Academic writing involves various types of essays. Even though the most recurrent type is a research essay, you would have to write a bunch of reflections during your uni years. At first glance, they might seem pretty easy and do not give many benefits in the long run.
However, there is much to learn about reflection essays and gain new skills from this format. So, here is a comprehensive explanation of what a reflection essay is and why you need to write it.
What is a reflection essay?
Reflective writing is rooted in awareness and deep analysis of thoughts and emotions. You’d need to be sure that your essay is deeply engaged with the source, so do not hesitate to buy an essay online to trust this analysis with professionals. Especially considering that reflective writing can take a lot of time.
The reflection essay consists of two main elements:
- describing your experience with a certain event or piece of media
- analyzing said experience
Hence, a reflection essay is a writing assignment that requires you to describe what happened, what you think, and how you feel about it and analyze those thoughts and feelings.
Reflection is organizing all thoughts and emotions in a constructive description and analysis. Do not confuse it with journaling that involves reflection but does not require structure. A reflective essay has specific requirements and guidelines to follow. So do not get carried away too much by the freedom that reflective writing proposes.
The specificities of reflection
Do not forget that your reflection essay still has to be based on the thesis statement. It is your personal evaluation, but there has to be a central theme reflected in one well-thought-out thesis. Concentrate on the main thought around your reflective process and craft a mockup of your thesis.
You will also need to follow your typical five-paragraph structure of the essay to organize your thoughts. Note that this is always followed by professional writers, as you can see in the essay hub review of EssayReviews.com services. Thus, the academic reflection still abides by the introduction-3 body paragraphs-conclusion structure.
Still, the body paragraphs differ from your typical argumentative essay. In the first one, you would need to describe the matter of the reflection. The second one involves how you feel about it and what you think about it. And the third is your analysis of the thoughts and feelings.
Critical observation
One of the most significant benefits of reflective writing is developing critical observation. By gradually describing and analyzing events or pieces of media, you’re able to enhance your awareness about certain things and be more attentive to details.
For example, if you’re training yourself to reflect on certain events, you can pinpoint why something happened. It helps you to understand the topic not only from the research perspective but on a more personal level. Thus, a reflection essay helps you to uncover the “why?” behind certain events, actions, or reactions.
Plus, you’ll be more in tune with your surroundings and the people around you. The trained ability to reflect on yourself and your environment makes you more aware and conscious. For once, you can understand someone’s unique experience better if you give yourself time to reflect on it. Hence, writing reflection papers is useful for honing interpersonal skills as well.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a Reflection Essay
Writing an essay including reflections of your own experiences and feelings can be a challenging task. As a writer, you must maintain a thought-provoking and insightful approach and avoid common mistakes that can take away from the quality of your work. To write an effective reflection essay, here are some essential tips to help guide you:
- Keep it personal: While reflections don’t have to be purely autobiographical, it is important to write from your own personal experience; otherwise, it can feel like the reflection lacks authenticity.
- Avoid rehashing facts: Reflection essays go beyond simply reflecting on facts that occurred in the past—they should also interpret them in order to draw meaningful conclusions about them. Don’t merely restate events without offering your perspective on why they happened or what lessons might be drawn from them.
- Don’t use cliches or universal statements: Reflections should offer interesting insights based on unique experiences—avoid regurgitating cliched expressions or platitudes that do not add any real value to the piece.
- Make sure there is a clear structure: Before writing, consider how you want to organize your thoughts into an effective structure; this will help create a strong foundation for developing a coherent essay that successfully communicates its underlying message(s).
- Be mindful of grammar and spelling mistakes: If a reader finds grammatical errors or typos throughout the text, they may be less likely to trust its actual content—be sure to make proofreading your work part of the writing process!
Crafting your self-expression
Finally, the reflection essay is about your self-expression. It is the one type of academic paper that actively involves your personal perspective on things. Thus, you can learn how to form your opinions concisely and engagingly, which will be a huge asset when entering the job market.
The trick of reflective writing is being self-aware and using your feelings to your advantage instead of letting them cloud your judgment. You can describe a heartbreaking event by using the most effective language to translate how you feel about it. You can literally develop the skill of punching with words.
A reflection essay still requires you to stay within academic limitations in your expression. It gives you enough freedom to experiment with how you want to present yourself. Thus, you develop a skill of constant self-awareness and analysis that will help you in your life even after uni.
The bottom line
And that’s about it. A reflection essay includes describing certain events or pieces of media and analyzing personal feelings and thoughts on the matter critically. This type of writing still requires following the typical academic essay structure. But it involves description, explanation, and analysis of your thoughts and feelings.
The primary benefits of the reflection essay are enhancing your critical observation and helping to craft your best self-reflection. Keep this in mind when opening up your document to write your next assignment, and be sure to sharpen highly needed analytical and rhetoric skills.
