reflective essay checklist

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Writing a Paper
Reflecting & Improving

Writing a Paper: Reflecting & Improving

Introduction

Reflecting on strengths & weaknesses, planning for improvement, related resources.

The writing process is circular; it does not end when you submit the paper to your instructor. In order to make progress with each assignment, you will need to optimize feedback, reflect on your strengths and weaknesses, and plan for improvement. Review the sections below for more guidance on evaluating and improving your own writing.

To reflect is to think deeply about something. The activity of reflection does not need to be formal in nature. Simply sit down with a copy of your paper and consider the last week or so you spent writing it.

Areas to consider:

Actions to consider:

Reflection can help you identify the areas for improvement, but in order to actually move forward, you will need to make a plan and remind yourself of your goals. After identifying your writing strengths and weaknesses:

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How to Write a Reflective Essay That Is Interesting

Ever sit under a tree on a beautiful summer day and reflect about your life and what you’ve learned?

No? That’s okay if you haven’t. A lot of students are way too busy to spend their days reflecting. But if you’ve been assigned to write a reflective essay, here’s your chance to do so.

Are you reflecting on the writing assignment right now? Perhaps you’re thinking, “I don’t even know what a reflective essay is and have no idea how to write one.”

If that’s the case, then you should stop reflecting and start reading, as this blog post will teach you how to write a reflective essay that’s interesting.

What Is a Reflective Essay?

The goal of the reflective essay is to describe how a person, event, or experience affected you. Your objective is to reflect upon your personal growth.

To do this, you’ll need to share your thoughts and emotions. Don’t worry; you don’t have to share your deepest, darkest secrets (unless, of course, you want to).

While this definition might sound a lot like a narrative essay, be careful not to confuse the two. A reflective essay doesn’t simply tell a story or explain an event like a narrative essay does.

Here’s an example from a narrative essay written by the classic cartoon mischief-maker Bart Simpson.

Last week at church I switched the organist’s music. I would’ve gotten away with it, but Milhouse snitched on me, and the reverend ordered us to clean the organ as punishment. Milhouse cleaned the organ because he feared for his soul. I didn’t believe in souls, so I sold mine to Milhouse for $5. When bad things started happening to me, I quickly realized I needed to get my soul back.

Bart tells the story of selling his soul and finding a way to get it back. He’s not reflecting about how the experience affected him.

Narrative essays don’t usually reflect upon events or explain how they changed you. (If they do, the reflection is kept brief, as the narrative’s purpose is to tell the story.)

Okay, so now you know how a narrative essay is different from a reflective essay. But, what the heck is a reflective essay anyway? Let’s use another example.

Here’s an example from a reflective essay written by Bart Simpson.

When I sold my soul to Milhouse for $5, I thought it was a great deal, but soon after the sale my life took a turn for the worse. My pets hated me, and I couldn’t even laugh at Itchy & Scratchy cartoons. I knew I had made a terrible mistake. Thanks to Lisa, I was able to get my soul back, and I’m a new man; I definitely learned an important lesson.

See the difference? The narrative essay describes events. A reflective essay explains how the events shaped you.

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Bart briefly retells the story of selling his soul, but the focus of the essay will be the lesson he learned and how the event changed him.

Though you’ll still need to tell your story in a reflective essay, it will only be a small part of your paper. In other words, don’t spend too much time explaining the details of the events. If you do, you won’t have enough space to reflect.

Still wondering how to actually write a reflective essay that’s interesting? Read the following for some helpful advice.

How to Write a Reflective Essay: Q & A

Q: How do I know what to write about?

A: Sometimes your professor will decide this for you. You might have to reflect on your learning in a course or, perhaps, during field experience or internship.

If you’re writing about your learning in a course, think about the course content. (Pull out the syllabus if you need to remember the key topics of the course.)

Or, you might write about how a specific teacher changed your life.

Lisa Simpson might write about how a substitute teacher inspired her and taught her that life was worth living.

If you are allowed to choose your own topic, pick something that has affected you on meaningful level.

Don’t write about how your new XBox changed your life because you can now play your favorite games at any time.

Do write about something that will allow you to reflect on the subject in a meaningful way.

Lisa Simpson might write about how entering a beauty contest as a feminist really did make her a stronger person and helped her self esteem.

Q: What does it really mean to reflect?

A: Reflecting means you’ll have to think more deeply about your subject. Don’t just write about anything that comes to mind.

Reflection takes time.

Think about cause and effect, how ideas compare, how you feel about the topic, and how you have been affected.

