So, has your instructor ever given the overpowering task like writing your first-ever reflective essay?
Are you struggling to learn how to write a reflective essay that will earn your perfect scores?
Well, the following guide that explores in detail how a reflective essay is written, including what makes a good format, and some helpful tips on the writing process.
A reflective essay is a personal type of writing where you reveal your experience and then explore how you have developed, grown, or changed from it.
It can be about a real experience, an imagination, or something you have heard, watched or read. It can also be about a special object, place, or a person who has influenced you.
A reflection essay is quite similar to a diary entry, except that it will not be for your eyes only. Therefore, it should have a good structure and a great deal of coherence, although it will not include facts like other types of essays.
The format varies from one reflective essay to another depending on the audience and message.
For instance, if you are writing a reflective essay intended for an academic audience, you will organize it differently from the one you are writing for a magazine.
Nevertheless, three key elements characterize a typical reflective essay: introduction, body, and conclusion.
Just like other types of essays, reflective essays should have an introduction that has a hook and a thesis statement. The purpose of the hook is to grab your audience’s attention and hold their interest long enough to read the rest of the essay.
You can consider including a short quote or anecdote or any other engaging technique that you are sure will grasp the attention of your readers. You can also pay someone to write my research paper in our last minute essay writing service.
The thesis statement is essentially a short synopsis of the focus of your essay and in this case, a specific reader curious to find out more from the body of the essay.
This is usually the most involving part of the entire essay. Although you might be compelled to start telling your story right away, do not be tempted to do so.
You should start by creating an outline or plan, and think of it as a road map – you plan beforehand the points you need to navigate through and talk about in your writing. Creating an outline is beneficial in the sense that:
When creating an outline, it is advisable that you adopt a chronological approach. In other words, lay down all the essential elements of your experience in a timeline.
Just like instant essay typer, adopting the chronological approach will help you to see how to weave your narrative together and ensure that your story is logical and coherent.
To ensure that you do not leave out any important details, you need to study your subject keenly. You might want to write down some important questions that will help you reflect, including:
Depending on the topic selected, you need to spend several minutes vividly thinking about the subject. You might want to close your eyes and imagine or remember. The practice is also common in research paper format, cause and effect essay topics, and process essay topics for college.
Once your outline is complete, you can proceed with writing the body of your essay.
Just like how to do a lab report, ensure that the body covers all aspects of the selected topic. It should include a vivid summary and clear description of that particular experience so that your audience can feel like they have also experienced it.
Be sure to give out explanations of your feelings, thoughts, as well as reactions about that particular experience.
Remember that the emphasis should be on reflection rather than a summation. Therefore, you should not only summarize the experience, but you should also explore the impact it had on your life and the lessons that you learned from it.
Just like in term paper format, outline the things that triggered a change in you and how they changed you. Taking a reflective approach will enable your readers to gather insight into your experience. Furthermore, it will draw attention to your personality and your ability to adjust to or deal with particular situations.
Your focus here should be to bring your piece together by giving out a summary of the points. Some of the things to include in brief include:
When writing a reflective essay, the conclusion is all about retelling your story in other words, highlighting the main points.
In essence, you should sum up the changes in the experience and their effects on your life.
You can decide to look either back or ahead. The strategy is also useful in a rhetorical analysis essay prompt, writing a literary analysis, and in a persuasive essay.
If looking back, you should note how different you were in the past.
If looking ahead, you should share how you think the experiences you have been through will change you in the future.
In all cases, you should compare past and future selves to put emphasis on the difference.
If your instructor has not been assigned a topic idea, you can think of the following reflective essay examples about life:
Here are 15 topics that make for a good killer essay:
Reflective papers are all about writing real life or imaginary experiences, the lessons learned from those experiences, and the impact of those lessons.
Remember to make your essay catchy and simple to understand.
The idea is to describe the experience in such a way that the readers will feel as if they were there.
Feel free to check out on how to write an expository essay, definition essay examples, and reaction paper format.
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