Have you been wondering about how to go about writing a great reflective essay? Here is how to do it. A reflective essay should be interesting and you must keep the reader always engaged. It involves reflecting on your experience, then outlining its impact on your life- for good or bad. The essay must be organized in a manner that is through and cohesive.
Tips to an effective reflective essay
- Identify The Main Topic
This is the point where you really think about the theme of your essay. In involves reflecting on the memories of your feelings about an event. Look back on your experiences and think about their impact on your life. Think about what you have learnt, whether you have changed or how you have developed.
- Write Down the Ideas That Stand Out
Having reflected about your topic, you write down the ideas that are very clear on your mind. These thoughts should help you to really express your feelings about the chosen topic.
- Create A Flow Diagram for The Overall Structure of Your Essay
Creating a chart or might be very helpful to help keep track of your ideas. Here you highlight the main ideas that were identified. Then you write your response to each of those ideas. This flow chart will help you to come up with the general structure of the essay. It helps you to determine the manner in which you order your paragraphs and give your essay a cohesive flow.
- Introduction
When introducing your paper, you start with the expectations that you had concerning the topic that you are writing about. For instance, if your reflective essay is about a certain experience, you might start by pointing out your prior expectations. This can be based on experiences from other people or information that you may have gathered. It makes the reader want to know of your reflections and their impact on you.
- Create The Body
The body of your essay contains paragraphs that explain what you understood, or the conclusions made from an experience you reflected about. The conclusions made here must be explained thoroughly. You should also make sure that details provided are specific. The tone set on the body should be professional or academic. Therefore, the thoughts should be presented in an organized way.
- The conclusion
This is the point where you describe the lesson that you have learnt, what you feel or what you understood from the event or experience that you are writing about. This conclusion should be in harmony with the conclusions that are brought out in the paragraphs making the body of the essay.
- Review your paper
Having written your essay, you check whether the sentences are clear, well-written and grammatically correct. This makes your paper easy to read and conversational.