Did your institute require you to write a reflective essay to showcase your personal growth? Or is it the guideline of a specific university to submit a reflective essay along with the admission application? Do you know how to write a reflective essay and how not to mix things up of academic and reflective writings? The most common mistake students make is that they follow the approach of academic writing in a reflective essay, leading to failure.
There is a fundamental difference between an academic essay and reflective writing that shows your personal or professional development. According to the University of Southern California, reflective writing or essays explain the first-person narrative, allowing the student to write about their feelings and educational journey. However, you need to set certain limitations when reflecting on yourself in writing.
In this article, we will present you with some valuable tips you can capitalise on to secure admission to a university or enhance your academic performance. Stay connected till the last paragraph, and clear your concepts about reflective essays.
5 Tips for Writing a Reflective Essay That Shows Personal Growth
Usually, institutes and supervisors ask their students to write academic essays, following strict guidelines, from citing sources to adding detailed bibliographies. However, they don’t need to follow such guidelines in reflective essays because this writing solely discusses their personalities. An institute or organisation may ask you to write a reflective essay, helping them learn about your educational journey.
Most students employ the same approach in reflective writing as they do when writing academic essays. Not distinguishing them can lead to rejection and poor grades. Therefore, you can get assistance from London-based essay writing services to reflect on your personality if you are curating this type of writing for the first time. To ensure success, professional help will allow you to add and exclude things in a reflective essay.
We are including some tips here to help you better understand the points to include in reflective writing. You can follow them to thank us later for complete guidance!
1. Focus on the Purpose First
In some countries, reflective essays are synonymous with cover letters. A company can ask you to write a reflective essay, whether you are applying for a management position or an executive role. The basic purpose of this activity is to learn about you in detail. For instance, they want to know how you tackle closed deadlines and your attitude toward your colleagues.
Similarly, some well-reputed universities require students to show their personality in writing. Sometimes, you need to move to the next semester after submitting an effective reflective essay. Whether you are writing a reflective piece for a university or a company, you will follow a slightly different approach.
For instance, when applying for a specific position, you will include your professional achievements in your reflective essay. You can comprehensively explain your weaknesses and strengths, from your dedication to sitting in the office after official hours. This will make the committee believe that you are not hiding things about yourself.
Wondering how to write a reflective essay for university? As you write a reflective essay for an educational institute, it’s best to focus only on your academic activities. You can mention the routine you usually follow during your leisure time. Additionally, adding the most relevant habits to the course or the university will bring extra fruit to the table.
So, focus on the purpose of the reflective essay before starting to write. It will reduce the risk of flaws in your essay, enabling you to exclude unnecessary details.
2. Don’t Be Emotionless
A good reflective essay must be full of emotions. According to the University of Salford, you can add your emotions or feelings about a particular event or incident. However, you need to be honest when mentioning such an incident, as you know that academic integrity and honesty are valued the most. You can also specify a paragraph or section in your essay to add emotions.
Please remember that you will add emotions in an indirect way because adding them to every sentence can annoy the reader. Putting your feelings indirectly will make your essay an interesting story, increasing your chances of success. Additionally, focus on your wording when explaining your personal traits in emotional language.
These are expert tips that you can follow when adding emotions to your essay:
- Don’t be negative about others. Let’s say someone deceived you in your professional or personal life. Instead of criticising them or passing on hateful comments, you can simply write that “this incident was a major mishap for me, but I managed to get over it”. It will enhance your image in the reader’s eyes.
- Add the most relevant incidents. For instance, when you are going to write self-reflection for a university, focus on adding incidents that specifically took place in the educational institute. It will make your essay more effective and engaging.
- Don’t let emotions decrease the quality of your essay. Undoubtedly, emotions are a must for essays; however, they don’t have to affect the structure or story of your writing.
3. Pay Attention to the Hook
Did you ever leave an article, book, or research paper just after reading the first sentence? Just be honest; we all do that. It shows the significance of the first sentence (aka hook). Usually, the hook is the first sentence of the first paragraph of any piece of writing. Sometimes, the length of a hook may extend to a whole paragraph, depending on the context or nature of the writing.
According to an article from East Stroudsburg University, there can be multiple forms of hooks for a reflective essay. You can start with a question, like we did in this article. Question-based hooks are the most common in essays, articles, and blogs. These hooks quickly capture the reader’s attention, increasing the chances that they will go through your essay.
The second type of hook is quotes. You start your opening paragraph with a quote from a famous person. Try to add a quote from an individual who is known to your reader. It will make your writing more interesting. The reader may feel attached to the personality and give you higher marks.
