Have your instructor asked you to submit a reflective essay as a part of your coursework? Well, if you know how to write a reflective essay, then you can effortlessly complete your assignment on time. In case, you are unsure of the steps for writing a brilliant reflective essay, then don’t worry, you are in the right space. Especially, for your better understanding, here, in this blog post, we have explained in detail what a reflective essay means and how to write a well-structured reflective essay as per the standard format. Continue reading to know all the details about reflective essay writing.
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.
Learn How to Write 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, 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 it 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.
Body
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.
Conclusion
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 Popular Reflective Essay Topics
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
Conclusion
We hope you are now clear about what a reflective essay means and how to compose a well-structured reflective essay. Whenever you write a reflective essay, be confident about the essay topic and the ideas that you have decided to share. Since, a reflective essay is a kind of academic essay, while presenting your thoughts and feelings about your personal event or experience, maintain some restrictions. Moreover, 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.
1. How do you start a reflective essay?
To start a reflective essay, a crisp and to-the-point introduction is 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.
