A reflective essay is a convenient way to share your opinion and emotions regarding a specific experience or incident from life. In this paper, you describe how you feel, react, and think in the context of a particular event. This writing task allows you to open up about your personality, life experiences, and moral values. Considering this, you can conclude that this kind of essay is somewhat subjective. However, the tone of it remains formal throughout the text.
The primary purpose of the reflective paper
The essay’s name reveals the nature of the task — you should explain what is going on inside you when analyzing a specific subject matter. Every student experiences various feelings and reactions based on personal experiences. Writing the reflective paper, you will learn to do the following:
Divide a piece of information into significant parts, analyze these, and make conclusions.
Draw comparisons between the text information and yourself. Use additional material to analyze the issue better.
Define the lessons you learned from the story, characters, and decide on how your readers can win from the knowledge they receive from the text.
Write from your viewpoint and be subjective when presenting your view so that the reader can ’hear’ your distinctive voice.
The audience affects the format of an essay, its tone of voice, and vocabulary. For instance, if you are writing for a group of scholars, your paper will be entirely academic, including cold facts and recent statistics. However, if your audience is college students, the tone of the text will be rather friendly, and formulations will be easier to comprehend. In general, reflective essays are characteristic of such features:
Clarity: the text is cohesive, easy to follow, and the facts are clearly stated. If you go around the circle, nobody will get your paper’s idea, which will create total confusion among the readers.
Reflectivity: you must incorporate every worthy idea regarding the subject matter and present these through personal experience. As a writer, you should share your thoughts in such a manner that, eventually, a reader should be able to put himself/herself in your place.
Presence of evidence: you should underpin your statements with both your experience and academic pieces of information. By doing so, you can demonstrate your perspectives better.
Reflective essay types
Considering the nature of reflective essays, there are three types of them:
1.Reflective essays on the author’s experience. The reflective paper on some of your experiences can be a good catch. You can share your thoughts on some exceptional cases from your past. The point is not to turn the reflection into a narration. Thus, you should think well before picking a topic. The subject matter must convey a message, illustrate your emotions regarding the incident. Some of the themes that will open you as a personality are as follows:
The time you got your first job.
Failure is excellent, and here is why.
The first-time volunteering experience.
The most unfortunate trip.
The overall idea is to make your reflective writing more personal.
2. Reflective essays on the author’s character. Every human being is a vessel composed of many different traits. You inherit some of these from your parents, others are acquired throughout life. The chances are that you have one particular quality that is the most outstanding, and you would like to share with others why it deserves an entire story. You may discuss the importance of every quality that makes you a personality and emphasize a particular one.
3. Reflective essays on the author’s relationships. A relationship is a sensitive and deeply personal topic. Yet, you may have a story that means a lot to you — for example, you and your grandmother, who put a lot into your upbringing and personal development. Or, maybe, you have an elder sibling who always teaches you never to give up when it comes to swimming competitions. People like reading something on social topics, as there is no way they can live without communication. As you also stand in close relation to others, your story can evoke the desired empathy in readers.
Reflective Essay Examples
Reflective Essay- First day of school
Self Reflection Example
High School Reflection
Simple writing steps for a reflective paper
Reflective essays help to tell your story excitingly. However, do not take it too seriously; there is no need to share something very personal just for the sake of sharing it — it is not a confession. Your text must focus on a specific experience that changed you in some way. The format ranges a lot: you can present it even in the form of diary remarks. It all depends on the audience and instructions.
These are the steps you should follow:
Your personal growth is in the limelight
As you understand, you must write about something that happened to you and gave you a push, showed a life lesson, or changed you. It is a great way to analyze your behavior, some actions and see what personality you are.
You may resort to literature
Even though you are writing a paper on your experiences, you still need to introduce some pieces of literature. You can resort to classical works, famous characters, etc., to explain some of your deeds and draw a parallel.
Think about what readers would like to read about
When you reflect on the topic, you should also consider a reader’s position. In other words, imagine that you are a reader and think if your story is worth sharing. Will it give something to readers? Is the lesson you learned will be handy for others? Write down your ideas to see what topics are most likely to attract the attention of the readers.
It is all about reflections
Sure, it is an obvious statement that reflection is critical for this type of essay. Reflection is the most significant part of the paper. The essay’s body part will turn around the reflection concept: your emotions, reactions, feelings, perception, and analysis of all these. While reflecting on a specific incident, you should make a list of notes to use these later on and make your text more cohesive and organized. After this, you must consider the following questions:
What were the precise reactions when it happened to you?
