Tips on Writing a Reflection Paper

A reflection paper can be written on an assigned piece of reading, a lecture or an

experience, such as an internship, observation, or volunteer experience. For the most part,

a reflection paper cites your reactions, feelings and analysis of an experience in a more

personal way than in a formal research or analytical essay; however, it is not a book

report.

When writing a reflection paper on literature or another experience, the point is to

include your thoughts and reactions to the reading or experience. You can present what

you observed (objective discussion) and how what you experienced or saw made you feel

and explain why (subjective discussion). You also can use a reflection paper to analyze

what you have experienced (what worked well and what didn’t, what was fair or unfair,

what was effective or ineffective, why). Like any other paper or essay, it should be

cohesive and refer directly to the specific objective experience you had or something you

observed and then explain how this experience inspired the feelings you are feeling or

helped you make a critical (not necessarily negative, but just concrete and thoughtful)

analysis of what you read or saw. This is not a book report, which just recounts what you

read or saw or experienced. It is much more important that you focus on what you

learned from that reading or experience and how you would incorporate what you took

away into the way you view or do things in the future. You can include personal

experience in a reflection paper, but do not depend on it; base your reactions and

reflections on the material that is your subject.

 Do not use a reflection paper simply to summarize what you have read or done.

Also, a reflection paper should not be a free flow of ideas and thoughts. This is not a free

write. The idea of a reflection paper is to write an organized essay describing your

reactions and analysis to a reading or other experience; however, it is more formal than a

journal entry, so leave out informal language and form. Leave out contractions, IM-ing

language and colloquial terms, for example, yeah, it was awesome. Consider the

standards necessary for a college essay as you used in College Composition.

A reflection paper should be as organized as any other type of formal essay. Include

an introduction, perhaps one that describes your expectations before the reading or the

experience. The easiest way to keep a reflection paper focused and organized is to create a

thesis statement as your last statement of the first paragraph. For example, you may start

with a paragraph (usually 5-12 sentences) describing a classroom visitation experience.

You may describe how the classroom looked, what was hanging on the walls, how the

desks, chairs, manipulatives, etc. were organized, where the teacher desk was located, how

much light there was in the classroom, etc. Then you make a thesis statement about the

physical aspects of the classroom (if that was your assignment). A thesis statement for

this example might say, “Because of the disorganized chaos of the classroom, students

might not learn the necessary organization skills they should have established by the

conclusion of first grade.” You’d then have to back that thesis statement up with

examples of kids not being organized, the teacher lessons not being organized, and the

layout of the classroom not being organized. Or you might say, “Since everything in the

classroom had a specific function and location, students learned to organize their

materials, their thinking, and themselves.” You’d have to support that thesis by backing it
up with examples of how the students knew where everything went, put things back into

place when finished, etc. The body of your paper should explain the conclusions you have

come to and why, basing your conclusions on concrete details from your reading or

experience.

End the paper with a conclusion that sums up what you got from the reading or

experience. You might want to refer to your conclusions in relation to your expectations

you had before the reading or experience or come to some other conclusion or analysis

about the text or experience in light of your feelings and reactions. You may also want

to explain how this reading or experience will change your actions in the future.

Source: Mertens, Maggie. “Tips on Writing a Reflective Paper”. 8 Dec. 2010.

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