DEFINITION OF REFLECTIVE ESSAY

A reflective essay is an essay in which the writer examines his or her experiences
in life. The writer then writes about those experiences, exploring how he or she has
changed, developed or grown from those experiences.

A reflective essay is an account of your personal experience and then how you may
have grown as a result. There are different kinds of experiences that can be written
about in a reflective essay. You can write about anything from a movie to a
harrowing experience. Each one of these may have caused a change in your as a
person. It depends on what you take from the things you encounter. When you are
asked to create a reflective essay about something, you are forced to take an
objective look at something that was emotional.

In a reflective essay, you need to express your thoughts and emotions about
certain events or phenomena. Writing this type of essay provides solid training to
sharpen your critical thinking skills, as well as your ability to develop and express
opinions on a particular topic—either chosen by yourself or assigned by your
instructor.

Reflective writing helps us to think more about ourselves, who we are, and how we
have changed. Read on in order to find out more about what a reflective essay is
and how reflective essays are written!

Format of a Reflective Essay

The format of a reflective essay may change slightly depending on who the
audience is. For example, writing a reflective essay for a college course and an
academic audience will have slight changes in how the essay is organized from
writing a reflective essay for a magazine or a collection of essays, which has a
broader audience, without people who have necessarily gone to college. However,
some major elements go into a typical reflective essay: introduction, body and
conclusion.

Structure of a Reflective Essay

Reflective essays always have an introduction, where the speaker shares, either
directly or indirectly, what the overall focus of the reflection will be. Many popular
essay writers might be a bit indirect about their main topic, or about what part of
their lives they will focus on. However, an academic writer should be more direct in
explaining what aspect of his or her experiences that he or she will talk about.

The body of the reflective essay explains how the writer has changed or what the
writer has learned. It also explains what things caused the writer to change. For
example, many academic writers are asked to reflect on how they improved as
writers over the semester or quarter. Those writers often share how different
assignments and lessons made them stronger writers.

A strong reflective writer will not only share the change but also give examples as
supporting details. For example, if a writer discusses becoming more optimistic in
life, then examples should be given of what made this change, such as sharing an
incident in which the writer took a positive approach to resolving the incident.
Below we offer an example of a thoughtful reflective essay that effectively and
substantively captures the author's growth over time at CSUCI. We suggest that
you write your own essay before reading either of these models-then, having
completed your first draft, read these over to consider areas in your own
background that you have not yet addressed and which may be relevant to your
growth as a reader, writer, or thinker.

Any reference to either of these essays must be correctly cited and attributed;
failure to do so constitutes plagiarism and will result in a failing grade on the
portfolio and possible other serious consequences as stated in the CSUCI Code of
Conduct.

Scroll down for more examples!

Sample Reflective Essay #1

Author: Prefers to remain anonymous

As an English major I have learned to appreciate the peaceful, yet exhilarating

moment when my mind engages with an author's thoughts on a page. As Toni
Morrison says in The Dancing Mind , "[reading is] to experience one's own mind
dancing with another's." In my early days as a college student, I wanted to know
the "true" meaning of a work or what the author intended, however, I have now
realized this would void literature of its most noteworthy complexities. Individual
interpretations bring varied insights to a work and it is also interesting to point out
messages the author may not have realized s/he included in the piece.

I have always been a thinker, but throughout my coursework, I have greatly

sharpened my critical analysis skills. Instead of focusing on proposed meanings or
biographical background, I have learned to continuously ask "why" on many
different levels. I challenge myself to dig into a text as deeply as possible and
unpack every detail to develop a satisfying close read. Also, by reading multiple
novels by the same author I have learned to identify different writing styles and
make connections that weave texts together; this helped me develop a deeper
understanding of the novels. When I look at one of my freshman level novels and
see clean pages, I realize that I did not actively read the book. I guess you could
say that I have learned to read with a pen, which has drastically taken my writing
to a new level because I am able to connect back with my initial insights marked
on the page.
 Writing had always been one of my strengths, but it was challenging to take that
initial step past the high school, five-paragraph essay form that constricted my
ideas for so long. Moving past this form, however, has greatly opened my mind.
My thoughts are now able to be more complex because I have learned how to
sustain a logical argument in an organized manner. My writing has become
increasingly more concise and I no longer have room for added "fluff" or
"padding." Another improvement is my ability to point out multiple complexities
within a text, instead of sticking to one-sided arguments in my papers.
Furthermore, learning how to find peer reviewed journal articles and order books
through interlibrary loan has significantly widened the scope of my research, which
has lead to more scholarly papers with credible references. My writing is so much
more interesting than it used to be.

It is difficult to identify gaps in my knowledge as an English major, only because I

feel like I have learned so much. I feel that I have largely expanded my literary
analysis and writing skills, but I need to be prepared to teach high school students
their required literature. I think it would be useful to identify commonly taught
novels in our local high schools and study them myself. By studying the required
literature and thinking about how to teach it, I will have a sturdy foundation to
work from once I am in the classroom.