Were your responses positive or negative, and did they change throughout the years?
How do you perceive the situation now?
What lessons did you learn after the occasion?
Do you feel that the experience changed you?
Looking back, do you think you would react differently when you know about the outcomes now?
Such questions can trigger your thinking process a lot and offer you some ideas on developing the essay.
Create a mindmap to better orient your memories
When talking about a mindmap for an essay, you should understand it as an outline. The plan will help you to put straight your notes on reflections. Besides, the outline ensures that you complete your essay faster just because everything is organized. Consider breaking the paper into three essential parts: the introductory paragraph, main body paragraphs, and a concluding part. Whenever you feel that you start to wander from the point, you can follow the outline for reference.
Think about Statement
Arguable thesis means that it can be argued. It must either state or refute an argument about your topic.To be debateable, a thesis must have some possibility of being true.However, the thesis should not be universally accepted as true. Instead, it should be something that people can disagree with.A thesis can be both an observation or an opinion.
observation + opinion (the "why") = thesis
Seeing if your thesis creates a powerful antithesis is an excellent approach to determine how strong it is.
Common thesis pitfalls:
A thesis in the form of a fragment.
A thesis that is overly broad.
A thesis that is phrased as a question. (The thesis is usually derived from the solution to the question.)
Extraneous information is included in a thesis.
A thesis that begins with the words "I believe" or "In my opinion."
Handy recommendations on a reflective paper
Here are several recommendations for your reflective writing assignment:
Be attentive and cautious with what you are writing. While a reflective paper is deeply personal, it would be better not to turn it into a very intimate writing piece. You share some facts about yourself; thus, think well before adding any information to your work. If you suddenly realize that some details are too personal and you feel uncomfortable discussing these, do not include these.
Mind your language within the essay. Despite the nature of reflective essays, you must write your paper as a professional. In other words, you should avoid inappropriate vocabulary or slang words. Also, the text must be error-free. Thus, proofreading is also an integral part of your writing process.
You are the central character. You choose an experience from your life for the essay’s story. For that reason, you must concentrate on yourself. Even if someone plays a significant role in the story, you should not abstract yourself from a primary subject matter. It would be better to explain what this person did or said, but not describe the personality.
If you already revised the work, do it one more time. The truth is that you may let slip some mistakes during the first reading. Thus, it would be best to double-check. Pay attention to bulky sentences; you should divide these into two sentences. Finally, make sure that every sentence makes sense and there is no waffling.
An author’s voice is excellent; however, add some cherries on top to make your essay outstanding. The cherries are the transitional words, vivid images, glaring epithets. Using a well-thought vocabulary, you can make your story more engaging and memorable. Think about these as the Christmas tree decorations. They make your writing more interesting!
A reflective essay is a particular sort of adventure. On the one hand, you have a chance to enhance your writing skills. On the other hand, you can share a part of yourself with others and analyze your past experiences and reactions. The recommendations and tips will help you to complete your reflective writing task with ease.
List of Reflective Essay Topics
Running outdoors
Picking berries
Your biggest loss
Who do you admire most?
What is your biggest fear?
The most exciting moment I have experienced
Your least favorite course
Going for a special date
A birthday party attended
A dream I remember
The first day in a new school
Moving to a new city
My expectations about the future
The house I grew up in
A time when you were afraid.
A time when you were lonely.
A memory of when you were misunderstood.
A time when you were disappointed or discouraged by something someone said.
A decision that you made which someone else disagreed with.
When someone showed you that they were proud of you.
Most African American families in the South were lower class and committed dangerous acts to survive, “Richard suffered poverty and hunger experiences that later became themes of his work”. He would have to wait a long period of time before food was available for him, “You’ll have to wait till I get a job to buy food”. The lower class did desperate things to get money “Richard sneak into saloons and begs for pennies and drinks”. Many African Americans suffered…...
Black BoyPoverty And HungerRichard WrightThe Great Migration
Before going to the transgender workshop, I have already had a mindset of gender stereotype and I have never thought of accepting the sexual minorities like trans and homosexual people. I was raised in a traditional and conservative family that my parents showed me that a man should be the head of the family because he is the breadwinner so all family members have to rely on him. On the other hand, a woman should always listen to her husband…...
Being a student in high school, the problem with procrastination is most definitely a very common occurrence. To try to curb this horrible problem you will need to find a study method that works for you and sparks an interest in the material you will be studying. In my case, I have never seemed to have found a effective study method that worked for me and one that had sparked an interest in whatever I may have been studying for.…...