Lisa Simpson might write about the time she fell in love with a lamb at the petting zoo. When her mom served lamb chops for dinner, she struggled with the idea of lambs as living creatures and animals as food. Her inner struggles led her to become a vegetarian.

Like Lisa, you may have a lot to consider, and it may take a while to actually decide how you feel about an experience.

Keep reflecting, and, before you write, jot down as many feelings and reflections as you can on your topic. You won’t end up writing about everything you put in your notes, but this process will help you decide what’s most important and will allow you to narrow your focus.

Q: How do I make my reflective essay interesting?

A: Choose relevant content. If you’re writing about how volunteering at a homeless shelter affected you, choose key points that really changed your life in a significant way.

You may have realized the importance of wearing comfortable shoes while standing and serving meals for hours, but did the revelation about proper footwear really change your life? Is this really what your audience wants to read about? I doubt it.

Choose more complex insights. Consider how and why the events, the interactions, and your experiences changed your outlook or your goals for your own life.

Homer Simpson might write about the time doctors found a crayon lodged in his brain, and how when they removed it, he instantly became smarter. His story would focus on how the events changed him and how he felt when he was finally able to relate to his daughter, Lisa.

In Homer’s reflective essay, stories of driving to work or sitting at Moe’s drinking a beer wouldn’t be relevant, as they don’t offer any insight to his reflections about his relationship with Lisa.

Q: Can I write in first person ?

A: Yes (unless your professor says otherwise). Most academic writing is formal and requires you to write in third person , but because reflective essays are more personal, and you’re reflecting about your thoughts and experiences, in most cases you may use first person.

Q: If I can use first person, does that mean I can write like I talk?

A: No. Remember, you’re still writing an academic essay. Your tone should be formal, and you should avoid slang and jargon .

Q: How do I structure a reflective essay?

A: The structure of a reflective essay is like most other essays. You need to include an introduction, body, and conclusion . You’ll also need a strong thesis that informs readers of the focus of your paper. (Read Use This Reflective Essay Outline to Get Your Paper Started)

Reflective Essay Checklist

Now that you know how to write a reflective essay, don’t forget to proofread and revise your paper once it’s done.

Here’s a quick proofreading and revision checklist to help polish your essay.

Check the opening. Have you used a good hook sentence ? Does your opening grab readers’ attention? Does anyone actually want to read your reflection?

Check transitions . Have you used appropriate transition words to link ideas? Have you used transitional sentences to move readers from one point to the next?

Check essay format . Are your margins correct? Have you used an acceptable font? Is your spacing correct?

Ask for help. Don’t forget to have a friend, family member, or expert Kibin editor help polish your reflective essay.

Psst... 98% of Kibin users report better grades! Get inspiration from over 500,000 example essays .

About the Author

Susan M. Inez is a professor of English and writing goddess based out of the Northeast. In addition to a BA in English Education, an MA in Composition, and an MS in Education, Susan has 20 years of experience teaching courses on composition, writing in the professions, literature, and more. She also served as co-director of a campus writing center for 2 years.

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Four types of essay explained

A complete guide to writing a reflective essay

(Last updated: 11 November 2021)

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“The overwhelming burden of writing my first ever reflective essay loomed over me as I sat as still as a statue, as my fingers nervously poised over the intimidating buttons on my laptop keyboard. Where would I begin? Where would I end? Nerve wracking thoughts filled my mind as I fretted over the seemingly impossible journey on which I was about to embark.”

Reflective essays may seem simple on the surface, but they can be a real stumbling block if you're not quite sure how to go about them. In simple terms, reflective essays constitute a critical examination of a life experience and, with the right guidance, they're not too challenging to put together. A reflective essay is similar to other essays in that it needs to be easily understood and well structured, but the content is more akin to something personal like a diary entry.

In this guide, we explore in detail how to write a great reflective essay , including what makes a good structure and some advice on the writing process. We’ve even thrown in an example reflective essay to inspire you too, making this the ultimate guide for anyone needing reflective essay help.

In a reflective essay, a writer primarily examines his or her life experiences, hence the term ‘reflective’. The purpose of writing a reflective essay is to provide a platform for the author to not only recount a particular life experience, but to also explore how he or she has changed or learned from those experiences. Reflective writing can be presented in various formats, but you’ll most often see it in a learning log format or diary entry. Diary entries in particular are used to convey how the author’s thoughts have developed and evolved over the course of a particular period.

