{"id":88,"date":"2020-05-06T14:25:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T14:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentio.co.uk\/?p=88"},"modified":"2020-10-28T13:31:10","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T13:31:10","slug":"complete-guide-to-writing-a-reflective-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentio.co.uk\/2020\/05\/06\/complete-guide-to-writing-a-reflective-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"Complete Guide to Writing a Reflective Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article, written by the nursing professionals at NursingAnswers.net<\/a> will show you how to write a reflective essay, and will guide you through the process of writing this specific type of paper. If you have been given a reflective essay assignment for the first time, you might have a lot of questions, such as: \u2018What is the point of this assignment?\u2019, \u2018How do I write a reflective essay?\u2019, <\/em>or \u2018What am I supposed to learn from this?\u2019 <\/em>The good news is that these are all valid questions, and you should be asking them. In fact, it is exactly these kinds of questions that provide the very foundation of reflective thinking\u2014so if you\u2019re already asking yourself such questions, then congratulations, you are well on your way to becoming a skilled reflective thinker. We will therefore address each of these questions in turn, and more, as we discuss the ins and outs of writing a reflective essay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflective Essay Comparison Table<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What to Do When Writing a<\/strong> Reflective Essay<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>What Not<\/u> to Do When Writing a Reflective Essay<\/strong><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Write in the first-person<\/td>Write in the third-person<\/td><\/tr>
Include a description of the experience or event from your own unique point of view<\/td>Gather data from various participants, and create an objective account of the event from various subjective perspectives<\/td><\/tr>
Include some considerable analysis and reflections of the experience or the event<\/td>Only include an extensive description of the experience or the event<\/td><\/tr>
Have a clear structure in place, with: an Introduction<\/em>, Main Body<\/em>, and Conclusion, <\/em>or a variation of this<\/td>Write it like a diary entry, containing thoughts and emotions, but without any real structure to it<\/td><\/tr>
Use a formal tone throughout the piece<\/td>Use an informal, conversational tone<\/td><\/tr>
Draw from established reflective cycle frameworks, such as Kolb (1984) or Gibb (1988)<\/td>Do not consider any reflective cycle frameworks<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is the Point of a \u2018Reflective Essay\u2019?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To begin with then, your first question might be that of deriving the point of a reflective essay. The first thing you should know then, is that very essence of a reflective essay, at its most fundamental level, is that it should reflect<\/em> on an experience that you have had\u2014hence the name. This reflection will obviously vary depending upon your field of study, but the principle is the same: you will have had a particular experience in the field, or in life in general, and you will then write about it, and reflect upon it will various analyses. More specifically, you will do this by first briefly describing what happened, from your own unique point of view, before reflecting upon this, and trying to learn something from the experience by putting this in the context of any perspectives or theories that you have studied, or simply by analysing the experience after the event in a little more depth, and trying to understand what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you know in advance that you are going to write a reflective essay about a particular experience, then it can be useful to keep a journal as you go along, so that you\u2019re not relying exclusively on your memories (as memories can be malleable, and are not as accurate as most people believe), and this journal might also include some reflections as you go along too, so that you have an immediate record of how you felt or viewed the events at the moment they unfolded. Indeed, on this subject, there can be said to be two main types of reflection, in: (1) reflections made during an event, and (2) reflections made after an event. So, you may need to decide which type of reflections you are going to focus on\u2014but you will only be able to choose if you first know that you will be writing a reflective essay, before an event occurs. The bottom line is though, that the underlying point of writing a reflective essay is so that you can learn something about yourself, and about your field of study, by drawing on a practical experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nurse conducting a patient interview<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How Do I Write a Reflective Essay?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thinking About Tenses<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of talking about your personal experience, unlike traditional essays, which almost always use the third-person, a reflective essay will typically use the first-person style of writing (which means using the pronoun \u2018I\u2019 a lot, and talking from your own individual point of view). To clarify then, if you are not completely familiar with the third and first-person viewpoints, an example of a third-person and first-person account, is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THIRD PERSON:<\/strong> \u201cObservations were made of the research participants, and notes were kept via a secure, password-protected, laptop computer\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIRST PERSON:<\/strong> \u201cI made observations of the research participants, and I kept notes via a secure, password-protected, laptop computer\u201d.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This change in tense then, is the first clear distinction to be made between a traditional academic essay, and a reflective essay\u2014so in order to write a reflective essay, you need to become adept at this first-person style of writing. Fortunately, though, most people find this first-person approach to writing much easier and more natural than the third-person viewpoint, so this should not be a major problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you need help with your reflective writing then take a look at the reflective essay writing service<\/a> at NursingAnswers.net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking About the Structure of Your Paper<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Next, you need to think about the structure of your paper. A good reflective essay should describe an event or an experience, while it should also analyse what the experience means, and what you have learned from it. Simply by discussing and then analysing a past event, this in itself makes the piece reflective, by definition. However, there are various ways that you might go about this, from a structural point of view. For example, you might have a section that first briefly describes the experience or event, from your own point of view, before going on to an analysis section; or, you might decide to insert reflections and analyses as you go along, so that the reflective element is also contained within the description part\u2014it\u2019s up to you. In the end, there is no right or wrong answer, but the important thing is that you do include some significant reflective elements, and some analyses of the experience; otherwise, it is simply a descriptive piece, and not a reflective one. Therefore, the basic format of a reflective essay will be a standard: Introduction<\/em>, Main Body<\/em>, and Conclusion<\/em>. However, as noted, you might split the main body into a distinct descriptive section and an analysis section, or you could merge the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n