Growth And DevelopmentProcrastination
Save Time On Research and
Writing
Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper.
Research Question: At what times of the day did I walk the most steps? Description I chose the two variables steps and time over 7 days, where each petal of a flower represents a single hour in one day (e.g 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM). I did this so that visualisation of each hour every day would be very clear to viewers. I made changes to the petals by altering the “distanceOffset” value (changing the length of the petals) according…...
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis is a novel that offers much insight into the culture of mid-20th century Crete where the novel was set. Along with the culture of this era, this novel demonstrated many of the philosophical beliefs of different portions of the populations of Cretans at this time. Through the interactive oral presentation, understanding of the context and culture as well as the literary value of the novel has been enhanced considerably. During the interactive oral, the…...
War of the worlds was a radio drama anthology series performed and written by a theatre group called Mercury Theatre. Mercury Theatre was a theatre company founded in New York City by Orson Welles and John Houseman. The war of the worlds was the first broadcasting radio that caused chaos and havoc though out the country. The war of the worlds was broadcasted on CBS for the first hour it was broadcasted as a news bulletin saying that there was…...
This essay will be explanations of spiritual mentoring, reflecting off my mentoring and or being mentored. These will be broken down into three parts that defines and explains spiritual mentoring, contemplate on mentors in my life, and I will discuss people that I am mentoring now. This paper will start with the definitions and explanations of spiritual mentoring. Talking about spiritual mentoring and friendship, the Bible contains quite a few examples of spiritual mentoring. One example of this mentoring would…...
EssayMentorMentoringMentorshipMy MentorSpiritual Life And Beliefs
Modern society has become increasingly dependent on mobile phones. It is not the ‘plain’ mobile phones that are changing our daily lifestyles, but what are known as smart phones. Smart phones are the next generation of newly developed phones that can practically do everything that you can wish for. Businesses have benefited from this device . The smart phone also entertains us in various ways. The handheld device allows us to watch movies, listen to music and even play games.…...
In this essay I am going to critically reflect on how an Occupational Therapist (OT) would use grading and adapting to increase the therapeutic gain for clients when using groups and creative activities. I am going look at these two skills as they focus on client centeredness and intervention. College of Occupational Therapist (COT 2010; Atkinson and Wells 2003) stated that as a therapist one has to have a continuing duty to respect and hold the autonomy of a client,…...
A discussion of shopaholics and support groups.1. Shopaholics found their compulsion to spend by creating false identities to obtain more creditcards. They often hide bank statements from their spouses and try in any way possible to conceal their abuse. In some extreme cases shopaholics has even turned prostituted in order to finance their spending. 2. The group Walletwatch was made by Lawrence Michaels who is a Shopaholic. He spends thou-sands of pounds on albums he don't like and clothes which…...
This paper explores the principles of scientific management, focusing on the concept's inevitability and its irreversibility.'The increasing application of Scientific Management principles of work organisations to services is, despite its limitations, inevitable and irreversible'. Discuss. I Introduction From the outset of this essay it is necessary to define the basic principles of Scientific Management in order for the statement to be fully understood and why if at all such a practice is 'inevitable' and indeed 'irreversible' within a service industry…...
A relationship is either healthy or unhealthy. The only way to determine whether your relationship is healthy or not, is to step out of your own relationship and think about it. Healthy and unhealthy relationships have many different qualities. A healthy relationship is one with mutual respect for one another, trust, honestly, support during good and bad times, fairness, separate identities, and good communication. However, when these qualities are not present and qualities such as disrespectful, control, or abusive behavior…...
Turning up I would detest when people would know apart against for a individual 's race or skin colour. I believed that those people were awful and that non many people thought the same manner about race. After larning about racial stratification I have come to recognize merely how racist and prejudiced our societies are. At a immature age we are taught what society viewed as being a individuals race, the colour of their tegument. We are taught that different…...
While there a vast amount of literature of the importance of change and suggesting ways to approach it, there is very little empirical evidence to support the different theories (Guimaraes and Armstrong, 1998). In this assignment the research of a number of key authors will be reviewed in order to establish the usefulness of the information in understanding the management of change. Three key areas will be critically analysed; Culture and Commitment, Leadership and Downsizing. The objective is to illustrate…...
The discussion that took place between the OD consultant and Robert Denton related to the organization issues is considered to be ineffective for the OD practitioner, why, because he/she was not provided with much information by the plant manager. This did not tell much to the OD practitioner and since there is not much information hence there is no way the OD practitioner can help the manager understand what wrong with the organization. The plant manager himself could not find…...