The format of a reflective essay may change depending on the target audience. Reflective essays can be academic, or may feature more broadly as a part of a general piece of writing for a magazine, for instance. For class assignments, while the presentation format can vary, the purpose generally remains the same: tutors aim to inspire students to think deeply and critically about a particular learning experience or set of experiences. Here are some typical examples of reflective essay formats that you may have to write:

A focus on personal growth: A type of reflective essay often used by tutors as a strategy for helping students to learn how to analyse their personal life experiences to promote emotional growth and development. The essay gives the student a better understanding of both themselves and their behaviours.

A focus on the literature: This kind of essay requires students to provide a summary of the literature, after which it is applied to the student’s own life experiences.

What do I write about?

As you go about deciding on the content of your essay, you need to keep in mind that a reflective essay is highly personal and aimed at engaging the reader or target audience. And there’s much more to a reflective essay than just recounting a story. You need to be able to reflect (more on this later) on your experience by showing how it influenced your subsequent behaviours and how your life has been particularly changed as a result.

As a starting point, you might want to think about some important experiences in your life that have really impacted you, either positively, negatively, or both. Some typical reflection essay topics include: a real-life experience, an imagined experience, a special object or place, a person who had an influence on you, or something you have watched or read. If you are writing a reflective essay as part of an academic exercise, chances are your tutor will ask you to focus on a particular episode – such as a time when you had to make an important decision – and reflect on what the outcomes were. Note also, that the aftermath of the experience is especially important in a reflective essay; miss this out and you will simply be storytelling.

It sounds obvious, but the reflective process forms the core of writing this type of essay, so it’s important you get it right from the outset. You need to really think about how the personal experience you have chosen to focus on impacted or changed you. Use your memories and feelings of the experience to determine the implications for you on a personal level.

Once you’ve chosen the topic of your essay, it’s really important you study it thoroughly and spend a lot of time trying to think about it vividly. Write down everything you can remember about it, describing it as clearly and fully as you can. Keep your five senses in mind as you do this, and be sure to use adjectives to describe your experience. At this stage, you can simply make notes using short phrases, but you need to ensure that you’re recording your responses, perceptions, and your experience of the event(s).

Once you’ve successfully emptied the contents of your memory, you need to start reflecting. A great way to do this is to pick out some reflection questions which will help you think deeper about the impact and lasting effects of your experience. Here are some useful questions that you can consider:

– What have you learned about yourself as a result of the experience?

– Have you developed because of it? How?

– Did it have any positive or negative bearing on your life?

– Looking back, what would you have done differently?

– Why do you think you made the particular choices that you did? Do you think these were the right choices?

– What are your thoughts on the experience in general? Was it a useful learning experience? What specific skills or perspectives did you acquire as a result?

These signpost questions should help kick-start your reflective process. Remember, asking yourself lots of questions is key to ensuring that you think deeply and critically about your experiences – a skill that is at the heart of writing a great reflective essay.

Consider using models of reflection (like the Gibbs or Kolb cycles) before, during, and after the learning process to ensure that you maintain a high standard of analysis. For example, before you really get stuck into the process, consider questions such as: what might happen (regarding the experience)? Are there any possible challenges to keep in mind? What knowledge is needed to be best prepared to approach the experience? Then, as you’re planning and writing, these questions may be useful: what is happening within the learning process? Is the process working out as expected? Am I dealing with the accompanying challenges successfully? Is there anything that needs to be done additionally to ensure that the learning process is successful? What am I learning from this? By adopting such a framework, you’ll be ensuring that you are keeping tabs on the reflective process that should underpin your work.

Here’s a very useful tip: although you may feel well prepared with all that time spent reflecting in your arsenal, do not, start writing your essay until you have worked out a comprehensive, well-rounded plan . Your writing will be so much more coherent, your ideas conveyed with structure and clarity, and your essay will likely achieve higher marks.

This is an especially important step when you’re tackling a reflective essay – there can be a tendency for people to get a little ‘lost’ or disorganised as they recount their life experiences in an erratic and often unsystematic manner as it is a topic so close to their hearts. But if you develop a thorough outline (this is the same as a ‘plan’) and ensure you stick to it like Christopher Columbus to a map, you should do just fine as you embark on the ultimate step of writing your essay. If you need further convincing on how important planning is, we’ve summarised the key benefits of creating a detailed essay outline below:

Now you’re familiar with the benefits of using an outline for your reflective essay, it is essential that you know how to craft one. It can be considerably different from other typical essay outlines, mostly because of the varying subjects. But what remains the same, is that you need to start your outline by drafting the introduction, body and conclusion. More on this below.

