How To Write Reflective Essay?

Do you have any idea what a reflective essay is? This sort of essay is often given during high-school days. Writing a reflective essay isn’t a tough task at all. There are certain tips and tricks you need to keep in mind while writing your reflective essay. Before knowing the ways of writing a proficient reflective essay, let us tell you what a reflective essay means.

What Is A Reflective Essay?

It is a form of essay writing in which you choose a specific topic, and you are supposed to share the knowledge with the readers on that topic. The best tone to be used for this essay is a personal tone. It is suggested and highly recommended to write the reflective essay in the first person. Let us give you some of the examples of the reflective essay’s topics.

• How has the motivational lecture changed my life?
• What did I learn during my stay in Europe?

This essay is more related to the life activities of an individual. To start writing the reflective essays in your assignment, we advise you to write in your school or college. Take that as an opportunity to polish you as far as a reflective essay is concerned. If you are applying for a particular scholarship or for a job application, you have to write reflective essays. This is a guide you should pay close attention to because if you are a student or if you are looking for opportunities to get abroad for higher studies, you are going to need this essay for sure.
In this guide, we will cover all the steps that can be used to write a very compelling reflective essay. The guide will move step-wise just to make sure you get all the nitty-gritty regarding a reflective essay. A reflective essay must follow the following pattern;

Select your topic

Till this point, we expect you to know little about the term reflective essay. After getting the necessary information about the term, it’s time to choose a fascinating topic on which you can write your point efficiently. If the instructor or teacher has given you a topic, it is well and good. If you want to find a topic on your own, the following topics may help you. While selecting the text, keep the following topics in your mind;

• My first job/my dream job
• My favorite destination
• My favorite movie
• Adapting to a new younger brother
• My cat dying

Useful tips

A lot of things depend upon the topic. This is a reason you have to be very watchful while selecting your topic. The below-mentioned tips may help you in some regards;

• Make a list of your ideal topics

This can help the students to select the best one out of so many. While going for a specific topic, make sure you have an interest in that topic. A reflective essay is all about an exciting game. If you’re not interested in a certain topic, it will be impossible for you to write a miraculous content on that topic. This technique can help the majority of students, and this is the right way (according to some) to select the supreme topic.

• Brainstorm

Some students find brainstorm or mind-map techniques more feasible to choose the topic for the reflective essays. According to them, proper brainstorming can allow them to get the pros and cons of a topic. Sound research can give you a charming and glamorous topic.

Make an outline

While writing any sort of essay, it is compulsory to make an apparent outline. An essay without a basic outline will be humdrum for the readers, and it isn’t a good sign at all for you as a writer. Although, a reflective essay is more of a personal account, yet you need to plan and structure your essay with the help of an outline. With an outline, you can manage your writing style as well as your ideas more effectively. The best thing about making a structure or an outline is, you get an idea which piece of information you should include at first and which points are supposed to b written at the very last. If you want to write lovely body paragraphs, you are obliged to make your reflective essay’s outline.  

Now comes the critical most question; what does the outline of a reflective essay look like? Here is your answer!

• Introduction

The only thing you want is your readers to read your essay until the very last. If you want to make that happen, write a fascinating introductory paragraph to get your readers involved in your essay. The introduction of your reflective essay should cover your thesis statement. The readers will be interested in getting as much as they can as far as the knowledge is concerned. For this very purpose, you need to state your thesis statement clearly, and the thesis statement has to be unambiguous. Your thesis statement will let your reader know what this essay is all about. They expect everything based on your thesis statement. Be very conscious regarding your thesis statement.  

• Body paragraphs

In these paragraphs, you can add the relevant information. Your body paragraphs must not cover your thesis statement and introductory points. While writing your body paragraphs, keep it in your mind that the readers have read the thesis statement, and in this section, your reader is expecting data and knowledge that can prove your thesis statement.  

Body paragraphs must write systematically in an ordered form to back your thesis statement. Don’t make it difficult for your readers to understand what you want them to understand. A lot will depend on the language. Make sure to use a widespread and straightforward language. A simple language can keep your readers on track. Once they lose interest, the readers won’t care about the essay at all.  

• Conclusion

After writing your introduction and body paragraphs, you are supposed to write a very gripping conclusion. Your concluding remarks matter the most as far as the impact of your essay is concerned. In your conclusion section, make sure your readers get something out of your essay by reading your concluding remarks. It is a healthy approach to suggest some ways that can be used in the future to make the condition better.  

Writing your conclusion, do not mix it with the body paragraphs or with your introduction. You need to be spot on and to the point while writing the conclusion for your reflective essay. Choose such concluding remarks that can support and strengthen your thesis statement. Make one thing very obvious, and the whole essay will revolve around your thesis statement. A bad conclusion and an irrelevant conclusion can make your essay look like a scam or a failure.

Write your first draft

When you write something, there are significant chances of errors and mistakes. This is the reason we always suggest the writers make a draft and look for mistakes in errors in your draft. Reassess your whole essay to make sure you leave no mistake behind it. Drafting can increase the quality of your essay at will.

Editing and proofreading

One of the essential most steps of essay writing is editing and proofreading. This is a step students often ignore very easily. After doing such a hard job, spend a reasonable amount of time to edit your essay because when you read it with dedication and care, you’ll find mistakes for sure. It is better to point your mistakes out by yourself rather than by a reader. To edit your essay, follow the things which are mentioned below;

• Peer edit

Make a professional writer or a friend with good English to read your essay. A friend or an expert can give some useful bits of advice that can make your essay more engrossing. This step can give you results beyond your expectations. We know you have worked hard, which is why we are suggesting you not to ignore this step.

• Read your essay loudly

Get yourself back to your childhood days when you used to read out loud so the teacher can accurately point your mistakes out. It is mandatory to read your essay loudly to look for any structural or grammatical mistakes. Reading out loud will also let you know whether the essay is going with a flow or not. If you feel you have stumbled, there is good enough chance of an error. Make the errors fade away during your editing phase.

• Look for spelling and grammatical mistakes

A reflective essay with any sort of spelling mistake will be considered very atrocious. Make sure not to copy-paste data from any website or from any source. Read your essay thoroughly to look for a spelling mistake or make someone read your essay just to be sure your essay is error-free.  

Writing structure is something that can make an excellent essay look very ordinary and pathetic. Use clear and simple structures to target the whole audience. An essay with an easy to understand structure will always be preferred over the ones with a very vigorous structure. 

CaseProfessors know that it is difficult to take an initiative of something you’re doing for the very first time. Make one thing clear to you, nobody is perfect, and there is always a chance for improvement. Writing a reflective essay isn’t that hard or tough. All you need is the commitment, passion, and motivation. The blog section is there for you to take guidance. Let’s not amaze you, but amaze the world with a breathtaking reflective essay. Happy writing!