Over this semester, I have been learning about more writing techniques to use for essays. I am trying to get all the skills I can to prepare me for other prompts from now until college. I have learned a fair amount of new things that can help to make my writing better. Now I look to apply these methods to what is given to me and I hope to succeed in my written works. How has your writing improved this…...
At the root of marketing is a simple exchange between a business and customer. Marketing became a mainstream business practice with the development of technology and infrastructure which brought on an increase in competition amongst businesses. Today consumers are well informed and no longer obligated to simply purchase a product in order to fulfil a need. With this, the power has shifted from businesses to the customer. (more…)...
The European Union, with a population of over 500 million people in 27 European countries and a combined economy that generated a GDP of $ 18. 39 trillion in 2008, presents a perfect opportunity for an American MNC planning to expand into foreign markets (IMF, 2009). Multinational companies (MNC’s) operate optimally in markets where they have a comparative advantage. Large populations with high levels of disposal income and liberalized economic systems, encourage trade and expansion (Smith, 2007). Financial transactions conducted…...
In this essay I will describe the fundamentals of GDP, unemployment rate, inflation rate, and interest rate. Also I will be explaining how some common occurrences such as buying groceries, massive layoffs, and a decrease in taxes affect the government, businesses, and even you. Lets start with GDP. What is GDP you ask? GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product and represents the total market value, in dollars, of goods and services. There are 4 main components that affect GDP; consumption,…...
This paper describes a significant learning family interaction that occurred when I was working in a community placement as a student nurse. I would be reflecting on that family interaction and use the “One Question Question” approach and analyse how this would contribute to your learning needs and nursing practice. Critical or significant interactions can be defined as situations that make an impression or have a special meaning to an individual. The analysis of such incidents, a useful reflective technique…...
I have dead the CAP Student Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct Policy and understand Its implications. Also declare, if this is a practical skills assessment, that a Client/eliminative Consent Form has been read and signed by both parties, and where applicable parental consent has been obtained. 6th January, 2014. Today I reflect on a conflict that happened recently at work and at times can be an on-going issue within my workplace. Christmas/New Year is the busiest time of the year In…...
Compensation Management The amount of compensation an employee receives for his or her services to a firm is a very sensitive issue because it is a reflection of what the employee is worth to the firm. Compensation even is one of the major motivators for employees; and it is motivation that leads to increased productivity. A firm can choose to compensate its employees based of length of tenure and seniority or based on ability and productivity. Both systems have…...
Born to Win "Winners and Losers" Each human being is born as something new, something that never existed before. He is born with what he needs to win at life. Each person in his own way can see, hear, touch, taste, and think for himself. Each has his own unique potentials -- his capabilities and limitations. Each can be a significant, thinking, aware, and creatively productive person in his own right – a winner. The words "winner" and "loser" have…...
Part B ii) Critical Reflective account Reflective thinking and practice have become increasingly common concepts in education in recent times (Bruster & Peterson, 2012). The modern classroom environment requires that teachers encompass more than just teaching skills and strategies, but also ethical codes in which to engage with pupils in their classes (Larrivee, 2000). Being a reflective practitioner involves teachers challenging preconceived assumptions, using reflection to solve problems and question existing practices (Larrivee, 2000). A critical incident is something which…...
September 7, 2018 Our instructor, Thomas, discussed the values of happiness with us, along with the difference between subjective and objective thought. He emphasized that happiness falls within the category of subjectivity. In other words, the definition of happiness varies from person to person. As an exercise, we took a quiz by Dr. Ed Diener online. This quiz tries to measure a person's happiness to the closest degree: September 9, 2018 Today we took the same happiness quiz as last…...
Reflective Essay Within this reflective essay, having kept a diary it was easy to reflect on my journey in the first year of university. It has been a welcoming journey with lots of things that were new to me and things that were challenging looking through my reflective diary I can see that things were very difficult at the start but with lecture slides and additional reading material it was a gradual learning process which has broadened my knowledge. This…...
Garfat (1998), describes being self-aware as a constant process, requiring that CYC's are open to checking in, paying attention to what's happening within, and what this might means. Garfat and Charles (2007), explain how it wasn't long ago "self" was used in a more superficial way, and more emphasis is now placed on "self" being an essential element. They say "who am I?" is paramount in CYC's reflecting on how they're perceived, and what they might want to learn about…...
The weaknesses we see in Tamura and the other soldiers not only have a great impact on their unfortunate outcome, but are also a result of a weakness within the Japanese Army itself. The awful fate of these soldiers, at the hands of their own command, is infuriating. Shohei's story holds powerful, and several dangerous implications of what war is like and what it's effects can be on those who fight in them. I would like to start by talking…...