Introduction As is the case with all essays, your reflective essay must begin within an introduction that contains both a hook and a thesis statement. The point of having a ‘hook’ is to grab the attention of your audience or reader from the very beginning. You must portray the exciting aspects of your story in the initial paragraph so that you stand the best chances of holding your reader’s interest. Refer back to the opening quote of this article – did it grab your attention and encourage you to read more? The thesis statement is a brief summary of the focus of the essay, which in this case is a particular experience that influenced you significantly. Remember to give a quick overview of your experience – don’t give too much information away or you risk your reader becoming disinterested.

Body Next up is planning the body of your essay. This can be the hardest part of the entire paper; it’s easy to waffle and repeat yourself both in the plan and in the actual writing. Have you ever tried recounting a story to a friend only for them to tell you to ‘cut the long story short’? They key here is to put plenty of time and effort into planning the body, and you can draw on the following tips to help you do this well:

Try adopting a chronological approach. This means working through everything you want to touch upon as it happened in time. This kind of approach will ensure that your work is systematic and coherent. Keep in mind that a reflective essay doesn’t necessarily have to be linear, but working chronologically will prevent you from providing a haphazard recollection of your experience. Lay out the important elements of your experience in a timeline – this will then help you clearly see how to piece your narrative together.

Ensure the body of your reflective essay is well focused and contains appropriate critique and reflection. The body should not only summarise your experience, it should explore the impact that the experience has had on your life, as well as the lessons that you have learned as a result. The emphasis should generally be on reflection as opposed to summation. A reflective posture will not only provide readers with insight on your experience, it’ll highlight your personality and your ability to deal with or adapt to particular situations.

Conclusion In the conclusion of your reflective essay, you should focus on bringing your piece together by providing a summary of both the points made throughout, and what you have learned as a result. Try to include a few points on why and how your attitudes and behaviours have been changed. Consider also how your character and skills have been affected, for example: what conclusions can be drawn about your problem-solving skills? What can be concluded about your approach to specific situations? What might you do differently in similar situations in the future? What steps have you taken to consolidate everything that you have learned from your experience? Keep in mind that your tutor will be looking out for evidence of reflection at a very high standard.

Congratulations – you now have the tools to create a thorough and accurate plan which should put you in good stead for the ultimate phase indeed of any essay, the writing process.

Writing your essay

As with all written assignments, sitting down to put pen to paper (or more likely fingers to keyboard) can be daunting. But if you have put in the time and effort fleshing out a thorough plan, you should be well prepared, which will make the writing process as smooth as possible. The following points should also help ease the writing process:

– To get a feel for the tone and format in which your writing should be, read other typically reflective pieces in magazines and newspapers, for instance.

– Don’t think too much about how to start your first sentence or paragraph; just start writing and you can always come back later to edit anything you’re not keen on. Your first draft won’t necessarily be your best essay writing work but it’s important to remember that the earlier you start writing, the more time you will have to keep reworking your paper until it’s perfect. Don’t shy away from using a free-flow method, writing and recording your thoughts and feelings on your experiences as and when they come to mind. But make sure you stick to your plan. Your plan is your roadmap which will ensure your writing doesn’t meander too far off course.

– For every point you make about an experience or event, support it by describing how you were directly impacted, using specific as opposed to vague words to convey exactly how you felt.

– Write using the first-person narrative, ensuring that the tone of your essay is very personal and reflective of your character.

– If you need to, refer back to our notes earlier on creating an outline. As you work through your essay, present your thoughts systematically, remembering to focus on your key learning outcomes.

– Consider starting your introduction with a short anecdote or quote to grasp your readers’ attention, or other engaging techniques such as flashbacks.

– Choose your vocabulary carefully to properly convey your feelings and emotions. Remember that reflective writing has a descriptive component and so must have a wide range of adjectives to draw from. Avoid vague adjectives such as ‘okay’ or ‘nice’ as they don’t really offer much insight into your feelings and personality. Be more specific – this will make your writing more engaging.

– Be honest with your feelings and opinions. Remember that this is a reflective task, and is the one place you can freely admit – without any repercussions – that you failed at a particular task. When assessing your essay, your tutor will expect a deep level of reflection, not a simple review of your experiences and emotion. Showing deep reflection requires you to move beyond the descriptive. Be extremely critical about your experience and your response to it. In your evaluation and analysis, ensure that you make value judgements, incorporating ideas from outside the experience you had to guide your analysis. Remember that you can be honest about your feelings without writing in a direct way. Use words that work for you and are aligned with your personality.

