What Does A Good Reflective Essay Consist Of?

A reflective essay is an opportunity for you to really think about yourself, who you are, and in what ways you have changed. The reflective essay is a unique piece of writing where you might have to explain how college has changed you or how you have been influenced by the loss of a family member or how taking a particular course has changed you. In all instances the purpose is to explore in what ways you have been altered which of course requires a great deal of personal reflection.

The reflective essay gives you an opportunity to examine your life and your experiences and then write about those experiences. It is through this writing opportunity that you have your chance to explore how you have developed, grown, or changed as a result of different experiences in your life.

The format for your particular writing piece is truly contingent upon the audience is intended. If your particular reflective piece is intended for an academic audience such as your teacher then you will need to follow the format below:

• The first thing you want to include is your introduction. Introduction is where you introduce the speaker and you share the overall focus of your reflection either directly or indirectly. Many writers are often indirect about the main topic or what area of their life they are going to focus on but if you are writing this for an academic purpose you need to be much more direct about the experiences you were going to share.
• The body of the content allows you the opportunity to explain how you have changed or what you have learned as a result of the experiences you are reviewing. It also explains what things within those experiences caused you to change. Not reflect on how you have improved as a writer over the semester by sharing the different assignments or the lessons you had in class which actually made you stronger. You might also share the examples that support these statements. If you have become more optimistic you want to give examples of things that help you become more optimistic in life such as mediation courses which allowed you a better method of resolving incidents.
• Finally, the conclusion sums up how you have changed or how you have been affected by the experience or situation you are presenting. This is an opportunity for you to look ahead or even to look backward and to share how you think that the experiences you presented in the course of your paper will change you in the future. If you choose to look backward you might note how different you were in the past compared to who you are now.