topic. Body: Explore your topic in depth. Conclusion: Summarize your thoughts and reflect. What Should be Included in the Introduction? The introduction should begin with a hook that grabs the reader's attention.
Reflective Writing As the diagram suggests, a reflection paper is your identification of the main themes of the readings integrated with your classroom experience and how both affect your thinking and practice.
Reflective writing process for students. ... How to write a reflective essay Barbara Nicolls. GR 7 - Reflective essay nishiraa_scholastica. Tools for critical reflection ... Download to take your learnings offline and on the go. You also get free access to Scribd!
What is a Reflective Essay? "A reflective essay is an exploration of a topic using personal thought and experience" (Farleigh). 5. Reflective Essay: As a Group Objectives: Combine reflections in an organized manner following the essay format. Showcase the group's: 1. thoughts about the topic As a group, 2. experience/group interaction you ...
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Download Share About This Presentation Title: The Only Guide You'll Need to Write a Reflective Essay Description: There are two steps involved in writing reflective essays, i.e. recount a particular experience and present a critical evaluation of what you have learned from that experience.
PPT - Reflective Writing PowerPoint Presentation, free download - ID:6526714 Create Presentation Download Presentation Download 1 / 20 Reflective Writing 2689 Views Download Presentation Reflective Writing. "We do not learn so much from experience as we do from reflecting on our experience." - John Dewey.
Download Share About This Presentation Title: How to Write a Reflective Essay Description: Great opportunity to express your own thoughts regarding to your life experience. Also read an article - PowerPoint PPT presentation Number of Views: 1364 Slides: 13 Provided by: EssayAcademy Category: How To, Education & Training
write reflective essays is that you need to be organised while composing it. This type of essay will follow the normal structure of any type of essay including the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Based on the target readers, the structure of the essay can change but in every essay 11 How to Structure a Reflective Essay?
Reflective Essay. Performance Criteria. The Marking Process. Each piece of writing should first be read to establish whether it achieves success in all the Performance Criteria below, as well as ensuring that it is consistently technically accurate . Content Slideshow 1958467 by osman
Reflective Essay. A draft of the assignment description is on the course web page. Your reflective essay will be evaluated according to the criteria in the portfolio scoring guide. Slideshow 9553701 by rselph
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Steps for writing a Reflective Essay Identify your essay topic Research your topic Create an outline Write the essay Proofread and Edit Standard Structure and Format of a Reflective Essay Introduction Body Conclusion List of Reflective Essay Topic Ideas Final Words Are you assigned a task to write a reflective essay?
Reflective writing is a process of identifying, questioning, and critically evaluating course-based learning opportunities, integrated with your own observations, experiences, impressions, beliefs, assumptions, or biases, and which describes how this process stimulated new or creative understanding about the content of the course.
Newcastle University. Academic Skills Kit. Assessment. Assignment Types. Reflective Writing. Reflective writing encourages 'metacognition' (thinking about your own thinking) to help you engage more deeply with your learning and development. It helps you to review your progress as a learner and/or practitioner and consider how you might ...
Here are 4 steps in writing great reflective essay introduction paragraphs: 1. Introduce your topic Before you can start writing your reflective essay, you need to have something to reflect on. That something is usually an event, a memory, or an experience. Once you have something to work with, you can start introducing your topic.
4 A short guide to reflective writing Models of reflection There are frameworks that you can use to aid your reflective process. Alternatively, you may want to create your own. It needs to be a set of questions that you can ask yourself about an experience, plus a process by which you apply and learn from your reflection. Here are
Reflective writing can even be used beyond one's course to integrate and deepen learning across the curriculum when integrated with eportfolios. Regardless of its form or length, reflective writing is most effective when it is integrated into the design of a course, when it supports key learning aims, and when it is intentionally sequenced ...