Contents

How to Write a Successful Reflection Paragraph.

What Reflection Writing is.

Why you Need to Master it Today.

The Types of Reflection Writing.

Process of Writing a Reflecting Paragraph.

Tips on Elevating your Reflective Paragraphs.

Ideas to Get you Start Writing.

Conclusion.

How to Write a Successful Reflection Paragraph

Reflective writing, essay, or paragraph are words that you hear a lot when you are in high school or college. There is no way of getting around it, many of your assignments require you to write something like that. However, are you sure what it really means?

In this article, we are going to explain what reflection writing is and how you can improve it. As it’s a common assignment, you will soon find your grades getting higher and higher.

Hopefully, after this, you will be thinking Now I know I can write my reflection paragraph. However, if you feel stuck, don’t let it worry you. Don’t forget that if you need any help with it, you can always ask the assistance of the tutors in TheUniversityPapers.com

What Reflection Writing is

What makes reflection writing so special though? In your typical essays, you have learned that you must give a number of arguments, or facts in order to support your statement. In order to write an essay, most of the times it’s just enough to describe the events and not dig any deeper. This usually leads to absolute and straightforward judgment, without leaving any room for further questions.

Reflective writing though it not like that. First and foremost, a reflection paragraph is less formal from the rest of essays you’ll be asked to write. It will be an exploration of your thoughts about a specific subject. In these kinds of papers, you will try to find what your response is towards certain opinions, events, experiences, and even thoughts and feelings.

If you are asked to write a reflection paragraph, you are basically asked to write your own perspective. However, don’t get ahead of yourself. You still need to support your own views with facts, studies, and any information you can find.

Why you Need to Master it Today

Why do I need to improve the way I write my reflection paragraph? Well, the most important reason why you need to become better at writing reflection essays, is, of course, your grades. You will be asked to write such papers numerous times throughout your high school and college years. If you learn how to write it early on, then you’ll have an advantage for all the years to come.

Moreover, you can use what reflection writing has to offer to your benefit. Through examining your thoughts and feelings on certain opinions and events, you can gain self-knowledge. It can be your way of exploring the information you are getting through your education.

By further developing your ideas from your lessons, you will understand them better and make those ideas you own. This way, you will not only gain clarity, you will also find meaning behind it. It is so often that students don’t know why they need to learn all of those things, but reflection writing can help you decide how this information can become useful to you as a person. Another bonus by learning how to write reflection essays is that you will hone your writing skills, by learning a different style of writing.

The Types of Reflection Writing

Reflection writing can have three main directions, the educational, the professional, and the personal.

In the educational direction, you will ponder on a certain book, film, or lecture. You might be asked to write a journal, a learning diary, or a log book, things that might take up to a whole semester to complete. You will write in detail what you learned each day, as well as your observations and thoughts on the various ideas that you discussed. In some cases, like in that of a learning diary, you might be asked to cooperate with other students and work as a group.

In the professional direction, you have to analyze yourself from a professional perspective. This usually happens in the presence of your classmates. For this, you might be required to write a peer review or a self-assessment. An essay diary also will demand that you write a part where you assess yourself and the method you have used. This is all about finding the way that you conduct your research and having your classmates give you honest feedback. This might actually be the most difficult type of reflective writing, even though when you have a lot to gain from.

In the personal direction you focus more on a personal subject. This can be an experience that opened your horizon or changed your way of thinking. It can also be an exploration of your personal hopes and dreams. You will be asked to develop these ideas in essays.

No matter the paper you will be asked to write, though, the basic rules remain the same.

Process of Writing a Reflecting Paragraph

Now that we have explained what reflection writing is, and what type of it you might need to write, it’s time to break down the way of actually writing it.

First of all, always keep in mind that a reflection paragraph is relatively small, only 300 to 700 words. In this space, you need to divide your text into three-part, the introduction, the main body, and the conclusion.

