Writing a Reflective Essay

A reflective essay is a literary composition which is normally written by students in an English class. This is a comparatively simple form of essay writing, as a student does not have to do any research work to write a reflective essay. A reflective essay is an essay written on a particular incident or experience in the life of the writer. A student could be asked to write a reflective essay about his or her holidays or experience after completing a particular course or project. However, unlike an informative essay, a student does not have to write about facts. Instead he or she has to narrate an incident and reflect upon the feelings or thoughts undergone during that period.

While writing a reflective essay, a student has to reflect or contemplate on all the aspects of that particular experience. One should write about one's perspective and evaluate the whole episode based on how one feels, both positively as well as negatively. The traditional format of writing an essay will be followed, i.e. the essay will have an introduction, body and conclusion. The essay will begin with an introduction to the topic and the student's purpose of writing the essay. It should also contain a thesis statement, which is a sentence stating his or her perspective of the narrative.

The main body of the essay will be a narration of the whole episode as the student remembers it. For example, if the student is evaluating a school project, he should write about the whole incident from the start and also his reactions to it. For instance, one can talk about how the groups were formed, who were the members, how they chose the titles and what his feelings were while all this was happening. The main body should contain 3 - 4 paragraphs covering the whole incident. Even negative thoughts and feelings should be included in it. A student can also add descriptive details in his or her essay. If a person is writing about his vacation in some exotic location, he should not forget to describe the nature and surroundings and his feelings towards them. This will make the reader more interested and involved in the essay.

After the main body comes the last part of the essay, i.e. the conclusion. In this part of the essay, the student will reemphasize the points that were covered in the main body. The student's thoughts feelings, ideas and emotions should be summarized for the readers. He should write about how the whole affair had affected him or brought about a change in him. If a student is writing about his experience of a project, he should also mention certain changes that could have been incorporated to make the project more effective. The student could also write about things that he could have done to make the experience more beneficial or memorable.

A student writing a reflective essay should write in first person and attempt to create his or her own style of writing. A reflective essay is not only a good way for the teachers to evaluate the student's English writing competency, but it is also an opportunity for a student to explore his expressive or creative skills.