Reflective Essays: Free Samples

How To Write A Reflective Essay

This essay is one in which the writer thinks back to certain life experiences, then writes about those experiences and tells the reader how much it changed their lives. Depending on the audience, the reflective essay format is going to change. The style and manner in which you would pen your life experience for a magazine are different from how you would write for an academic audience.

Self-reflection might seem like something you can breeze through, but delving into your thoughts and putting them on paper is a different ballgame entirely, and you would need to pause before you plunge into it. It is important to note that no matter the audience, style, or manner in which you are to write, the basic element and structure of reflective articles remain the same.

Tone

Unlike other forms of writing usually presented in the second or third person, good reflective essays are usually written in the first person. It is a no-brainer. This is because the entire article is about self-reflection, so you are penning it down from your point of view.

The Standard Reflective Essay Rubric

Although the tone and general style in which you write this might be different from other write-ups, they still follow the same basic steps of:

• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion

Introduction

This section has to contain a hook and a statement thesis for emphasis. The reason for the hook is just to grasp the reader’s attention from the very beginning. Students treat the introduction as what the name entails: by simply introducing the text with a basic definition and making the text look bland.

Exciting bits of your whole subject must be portrayed here. It will keep the readers guessing what happened next and how those occurrences would shape your life. This is the only way they would want to press on; otherwise, they would just take a glance and move on to the next.

Body

Without careful planning, this can turn out to be the hardest part of the paper. Knowing what to write and how to write them are completely different scenarios, and that is why you must choose a reflective essay topic that best resonates with you.

No matter how tempting it is to pour all your thoughts into paper, resist it. Arrange and file your thoughts carefully. Sometimes, putting all your thoughts into the page might confuse the reader and make them feel bombarded. Use a chronological approach. Work through each occurrence according to how it happened, slowly and steadily.

Conclusion

Usually the most rushed in reflective essay topics, the conclusion takes the last bit of effort. To write the best paper, however, one should give equal effort to every section.  It is understandable that sometimes, by the time the students get to this concluding part, they have exhausted all their knowledge on a topic in the main body paragraphs. Still nevertheless, students should always take their time.

Avoid overused cliches like “Finally,” “Lastly,” and “In conclusion.” Be more creative, end with a flourish. You can lightly touch on how you have been affected by the entire story and what you might have done differently if given another chance.  

How To Write A Reflective Essay

If you weren’t given a topic to start with, choosing a perfect one may as well be the first challenge you face. However, some topic ideas can help you navigate this process seamlessly.

Personal Reflective Essays

This type of reflective essay usually borders on a personal story, and here are a few questions to help you get started on this.

• What are your most memorable experiences?
• What have you learned as a result of them?
• How did they help you grow as a person?
• Did they have positive or negative effects on your life?
• Was it a useful learning concept?
• Did you receive support at the time?

These questions would help you start your reflective process and help you gather useful information to write.

Here are helpful topics that can help:

• An unexpected visitor.
• A trip to the zoo.
• An exciting vacation.
• My little brother.
• The habit that changed my life.
• The day I got lost.

There are so many personal reflective essays examples that you can find online. The evolution of technology has also ushered in the development of digital platforms like phdessay.com, where you can sieve through hundreds of reflective essay samples. You can also hire personal writers to help you write any type of essay on sites like that.

Reflective Essay Examples

1. English Reflective Statement essay example

2. Reflective Essay on Communication

3. Reflection and Personal Development Plan

Helpful Tips On How To Write A Reflective Essay

Not only does the best reflective essays take a good deal of writing skill, but it also requires smart work. These tips would help you prepare to work harder and a lot smarter.

Select A Topic

This has to be the most crucial part of the whole matter. Sometimes an idea has already been chosen and given to you, while you have to pick out one for yourself at other times. A common mistake when writing a reflective essay is to go with the crowd. Don’t do that. Take a moment to think and ask yourself personal questions. Reflect on past events and think about how to put them on paper.

There are so many reflective essay samples that you can find these days. You can read and then decide on an area of concentration for your write-up.

Think about Statement

Your thesis must be arguable; it must state a claim or refute a claim about your issue. A thesis must have some chance of being true in order to be debatable. It should not, however, be widely recognized as true; instead, it should be a statement that people can disagree with. It's important to remember that a thesis includes both an observation and 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."
• A thesis that deals with a tired or cliched topic.
• A thesis that includes phrases that lead to erroneous generalizations (all, none, always, only, everyone, etc.)