In the introduction you will state your topic and introduce your main point. In the main body, you will get into details and explain all of your thoughts and arguments. Everything that you state must be backed up with facts. Finally, in the conclusion, you will write the thing that one must get from your essay. It summarizes all of your arguments and points out the meaning of your writing.

This might sound a bit abstract to you right now. So, it will be better to explain step by step the process of writing a reflection paragraph.

1. Find a topic

Many times, you won’t have to trouble yourself with this first step. This is because teacher often gives a specific subject for the paper. It can be in a book, film, or lecture. In this case, you just move directly the second step. However, there are times when the topic giver by the teacher is looser. In this case, you first need to figure out about which aspect of the general topic you’d like to write about. This is a very important step, as it will set the tone for your whole essay.

2. Find relevant bibliography

Once you have decided on your subject, you need to focus on learning more about it. This can easily happen by a visit to your high school’s or college’s library, or even browsing the Internet. Read as much as you can, and try to find sources written from different perspectives. By obtaining a larger picture, you will find it easier to focus on the facts that you are most interested in.

3. Discover your angle

All this reading you’ve done by now isn’t for nothing. By now, you should be able to form your own opinion on the subject given. This will show your angle for the whole thing and you can be more specific as to the way you feel about it.

4. Write a basic outline

Before starting writing it’s best for you to write a basic outline. It doesn’t have to be detailed, just a few words that indicate the main idea of each paragraph. Later on, you can begin to fill it with more specific arguments and information.

5. Write down a series of reflecting questions that fit your topic

An effective way to find out what you actually think about a subject is to ask yourself questions. This technique is very useful in this type of essay. These questions will generate your arguments, so be sure to be thorough even if you don’t end up using all of the material you have gathered.

6. Answer those reflecting questions

As mentioned above, the reflecting question will give you the directives about the arguments you are going to make in your essay. Write all of your answers on a different file and not on your outline. When you have all of them, read them again and decide which idea is worth including in your final essay.

7. Get the meaning out of everything you’ve written

The final step is realizing what your essay was about. When you chose your topic and found your angle, you already had a general context. In this step though, you turn this angle into something more substantial.

This is it! If you were wondering What’s the easiest way to write my reflection paragraph, these steps are all you need to do.

Tips on Elevating your Reflective Paragraphs

We have seen the step by step way of writing a reflection paper, and now it’s time to see some useful tips that will make it stand out.

• Make sure that the tone of your writing is concise throughout your text. Your essay is personal, but always keep in mind that it’s for academic use. For this reason, you still need to adopt an academic and formal way of writing. It goes without saying that you need to avoid slang and colloquial at any cost.
• Because your essay is for academic purposes, always remember to cite your sources. It would be a shame to do all this reading to write the essay and not include it in your actual text.
• If you need any inspiration, take the time to search online and find example papers. They will give you a good indication of the tone that you need to adopt.
• Don’t let the deadline bother you. This doesn’t mean that you need to fail, but focusing only on the deadline will only create more stress for you.
• Don’t force yourself to write the whole essay in one sitting. Write the outline first and let it be shaped by your reading. When you have decided on the way you feel about the topic, fill the outline bit by bit.
• Lastly, make sure that you proofread your text before submitting it. A good essay doesn’t have any grammatical or spelling errors.

Ideas to Get you Start Writing

Now, you have gained a spherical knowledge as to how you can write your own reflection paper. If you find it hard to think of a topic so that you can start writing, here are some useful ideas:

• Write about the places you have been. These could be an exotic journey you have made, a visit to a monument, the house you grew up, and any place that might have inspired you in a way.
• Write about the events that helped you grow as a person. These could be a failure or a success you had, a new experience, a memory, a conversation, just about anything.
• Write about your impactful experience. Write about a book that changed your way of thinking, a concert that moved you, or a film that provoked you.
• Write about the important people in your life, people that taught you valuable life-lessons.

Conclusion

A reflection paragraph will play an important role in your education. It’s a common assignment, so all the information we have given you will help you develop your skills. Nevertheless, if you find this process challenging, don’t hesitate to seek the assistance of the tutors in TheUniversityPapers.com