Use This Guide To Master The Art Of Reflective Writing
Academic writing comes in a variety of styles. But each type requires specific skills to be written correctly.
Think about it. You attack a research paper much differently than a literary analysis essay. But either way, you want to write a good essay every time.
On the surface, reflective writing may seem pretty straightforward. However, you may have difficulty tackling the prompt if you don’t have a lot of experience with them.
Like other types of essays, it’s important to present a clear point of view with lots of good examples, anecdotes, and other supporting information.
So what is a reflective essay, and how do you write a great one?
Let’s take a look at the ins and outs of reflective papers, as well as some writing tips you can use to hit your next reflection essay out of the park.
What is a reflective essay?
Reflective essays describe a specific experience, event, or topic in great detail while analyzing the deeper meaning of the chosen topic. What makes it reflective is the writer reflecting on the past event from their current perspective.
A reflective essay should explore your ideas, feelings, and opinions about the topic. Therefore, it’s typically written in the first person and contains the author’s thoughts, beliefs, and feelings.
This analytic practice builds critical thinking skills and provides a deeper perspective.
Why is reflective essay writing important?
In the world of academic writing, reflective writing serves multiple purposes. It helps high school and higher education students develop academic skills and fine-tune their perspectives.
Reflective essays help writers better understand the topic they are studying because it requires using higher-level thinking skills rather than just extensive research. Since students are required to blend their own life experiences with the topic, it adds more depth to the experience.
They also help students connect with the material, allowing for a deeper and more meaningful learning experience.
What can you write about in a reflective paper?
The most common topics for a reflective paper involve prompts that focus on the writer’s personal experience.
Sometimes reflective essay writing will involve providing your own thoughts on an event, phenomenon, or concept rather than an experience.
Here are some examples of popular reflective essay writing topics.
- A significant personal experience
- A person who made an impact on your life
- A special place or object
- A repeated experience or routine
- A description of a significant experience using your five senses
The most important thing about reflective writing is choosing the personal experiences that help you best connect with the assigned prompt. This will help you effectively communicate your impressions to your reader.
Let’s take a look at the traditional components of a reflective essay.
The components of a reflective essay
Reflective essay writing can be challenging whether you’ve written multiple reflective essays or are tackling one for the first time.
Not only must you choose the right topic, but you must properly convey the right impression to get your thoughts across to the reader. Even so, the basic skill set you need to write this type of essay will be familiar to many students.
The reflective essay format is much similar to the one you follow when writing another essay format. Here are the parts you need to organize your reflective essay properly.
- Introduction: The introductory paragraph allows you to introduce the topic and give the reader an overview of its impact on your life. It should include a thesis statement that will tell the reader precisely what the main idea of this piece of writing is. The right thesis statement will set the purpose of writing your essay and have your audience excited to see what comes next.
- Body paragraphs: This is the bulk of your essay. The body of your essay will focus on one way this topic or personal experience made an impression on you. Be sure to use vivid, descriptive language that appeals to your reader’s senses to make your main point. The number of paragraphs you write in the main body of your reflective essay will depend on the specific assignment, but you should include at least three.
- Conclusion: In the final paragraph of your reflective essay, you will recap your thesis statement and add any final thoughts that will tie up the loose ends of your paper.
At the end of the day, reflective writing is much like any other academic essay. You’ll need to create an essay outline to plan out all of the components you need to include in the paper.
The only difference is that it’s acceptable to speculate, express your thoughts, and hash out your opinions within the scope of your prompt.
You still must cite sources within a reflective paper to avoid plagiarism. You’ll use MLA, APA, or whichever citation style your course requires to maintain academic integrity.
5 steps for planning a reflective paper for university
Reflective essay writing is a great way to connect with others who have experienced a similar situation and share your unique thoughts and opinions.
But getting started can be overwhelming. While some may feel at home expressing themselves, others may need some support to begin writing.
Here are some tips you can use to start writing your reflective paper.
1. Brainstorm life experiences that can help you answer the prompt
As you start planning your reflective essay, the writing process will flow much like any other academic essay. You’ll start with a brain dump to generate as many ideas as possible about the topic you want to cover.
Also known as a mind map, this is a general way to get all of your ideas out of your head and onto the paper or screen.
It doesn’t have to be neat or organized, so just list your thoughts and experiences related to your prompt.
Then, sort through the list, crossing off ones that don’t resonate with you and highlighting the topics that will work with your current line of thought. This iterative process will help you write better content because you will organize your thoughts before writing instead of trying to think about what to say while writing.
2. Do research on your subject
If you are reflecting on a specific topic or subject, you’ll want to do some studying to get your facts right.