Too often we aim for perfection and berate ourselves when we fall short. Some of us avoid that humiliation by simply giving up. I don’t want you to give up. I want you to aim high, certainly, but don’t stop simply because you didn’t achieve perfection. There are two points I will make tonight. Firstly, perfection for us mere mortals is by its very nature impossible to achieve. Secondly, to achieve perfection is not actually a desirable thing. Firstly, why…...
Both organic and inorganic foods pose health risks for consumers. While organic foods are often marketed as being naturally grown and inorganic foods being grown with the use of chemicals and pesticides, both types can pose health risks to the humans that consume them. Due to the varying conditions in which organic foods are grown, they can often contain amounts of chemicals and pesticides. For example, many organic farms neighbor inorganic farms where chemicals and pesticides can be easily transferred…...
Creativity is the specific process of using the mind to produce new concepts and ideas to do certain things. The concepts and ideas should be highly suitable to its purpose and original in its form to be considered creative. Creativity is the force that drives individuals to generate something innovative, formulate thoughts, and to try theories which were never done before (Creativity 2006). Creativity mainly comes from the person’s faculty. And every person’s mind is different from each other. This…...
1. Have you ever kept a food journal before? If so, why? I have done a food once when I was in high school. It was my sophomore year in health class. My teacher wanted us to learn about what kind of food we eat. So she made us do it for one weekend. She wanted us to share what we ate and how everyone ate differently. Some people ate healthier and some did not. She made us look at…...
This paper will reflect how I define personality, some key personality features that define me, whether other’s view me differently than I view myself, reflect if my personality features are consistent or if they change with a particular situation, describe any personality tests I may have taken and my reaction to the analysis, and finally my thoughts on what would make a personality valid or not. How would you define personality? Personality is the qualities and traits that reflect a…...
All of us, no matter what our station in life, have dreams. These dreams may be vibrant and alive, pulsating in our entire being; or they may be dead, perhaps worn down by the weight of the years and the affairs of daily life. For the people who nourish great, expansive dreams in their heart, each day is full of meaning and direction. But for those who have let their dreams fade, life, no matter how pleasurable it may be,…...
After watching inception twice I am still confused as to what was real and what was not. I have come to the conclusion that the entire movie was Cobb dreaming. I believe this because Cobb's totem used to be his wife's totem. He only retrieved the totem when they were stuck in limbo. He said never to let anyone else feel the weight of your totem. Meaning that he himself has no way of knowing the actual weight or feel…...
“Reflection is not just a thoughtful practice, but a learning experience” (Jarvis 1992) This is a reflection on an incident that occurred during a shift on the labour ward. I have chosen Gibbs model of reflection (1988) to guide my reflective process. (Gibbs 1998) (Appendix I). Gibbs model (1998) goes through six important points to aid the reflective process, including description of incident, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and finally action plan. The advantage of Gibbs’s six-stage model is that it allows you to learn from experiences and make changes for your future practice. Description The incident involves…...
FIRO-B is a totally different assessment from Myers-Briggs because the purpose of Myers-Briggs is for our personal characteristics, the internal side; the purpose of FIRO-B is for our interpersonal aspect, the external side. Because of this assessment, I am able to rethink how I get along with people and how I deal with my relationship. Even though I did not get any high point for these results, there are still some aspects I want to share my perspective. It is…...
Before walking in this course, I had it stuck in my head that intervening in a research paper was bad. I learned that it was ok to insert myself into the essay. I could intervene and put a couple of my own perspectives into the essay. In high school, it was prohibited to use your own perspectives and words into the essay. The only major thing I had to consider is having the content and my perspective balanced so that…...
Sylvia Plath is the author of the poem “Mirror”, written in the early 1960s. Plath had a history of severe depression due to her father's death when she was a child and her failed attempts of suicide throughout her life. Many of her poems reflect her emotions, whether they are sad, angry or depressing, and “Mirror” is one of those poems. “Mirror” deals with the topic of a woman's self-consciousness and her vanity in a way that is unusual, yet…...
The Harvard Business Everest Leadership and Team Simulation allow participants to understand and appreciate underlying management concepts which form the basis of any well functioning organisation. Specifically, the simulation required students to work in cohesive teams, display important leadership qualities and to communicate effectively in order to make successful decisions. The Everest task involves the cooperation and cohesion of random individuals through their placement in a team. These teams consisted of five members, where each individual was assigned specific role…...