– Once you’ve finished learning about and reflecting on your experience, consider asking yourself these questions: what did I particularly value from the experience and why? Looking back, how successful has the process been? Think about your opinions immediately after the experience and how they differ now, so that you can evaluate the difference between your immediate and current perceptions. Asking yourself such questions will help you achieve reflective writing effectively and efficiently.

– Don’t shy away from using a variety of punctuation. It helps keeps your writing dynamic! Doesn’t it?

– If you really want to awaken your reader’s imagination, you can use imagery to create a vivid picture of your experiences.

– Ensure that you highlight your turning point, or what we like to call your “Aha!” moment. Without this moment, your resulting feelings and thoughts aren’t as valid and your argument not as strong.

– Don’t forget to keep reiterating the lessons you have learned from your experience.

A further tip – using wider sources

Although a reflective piece of writing is focused on personal experience, it’s important you draw on other sources to demonstrate your understanding of your experience from a theoretical perspective. It’ll show a level of analysis – and a standard of reliability in what you’re claiming – if you’re also able to validate your work against other perspectives that you find. Think about possible sources, like newspapers, surveys, books and even journal articles. Generally, the additional sources you decide to include in your work are highly dependent on your field of study. Analysing a wide range of sources, will show that you have read widely on your subject area, that you have nuanced insight into the available literature on the subject of your essay, and that you have considered the broader implications of the literature for your essay. The incorporation of other sources into your essay also helps to show that you are aware of the multi-dimensional nature of both the learning and problem-solving process.

Example reflective essay

If you want some inspiration for writing, take a look at our example of a short reflective essay , which can serve as a useful starting point for you when you set out to write your own.

Some final notes to remember

To recap, the key to writing a reflective essay is demonstrating what lessons you have taken away from your experiences, and why and how you have been shaped by these lessons.

The reflective thinking process begins with you – you must consciously make an effort to identify and examine your own thoughts in relation to a particular experience. Don’t hesitate to explore any prior knowledge or experience of the topic, which will help you identify why you have formed certain opinions on the subject. Remember that central to reflective essay writing is the examination of your attitudes, assumptions and values, so be upfront about how you feel. Reflective writing can be quite therapeutic, helping you identify and clarify your strengths and weaknesses, particularly in terms of any knowledge gaps that you may have. It’s a pretty good way of improving your critical thinking skills, too. It enables you to adopt an introspective posture in analysing your experiences and how you learn/make sense of them.

If you are still having difficulties with starting the writing process, why not try mind-mapping which will help you to structure your thinking and ideas, enabling you to produce a coherent piece. Creating a mind map will ensure that your argument is written in a very systematic way that will be easy for your tutor to follow. Here’s a recap of the contents of this article, which also serves as a way to create a mind map:

1. Identify the topic you will be writing on.

2. Note down any ideas that are related to the topic and if you want to, try drawing a diagram to link together any topics, theories, and ideas.

3. Allow your ideas to flow freely, knowing that you will always have time to edit your work.

4. Consider how your ideas are connected to each other, then begin the writing process.

And finally, keep in mind that although there are descriptive elements in a reflective essay, we can’t emphasise enough how crucial it is that your work is critical, analytical, and adopts a reflective posture in terms of your experience and the lessons you have learned from it.

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COMMENTS

Academic Guides: Writing a Paper: Reflecting & Improving
Introduction. The writing process is circular; it does not end when you submit the paper to your instructor. In order to make progress with each assignment, you will need to optimize feedback, reflect on your strengths and weaknesses, and plan for improvement. Review the sections below for more guidance on evaluating and improving your own writing.
How to Write a Reflective Essay That Is Interesting
The goal of the reflective essay is to describe how a person, event, or experience affected you. Your objective is to reflect upon your personal growth. To do this, you’ll need to share your thoughts and emotions. Don’t worry; you don’t have to share your deepest, darkest secrets (unless, of course, you want to).
Reflective essay rubric
Reflective essay rubric. WHAT IS THIS RESOURCE? This is a grading rubric an instructor uses to assess students’ work on this type of assignment. It is a sample rubric that needs to be edited to reflect the specifics of a particular assignment. Students can self-assess using the rubric as a checklist before submitting their assignment.
Reflective writing checklist
I have answered the reflective question or addressed the topic in my reflective writing . I have paid attention to the most important factors according to the marking criteria. Expression I have used language appropriate for reflectiv e writing (formal, personal, technical and abstract). (For help: Reflective writing tone)
A complete guide to writing a reflective essay
Ensure the body of your reflective essay is well focused and contains appropriate critique and reflection. The body should not only summarise your experience, it should explore the impact that the experience has had on your life, as well as the lessons that you have learned as a result.