While reflective writing isn’t like planning a research paper, you still must have a clear idea of your subject before offering your own experience and thoughts.
You can also spend some time thinking about your subject and jotting down notes on the impressions and observations that come to mind.
Consider sitting in a relaxing space to make this session more effective. Close your eyes and allow your brain to process the subject at hand.
You can even engage in stream-of-consciousness writing. This involves writing down every thought that crosses your mind in the order you think it. You may find your brain questions certain aspects of the subject or topic, which will help you develop solid ideas for your essay.
3. Narrow down your essay topic
While your English teacher or professor may offer you a specific prompt, you’ll still need to narrow down the right topic for your reflective essay. ‘
Think about examples from your personal life that you can use in your reflective essay. These anecdotes should connect to the prompt and contain enough details that you can use to reflect on the experiences and their impact on your life or the subject at hand.
Add the specific experiences, memories, and observations to your brainstorming list and start connecting the dots to see which ones will best support the prompt.
You can create another mind map to work through specific details you recall about each life experience. This will help make the next steps much more manageable as you begin to list and answer questions to help frame your experiences for your readers.
4. Make a list of reflection questions
Now that you have a specific topic, you’ll need to begin making a list of reflection questions to guide your thinking.
You can use these questions and the answers you generate to begin writing the first draft of your reflective essay.
Here are some reflective questions you can use when drafting your paper.
- How did this experience make me feel?
- What details did I notice while reflecting on this event or subject?
- How has this changed my personal life?
- What turning point occurred due to this experience?
- How can I use this experience to help someone in a similar situation?
- What skills did I gain or lessons did I learn?
- How was this experience emotionally important or challenging?
- How does this subject affect me?
- What would I do differently, if anything?
Once you’ve generated enough questions to get the wheels of your brain turning, begin answering the questions. This doesn’t have to be structured like a formal essay. It’s simply another step in the essay writing process that will allow you to plan out your paper.
5. Focus on the meaning of your reflection
This step may seem redundant, but you’ll want to go a step further in the reflective writing process by deciding the deeper meaning of your reflection. This will ultimately become your thesis statement that will guide your entire paper, so be sure to spend time building this central idea out before you begin writing the reflective essay.
Pinpoint the main lessons you learned from the experience or your significant impressions about the subject at hand. Then, refer to your reflection questions to see what content you can use to drive home this point.
Reflective Essay Writing Tips
Now that you’ve set the stage for your reflective essay, it’s time to get writing.
Believe it or not, starting is often the most challenging part of the entire process. Finding the right words to set the correct tone or to keep the writing process flowing can be difficult.
Here are some things you can do as you write your reflective essay to ensure you turn out an A+ paper.
- Consider reading a reflective essay sample or another piece of reflective writing to get a good picture of what you need to achieve.
- Write using a first-person narrative point of view to help immerse your reader in your personal experience.
- Refer back to your brainstorming notes often to refresh your memory and ensure you have enough content for your essay.
- Word choice is everything—take the time to choose words that correctly communicate the tone and mood you’d like to create with your paper.
- Be as honest and transparent as possible. Remember that, since this is a reflective activity, the expectation is that you can professionally share your thoughts and opinions with no repercussions. It’s ok to be critical about your experiences or the subject as long as you communicate what you learned from it.
- Don’t be afraid to get creative with your punctuation. This type of academic writing allows for some creativity. During proofreading, make sure your punctuation is correct.
- Break out your creative writing skills for your reflective paper. Use figurative language, imagery, and words with strong connotations to paint a vivid impression of your experience.
The reflective writing process can be challenging but extremely rewarding for all students. Stay true to yourself and use all of your academic skills to ensure you clearly communicate your personal experiences and make valuable connections to the subject at hand.
Use reflective writing to grow as a student and a writer
The secret to reflective writing is clearly defining the takeaways from a specific experience or subject.
You can use personal experiences and your unique thoughts to share your impression with the reader. Be upfront with your feelings and use scholarly sources to support your observations.
Reflective writing can be therapeutic, so you may find yourself enjoying the writing process. Take the time to ensure your paper is analytical, critical, and contains a unique point of view that will captivate your audience.
This will help you gain valuable skills you can apply to other writing styles and courses. So approach every piece of reflective writing with an open mind and sound point of view.
FAQs
How can you tell if a university is good?
What makes a university a good one depends on faculty, student life, and course offerings that are geared towards what you need.
What are the three main elements of reflective writing?
Experience, reflect, and learn are the three main elements of reflective writing.
What are some learning trends I need to be aware of?
Game-based learning, microlearning, and online classrooms are just three learning trends that can help take your education to the next level.