Steps for Writing a Reflective Essay

. Think of an event which could become the topic of your essay. When you
have chosen an event, ask yourself how you feel about it, how it affected (or did
not affect) your life and why? This will help you create a thesis, which will serve as
the focal point of your essay.
 . Make a mind-map. Write down your thesis and draw a circle around it. Now
identify your main arguments and ideas which will support it and help readers
follow the evolution of your thoughts and experiences, group them into
paragraphs which you will write later, and connect them to your central circle.
Creating this type of flow diagram will help you see the overall structure of your
essay more clearly. Finally, decide on the logical sequence of these paragraphs
and order them accordingly.

. Write a strong opening paragraph. Your introduction must be eye-catching,

so the readers become engaged immediately.

. State your supporting arguments, ideas, and examples in the body

paragraphs. Emphasize only one point or experience, as well as reflections on it,
within each paragraph.

. In the first sentence of the conclusion, briefly summarize your thoughts.

Think about what you have learned and how your experience might be useful to
others. Finish your essay with a rhetorical question to your readers about how they
might act in a similar situation. Alternatively, ask them to think about a related
topic on their own.

Reflective Essay Topics

Since writing a reflective essay supposes you will write

about a personal experience, you can choose whatever
event you like. It is almost like a diary, where you write
down your thoughts about a significant happening in
your life. It can be about reading a special book, a
difficult situation you faced, a person you
encountered—the main point is to state your opinion.
For example, you can write about:

 A conversation when you became very angry.

 A time when you were disappointed or discouraged by something someone

said.
  Watching the ocean with your feet buried in the sand.

 Looking at a sunset.

 Your room growing up, or your bedroom now.

 …The town where you grew up.

 Holidays like Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Valentines, 4th of July,

Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo, or St. Patrick’s Day.

 Visiting a museum or zoo.

 Have I changed because of this? How? Is this good or bad?

 In what way was this a turning point for me?

 A trip to an exotic place.

 A situation involving a human rights infringement in some distant country.

 A book you have recently read.

 The solving of a difficult problem.

 A successfully completed research project.

Key Points to Consider

. Your introductory paragraph could give a hint about the conclusions in your
essay. For example, it could state: “When I first saw a desert with my own eyes, I
thought it is was possibly the most lifeless place in the world. However, as I
studied it in more detail, I found my surroundings were not quite so desolate as I
had imagined.”

. Since a reflective essay is particularly based on personal experience, it is

acceptable to use the personal pronoun “I.”

. Usage of one or more quotations in the introduction can make your writing
more authoritative.
 . In most reflective essays, apart from describing what went right, you may
also describe what went wrong, or how an experience could have been improved.

Do

 Do write your ideas in a descriptive manner. Your thoughts must be stated

clearly, so your readers understand exactly what you wanted to say.

 Do remember: despite your essay being of a reflective type, it is still an

academic paper, so try to keep it as formal as possible.

 Do follow the classical structure: an introduction, main body paragraphs,

and a conclusion.

 Do keep in mind: you should write your essay basing it not only on a
personal experience, but also using some factual material.

Don’t

 Don’t be too personal. Despite the fact a reflective essay is based on

personal experience, remember you are writing an academic essay, not a letter to
a friend.

 Don’t try to cram all your experiences into one essay; choose the most
important and significant moments.

 Don’t try to write everything at once. Compose a mind-map and create an

outline which gives a clear direction to your writing.

 Don’t make your essay a free-flowing analysis, including all your

unstructured thoughts, insights, and ideas. Sort your ideas in a logical order.

Common Mistakes When Writing a Reflective Essay

– The inclusion of too much personal information in

your essay. Remember: your main goal is to state your
opinion and analyze a certain issue, referring to some
 of your past experiences and reflecting on them—not
to write your autobiography.

– Ignoring the structure of an essay. This results in a

disorganized, incoherent text which the reader will find
difficult to comprehend.

– Being too informal. When writing a reflective essay,

keep a formal tone in mind.

Since you have acquainted yourself with the basic

analysis essay writing tips and rules, you can check out
our reflective essay samples to link theory with
practice.

Here is a brief introduction to the main kinds of reflective essays:

Event- There is events that happen in our lives that force us to learn something
about ourselves. For example, “running out of gas” is a simple event. It is a
relatively benign occurrence but how you react to this is something you can reflect
on. As a result of this event, you may have had to realize that you really don’t plan
well. Another thing may be that you crack under pressure. Or, on the other hand,
you may have found out how ingenious you are by the way you handled the
situation. Maybe you had to fabricate a funnel to pour gas into.

Book or movie- Sometimes you can read a book or watch a movie and learn
something about yourself. The book may have been about a very controversial
issue and you didn’t really know how you felt. You can create the article about how
your viewpoint changed or materialized while you were reading or watching.

Course taken during college- This is something that happens over a length of
time. You may want to reflect on what you gained from a class. Maybe you decided
to change your major after taking a particular course. Evaluate your performance
in the course. Did you try as hard as you should have? What did you realize about
your study habits and how well you do on tests? This type of reflective essay forces
you to take a good, hard look at how you perform.

This was just a brief introduction into the main kinds of reflective essays. Each one
forces you to look at yourself and evaluate how you performed. In your conclusion,
you can restate how you changed or grew as a result of the experience. You may
also go a bit further and tell how you may change or make adjustments in the
future.