There are many different types of essays you’ll be required to write in school, and throughout your life. One necessary type of essay you’ll have to write is the reflection essay. A reflection essay has to do with writing your thoughts, ideas, or opinions, or remarks after reflective thinking. So, what is a reflection in an essay? A Reflection in an essay allows you to include thoughts, reactions, or opinions to your essay.
Reflection on English class essays is given by instructors to enable students to learn the art of looking at things differently. In this type of essay, students can view things not just through an analytical perspective, but a rhetorical, emotional, personal, or impersonal way as well.
Write a Reflection Essay in a Few Steps
So how do you write a reflection essay? To write an essay reflection, you can follow the steps below.
- Reflect
To write a reflection essay, you must, of course, first, reflect on the topic you want to write about. Also, you must take account of how your experiences and points of view may influence your response. Doing this gives you a better-quality essay that stems from deep reflective thoughts.
- Evidence
For academic purposes, most essays require some evidence or originality. This is what gives you a genuinely comprehensive write up. Consider and cite different perspectives and evidence. Evidence could either be academic or merely your reflections and experiences. Generally, this depends on whether the essay is personal or educational.
- Clarity
To write a reflection essay, you must be as clear and coherent as you can be. Your readers must be able to follow your line of thought as you weave through the intricacies of different perspectives. Clarity, coherence, and good readability is important.
- Theory
A reflection integrates theories and other literary works. This will have the crucial points of your writeup.
- Learning outcomes
A reflection should include a commentary on what the experience taught you. This includes what you would do in a different way if given the opportunity. It also includes the changes in your perspectives as a result of the experience.
Reflection Essay Topics
Sometimes, getting reflection essay ideas could be very difficult. There are many ways to get ideas for reflective essays. One comfortable area to choose from is relationships. Thinking of relationships helps you to reflect on the past and also get powerful emotions. Another aspect is about nature and significant events. Here are some reflection essay topics to get you going!
- A conversation that got you angry
- A moment someone’s statement about you got you disappointed
- A moment you fell in love
- A moment someone was so proud of you
- A time when you felt unfortunate
- Birth of a sibling
- A moment you were most embarrassed about
- A moment you laughed uncontrollably with someone
- When you were terrified
- When you first gave a public speech
Essay Reflection Questions
Essay reflection questions could be backward-looking, forward-looking, inward-looking, or outward-looking. Here are ten reflection essay questions.
- What were the processes that led to the production of this page?
- Have you done work similar to this in the past?
- In what ways do you need to improve?
- What do you find frustrating about it?
- Did you meet the standards you set for yourself?
- In what way did you do your work differently?
- What grade will you give this piece, and why?
- What is the one thing you would like to improve upon?
- What would you like to spend more time on in school?
- What will you change the next time you want to review this piece?
Reflection Essay Format
When you have a reflection essay template or a reflection essay rubric, you’ll be amazed by how fast and how much better you can write a reflection essay. Here is a reflection essay outline that is easy to follow and use.
- The Introduction
When writing a reflection essay, you need a very catching introduction. Here is how to write an introduction that keeps your audience hooked!
- Identify the focus of your reflection (e.g., a specific situation)
- Identify theories or the course materials that will give your experience a deeper connection.
- Share the major lessons you learned
- Introduce the major themes that will be addressed in the body of the paper
- State what you have learned from the experience and what will change from this point.
- The Body
You can vary the body of a reflective essay. Relate the body to the themes you stated in your introduction. Each theme can take one or more paragraphs in the body. For each theme, you should:
- Identify the theme
- Share a (or several) personal experiences supporting the theme
- Clearly connect your experience to the course material, research, etc.
- The Conclusion
As you end your reflection essay, you should:
- Review how important your experiences are within the learning context
- Restate how this specific experience will move you forward
- Suggest opportunities for future growth
Reflection Essay Types
Below are examples of some types of reflection essays that may be required of you to write. They are of varying types, and here is some information on the most commonly written types.
Critical Reflection Essay: To write a critical reflection essay, you have to identify, question, and assess your deeply-held assumptions. This type of essay significantly impacts your knowledge, the way you view events, your beliefs, feelings, and actions. Therefore, you need a lot of critical thought to write this type of essay.
Personal Reflection Essay: A personal reflection essay, also known as a self reflection essay is a type of essay that describes the remarkable experiences that you have had in the past. Self reflection essay about yourself requires you to evaluate your academic development from particular projects.
Final Reflection Essay: This type of reflection essay is written at the end of a course or semester. Sometimes it takes the place of an examination. This essay type requires the student to reflect on the course and the lessons learned throughout the course.
End of Year Reflection Essay: This is written by students at the end of the school year, by staff at the end of the work year, or even by financial institutions at the end of the fiscal year.
Senior Reflection Essay/High School Reflection Essay: This can be written by students in high school to express their thoughts on their experiences gotten from attending high school.
Reflection Essay: An intern can be asked to write a reflective essay about the experiences they garnered from their work at the organization. This could be submitted to their schools or even requested by the organization in question.
Community Service Reflection Essay: This is written to express the experiences gained by doing community service. It could also entail some of the benefits gotten by doing community service.
Personal Reflection Essay Example
This self reflection essay sample below can serve as a guide to writing reflection essays. Ready to explore the reflection essay samples?
Title: My Little Brother
This reflection essay sample reflects on the arrival of a new sibling.
I have only been around on this planet for a while, with a few life-changing experiences. One of which is the birth of my little brother. Joel was a “happy accident” because his arrival was unexpected.
At the time my mother conceived of him, I was 13 years old. We had the “perfect” family of three and didn’t know what we were missing until my brother first opened his striking blue eyes and gave a lazy, satisfied yawn…
… many life experiences have given me new perspectives, but nothing as profound as the birth of my little brother. Joel’s arrival has caused me to see the world through new eyes.”
So here we are! Here is all you need to know about reflection essays. If you need more help, contact our essay writers. Now it’s time to get that A+!