Ask Reflective Questions

This is the second important step in writing a reflective essay. Ask reflective questions that will spur your thinking process. You are penning your life experiences; it should not be difficult to pinpoint decisive moments that changed you and affected your growth. There are hundreds of personal questions that you can ask to speed this up. After introspection, it is time to collect these data and use them to write the best essay ever.

Write A Draft

After collecting effective data for your reflective essay example, it is understandable if you can’t make total sense of them immediately. That is why a draft is the next important thing to do. Just write whatever comes to your mind and however, it comes.

This draft would help you properly structure your ideas neatly and concisely. It would act like a wireframe, allowing you to see all that you need to work on. You can even create a flow diagram from this frame, connecting important points and marking down the main parts of your essay.

Start The Main Part

After the draft, it is now time to start your essay properly. Identify your entire reality, and from the draft, you start to pick what is important to the entire body of work and what’s just fluff. Your main points have to be personal and can tug the reader’s emotions. That is why it’s called a reflective article. It should be about you.

Some of these essays are based on literature reviews, and students would be asked to superimpose this with their lives and write something reflective. The structure remains the same. Pick out the most relatable character, and find a story that connects to your own.

Learn From The Masters

No one is an island of knowledge. There are so many exceptional examples of reflective essays as previously written by professionals or even students. Surround yourself with a good sample of reflective essays, and you will find your grasp of it becomes even stronger than usual.

We can learn from others who have been there before, and their mistakes and strengths would help build ours. The most common mistake that students make is not reading other samples. You can also use these free samples to practice before starting on yours. You can develop the intro, body, and conclusion of the essay to familiarize yourself with the structure.

References

It is important to cite references for every work you use. This is to avoid being flagged by plagiarism. No one expects you to write a full essay without useful sources, but not properly citing them can pose a problem.  

Conclusion

If it is your first time writing an essay like this, it’s okay to make errors. Just ensure you identify your weak points and deliberately work on them. Essays are a big part of college, whether argumentative, reflective, expository, or even narratives, and learning to navigate it would be a major advantage for you.

Reflective Essay Topics

Reflective Essays On Leadership

1. Reflective Leadership Plan
2. Reflective Journal: Leadership and Management
3. Leadership Style of John F. Kennedy
4. Direct & Indirect Leadership
5. The Importance of Documentation
6. Normative Leadership Style
7. Comparison of Behavioral and Contingency approaches to Leadership
8. JROTC Leadership and Characterization Essay
9. Follower Readiness as It Relates to Situational Leadership Model
10. Concepts of Effective Leadership

Reflective Essays On Critical Thinking

1. Why do men and women change their gender?
2. Accepting a problem or finding a solution?
3. Accepting your appearance.
4. Does a person need to have principles?
5. Is plastic surgery a necessity?
6. Are well-known critics always right?
7. Criticism of the book you have read.
8. Do all people live by stereotypes?
9. Can a person feel that he is “closed” in his body?
10. Is marketing a way to sell a product?

Reflective Essay Topics On Personal Values

1. Social Stratification: Personal Research of Future Social Class
2. Values of Life: Personal and Social
3. Overview of My Core Values of Life
4. How I Learned to Value and Believe in Myself
5. Values in a Raisin in the Sun
6. How People Give the Value of Money and When It Changes
7. My Personal and Ethical Values
8. A Value that Has Had a Large Impact on My Life
9. Good Values and Principles in Life
10. Understanding the True Value of Life

Reflective Essay Topics About Teamwork

1. Teamwork and as an Important Part of Effective Performance
2. Teamwork as the Primary Determinant of Success
3. Watson Engine Company Organization Structure and Teamwork
4. Teamwork and Collaboration
5. Spirit of teamwork
6. Teamwork’s Achievements and Challenges
7. Importance of teamwork, cohesiveness, consensus decision
8. Teamwork in organizations
9. The role of teamwork in management
10. Emotional Intelligence in Teamwork and Mutual Cooperation

Helpful videos about How to Write an Reflective Essay

1. Reflective Essay (Examples, Introduction, Topics) | EssayPro

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