How to Write a Reflective Essay
While in college, students are often used to writing different types of essays such as argumentative, persuasive and informative essays among others. However, there comes a time when their professors inform them that they have to write a reflective essay. While the majority wonder what type of essay that is, some can tackle it. To write a reflective essay, it is essential that you first understand what type of essay it is. This will help you have an idea of what to write about. A reflective essay is an essay which is mainly about you. Writing a reflective essay necessitates that you take a more in-depth look at yourself, discover important things about yourself while taking your audience through your personal life, and how what you experienced affected you. You can choose to include things that were emotional thus enables some of them to relate. To write a reflective essay, put the following tips from writemyessay.ca, into consideration.
- Choose a topic. Every essay often has a topic hence a reflective essay cannot be an exception. Select a topic which you can come up with as much information about the experiences you encountered and how they went down. Picking a topic allows you to write about a specific or a particular event to avoid mixing yourself with other experiences that you have faced.
- Develop an outline. Unlike other types of essays which involve research, a reflective essay does not. Conversely, it mainly involves you taking a deeper look into yourself, think about a particular experience and taking your audience through it while stating the influences you had. Once you have established all this, you can include it in the outline. An outline is a rough draft of how your article ought to be like. It helps organize your thoughts and opinions in a simple and systematic manner thus making it easy for you to write your article. An outline consists of the following:
- An introduction. Begin your introduction with a strong hook which captures or grabs the attention of your reader(s). It is in the introduction where you briefly inform your audience what you will be writing about.
- A thesis statement. Develop a thesis statement which includes information about a past experience. This will enable you to develop strong and concrete body paragraphs easily.
- The body. The body of a reflective essay is crucial as it takes your audience through your experience(s). It mainly includes your impressions, expectations, experiences, and influences.
- The conclusion. This is a summary of what your article is about. Conclude your article by providing a summary of your points and show progress or change.