Developmental Stages of Child Language

How to Write Reflection Essay
Posted by Splice, Essay Tips Chief Writer
How to Write a Reflection Essay. Basically, writing a reflection essay is a good exercise to sharpen your critical thinking skills. You have to understand what it is that you have to reflect on before proceeding with the essay, otherwise you will only lose track of your ideas or, worse, you will not be able to write anything that will make sense. Keep in mind that a reflection essay is more like a journal where you jot down your thoughts or how you feel about a certain topic. Your topic may be a film, a book, an event, or just about anything.

Before starting with your reflection essay, ask yourself a couple of questions, such as: how do I feel about this topic? How does it affect me, if it does at all? If it doesn't affect me, why? Notice that the questions are all personal. That is because a reflection essay asks you to express your insights. Knowing the answers to these personal questions can help you begin your reflection essay. Do not limit yourself to these three questions. Explore more that asks you to state your opinion. Leave out the facts first. Concentrate on your insights.

After having the answers to the personal questions stated above, list your answers. Thereafter, summarize them into a single sentence. This will be your main controlling idea or central thesis which will guide you throughout the rest of your reflection essay. With your thesis statement, identify the arguments or ideas that will support it. You may expand or write more about each supporting idea in a paragraph. Each of these paragraphs will then be the body of your essay. Try to include factual statements in these body paragraphs, such as what you have observed, so that your claims are well supported. Sufficient reference to facts is a good way of giving substance to your reflections.

After you have finished writing the body paragraphs of your reflection essay, return to your personal questions. This time, however, ask yourself as if you are trying to confirm what you have written: is this how I truly feel about this topic? Is this how it did affect me, if it did at all? If it didn't affect me, why? This is a matter of reaffirming your honesty in writing your reflection essay. You should only provide your truthful reflections, otherwise writing down the things that are far from what you truly felt defeats the very purpose of reflecting on the topic. Also, write down how and why you arrived at your insights. Be consistent and avoid one idea in one paragraph clashing with another idea in another paragraph.

In your reflection essay's conclusion, briefly restate your main insight or thesis. You may end with a question, asking how others might have thought about the same topic. You may also end with a challenge to your readers, such as asking them to reflect on the same topic and ask the same questions. At any rate, what is most important to remember is that a reflection essay is generally a personal assessment of a topic that may or may not affect you and others.