Sample Reflection Paper
Revising a sample reflection paper can help you draft an effective reflection essay. This is a paper that communicates to your tutor on how a lesson, experience and lecture enhanced your understanding of class related content. The paper is subjective and personal but maintains a highly academic tone. It should also be written in a cohesive and organized way.
Review sample reflection paper and write an effective paper
Going through a sample reflection paper helps you to draft an effective essay because
An effective reflection paper sums up your experiences, notes and contents of a class session. For this reason, it enables you to brainstorm and take note of main themes. As a result, you will be in a position to write a paper that is clear and descriptive.
How to brainstorm
Write down your notes and identify content that stands out. This can include specific quotes, quotations and passages summarized during a lecture.
Make a summary of your class experience or an event that took place during a session is also essential. In this case, focus on parts of your experiences that stand out. You can choose to focus on key experiences of your sensory portions, sounds and images of your work. A chart will help you to organize your ideas effectively for example
- Main experiences- include details of how a speaker or an author emphasized on including more specific details on why you consider such to be important. Each point should be clear and straight to the point.
- Personal reaction or response– chart your reaction or response in writing based on points that make up your experiences. Do not forget to include all subjective values, beliefs as well as experiences that influence your response or reaction.
- Clearly describe how much of your reaction makes part of your share in the reflection paper. You can chart this out clearly with a sample reflection paper especially if it focuses on personal experience. For a clear description, you can ask yourself whether the experience generates any questions or did the speaker address all important issues pertaining to a lecture or he failed to address others?
Sample reflection paper questions that guide your reaction
You can find it difficult to pinpoint personal reaction when writing a reflection paper. In this case, study sample reflection paper and ask yourself whether
The lecture, reading or experience in class challenges you culturally, socially, theologically and emotionally. Why does the experience bother you and how does it attract your attention?
Has the experience influenced your way of thinking, does it conflict with your beliefs, does it prove any evidence to change your thoughts based on the topic?
Does the experience, lecture or reading generate other questions even after a session?
Did the speaker cover all important details or there are ideas and facts that have changed dramatically influenced the conclusion of an experience, lecture or a reading?
Determine whether the ideas or issues discussed in the lecture, reading or based on experiences in any way mesh with past lectures, experience or reading. In this case, you can review a sample reflection paper to see how ideas or issues are brought up by an author. A sample reflection paper will help you determine whether the ideas support or contradict each other.
Organizing a reflection paper
- A typical sample reflection paper is short and sweet. For this reason, write a reflection paper that is between 300 to 700 words long. However, your tutor can recommend the word count of the paper and it is always to meet his or her recommendations.
- State your expectations clearly by introducing the paper. Identify possible expectations, experiences, readings and lessons.
- State your expectations based on the title of your introduction, abstract and title in case of a lecture or a reading.
- State your expectations based on past knowledge provided by information from others or similar experience in case of an experience
- Work on a thesis statement at the end of your introduction. This should be in a single sentence clearly explaining the change from your expectations to the conclusion. For this reason, offer a brief explanation on whether your expectations were realized or not. Most importantly, keep in mind that a thesis statement offers a clear focus and cohesion for the paper hence, the need to structure it based on lines such as,
‘From this reading, lecture or experience, I learned that…………….’’.
- Work on body paragraphs explaining your understanding or conclusion. This should be based on your understanding at the end of a lesson, experience or a reading. Therefore, offer clear details on how you reached a conclusion using concrete and logical details.
- Keep in mind that the focus of a reflection paper is to draw specific details from an experience and it is not a summary. Therefore, it should provide the context of your conclusion. You can write down your ideas or each conclusion on a separate paragraph based on how each was developed. However, each paragraph should have a topic sentence that clearly outlines your main theme or points, understandings and conclusions.
Conclude the paper with a summary describing overall lessons, understandings and feelings succinctly. Remember, the conclusions in body paragraphs should support the final conclusion in your summary. You may find that one or two can conflict in sample reflection paper but in many cases, it should always support the final conclusion.
Writing a reflection paper with a clear sample reflection paper outline
Writing a reflection paper with a clear outline makes the process simple. Being a personal paper that is subjective on opinions and feelings, the rule of thumb is to reveal information wisely and avoid issues that make you uncomfortable. However, if there is anything that cannot be avoided and it makes you uncomfortable, consider writing it in more general terms.
Use a professional tone to write your paper. Organize your thoughts and ideas in a sensible and organized manner. Describe actions and not individuals to avoid dragging down other people. Frame their actions based on how they impacted your conclusion. Use first person pronoun ‘‘I’’ and avoid slang. Once you are through with the writing, double check the paper for any spelling, typo and grammar errors.
Why study sample reflection paper
Studying a sample reflection paper before writing your essay is important. It helps you to organize your ideas well and to write a quality paper. Therefore, once you conclude your essay, review a sample sentence by sentence and master how to
Keep all sentences focused in your reflection essay
Organize your ideas in different sentences
Use subject and a verb in each sentence to avoid fragments
Use simple and complex sentences. Clauses in a reflection paper also make it natural, conversational and professional.
Learn how to include transitional phrases such as for instance, as a result, from a different perspective, an opposite view and for example in the paper.
Finally, a sample reflection paper will help you relate classroom content to a reading or experience by incorporating what you learnt with issues addressed in a lecture, by a reading or experience. For example, you will be able to state how your ideas and beliefs relate to what your tutor taught in classroom. You will also learn how to relate an experience to specific ideas or social patterns if you are focusing on social experiences.
Examples of reflection papers
Sample reflection paper 1 on online learning
How Online Learning Has Changed My Life
This course has made me confident and overcome my fears of technology. I was not sure that I would in the first place but I became used to technology with a lot of ease. I quickly learnt how to use chat rooms, email and bulletin boards.
I have learned how to carry out research online despite the fact that I had no idea on how do so in the past. I often went to the library in search of research content in card files. The search engines online are faster and reliable compared to doing things manually. They also help me to access content and articles with keywords that are related to my research subject……
I have enjoyed this class because it introduced me to a new world and opened my eyes. I am looking forward to the rest of my college life and working across the globe online.… See more here.
Sample reflection paper 2
For the past 5 semesters, I have been a student at California State University Channel Islands. Over the course of my stay, I have grown and learned more than I could possibly think. I came to the institution from Moorpark Community College knowing what I wanted, to be an English teacher. I had taken many English courses and understood clearly what I was going for. Even so, the course has taught me many things and I have learned how to express myself clearly in writing. ……I hope to learn more on how tutors share their knowledge with students as it plays a crucial part of my final project, the Capstone project…. See more here.
Example 3
Sample reflection essay on high school experience-matchmaker quiz reflections
Throughout my high school experience, I have had many opportunities to explore a wide range of career options. Looking for the most ideal career using the Career Matchmaker has been great and an eye-opening experience for me. The questions therein has guided me in narrowing down my options for my future career… see more here.
Do the above reflection papers meet your expectations? If not we want you to know you can get one that is customized for you. To do so get in touch with us here or visit our homepage to see more about our services. You can also read many more academic papers in this section or just go through our blog for writing guidelines and sample papers.
Sources
http://reflection-essay.org/reflection-paper-format/
http://www.slideshare.net/b.nicolls/how-to-write-a-reflection-essay
https://www.uvm.edu/wid/writingcenter/tutortips/natreadreflect.html