Reflective Essay Examples

Reflective essays involve a careful examination of past experience and highlighting the impacts on who you are today. Also, reflective essays can focus on a book or other forms of literature. In general, reflective writing helps to summarize a work or an experience.

How to write an impactful reflective essay?

Before writing a reflective essay, bear in mind that the contents of the essay are like your diary entries. This tip will help you focus your writing on impactful experiences.

Spend time reflecting

Think about the most relevant experiences in your life and how they have affected you. The essay has to portray the emotions you felt while going through these episodes.

Describe for impact

Use the most assertive words to describe every incident. Use appropriate adjectives to add emphasis to your story.

Use questions as prompts

Dividing your essay into sections based on questions will help you maintain a cogent train of thought throughout the paper. Here are some examples of question prompts to guide your writing:

1. What happened?
2. How was I affected?
3. What lessons did I learn?
4. What other course of action could I have taken?

Use the standard essay outline

Essay outlines are always essential because they help you arrange your points properly.

• The introduction paragraph should provide an overview of the experiences in your life and the possible impacts
• The body section should focus on properly exploring every incident in detail, from the cause to the eventual consequences
• The conclusion summarizes the essay in a concise manner.

To sum up, a reflective essay should provide an analytical description of your experiences. Don’t forget to highlight how ordeals changed your approach to life.