The third type of opening sentence is a stat hook. In the very beginning, you add a stat to amaze your readers. Just look at this example and decide on its efficacy yourself. “Only 1% of people are able to get nutritious food every day”. This can be a perfect hook when you write a reflection in nursing.
4. Be What You Are
This is the most common mistake most students and professionals make when writing an essay: They try to hide their identity and personal traits, believing that it will gain them higher marks. However, this is not the case when you curate a reflective essay. Usually, you comprehensively explain your positive and negative aspects in essays.
We know everyone makes mistakes. When you only mention your strengths, it conveys the message that you are hiding something about your personality. Don’t think that adding weaknesses will destroy your reputation. It will build the perception that you are honest about yourself, maintaining integrity and adding details that may have been kept hidden.
You also don’t need to exaggerate about yourself. Please note that people who will read your essay are above your level, whether they are your instructors or the senior management in an organisation. Everyone values originality, and you can ensure it in your reflective essay.
When writing this section of the essay, you can follow these tips:
- Add strengths and weaknesses that are relevant to the purpose of your essay. If you are writing for a university, you don’t need to mention your dislike for food as a weakness. It will be irrelevant.
- You can ask your family members or friends to learn about your personal traits, adding the most interesting and relevant ones.
- Don’t try to impress your reader. Instead, focus on conveying your message in an emotional way.
5. Choose Your Tone
The tone selection in a reflective essay matters the most. Nevertheless, this is a repetitive mistake students make: They keep the tone professional and academic, destroying the purpose of reflective writing. In this essay, a reader - your supervisor or the admission committee - wants to learn about your personality. Writing such an essay in a professional or academic tone will not serve the purpose.
Instead, you can write the essay in the first person “I” and “Me”. As a student, you will avoid using “We”, “Us”, or “Our”. This approach will make the reader believe that you are talking to them personally. However, you need to maintain a balance between formal and informal tone.
Don’t make it like you are talking to a friend. Also, your reader will not get the idea from your reflective essay that it is academic writing. Focus on following it, and your essay will be a success.
What Is a Reflective Essay?
A reflective essay is a piece of writing where a student explains a particular event or incident and shares his thoughts and feelings. According to the University of Melbourne, reflective writing allows you to think deeply about a particular phenomenon. The purpose of such writing is to learn about your personality, preferences, past achievements, and future goals.
How to Write a Good Reflective Essay?
A good reflective essay will always be subjective, varying according to the purpose. For instance, a student will follow a different approach when writing a reflective essay for a university compared to an individual who is writing for a company. A good reflective essay will have an effective balance between formal and informal tone and an emotional touch.
How to Write a Critical Reflection?
A critical reflection is solely based on your inner feelings and thoughts. You will narrate an incident freely and express your opinions without hesitation. Write what you want to write instead of writing what your audience wants to read. Analyse the situation critically and consider every aspect before writing down a critical reflection. It will help write a perfect critical reflective essay.
What Are the 5 R's of Reflective Writing?
The 5 R’s are the five pillars of reflective writing, making it interesting, engaging, and original. If you follow them, your writing will be a joy to read. These five R’s are:
- Reporting: A student or professional describes a past event in detail and covers all the essential elements.
- Responding: An individual will respond to the particular event emotionally or logically.
- Relating: A researcher will connect the experience or event with the available knowledge or expertise.
- Reasoning: You can explore the connection between theoretical work and the relevant experience using the present tense.
- Reconstructing: A student will draw conclusions and plan future actions using simple wording.
What Idea Would Most Likely Make the Best Reflective Essay?
If your essay explains your journey without missing professional or educational details, it will improve your writing. You can write an outline containing all the important points you want to discuss.
Additionally, focus on adding an interesting and effective hook that grabs the attention initially. You can seek guidance from your supervisor or instructor to avoid mistakes in your reflective essay or writing.
Last Thoughts
We know you have been writing academic assignments and essays for years; it may have become a fingertip task for you. Writing an essay following specific guidelines is usually easy because you have clear instructions, and it is a repetitive task. Contrarily, reflective essays require a lot of minor details to consider in order to make them engaging and interesting.
You may not know how to write a reflective essay if you are working on it for the first time. In that case, consult top-rated essay writing companies in the UK to secure admission to a university or to show your expertise and success to a company. So, don't risk leaving mistakes in your essay and make it the door to future opportunities!
Author Bio
Mike Taylor has been an essay writer for over seven years, specialising in writing academic and reflective essays for students. With a strong passion for writing, Mike focuses on reading articles and books in his leisure time to adopt the latest approach for writing unique essays.