How to Write a Reflection Paper

When you study at a college or university, you are often asked to complete various kinds of academic papers. Sometimes, your teachers or professors might assign you to something unusual and unique. For instance, you have had a class reading or watched a particular film or you have taken part in some trainings recently. Your professor or teacher wants to know how you move from point A to point B after this event, so he might ask you to write a reflection paper. You like writing, but this task seems rather complicated because you don’t have enough experience in completing such kind of papers and simply don’t know how to write a reflection paper.

If you don’t know how to create an excellent self reflection paper, read our tips and clues how to do well on this task.

Reflection Paper Example

Writing a good story doesn’t mean a simple telling about the events that have happened in your life. Yes, you should tell your readers about the things you have done or seen, but it will be nice if you add your own judgments about certain life issues in the personal reflection paper. For instance, you may tell them about a certain situation and then write, whether you or another person have acted right or wrong in it. Maybe, such life situation has become a nice lesson for you.

Sometimes, it happens that students don’t want to write a reflective paper, because they have to tell about negative emotions or bad life experience. If you don’t like the film you have watched or the trainings you have taken part in, don’t write about this in your academic paper. You may just narrate about the issue itself and then add your personal, professional concern about certain facts that you don’t like in it.

Male students don’t enjoy writing a reflection paper because this kind of assignment requires telling about their personal emotions and feelings. However, if you aren’t willing to write much about yourself, you may always compare your life experience with a larger social problem or issue and add some ideas how to make our life better or just use a reflection paper example, but don’t expect to gain a good mark for your work using this way.

What Is a Reflection Paper

Before starting doing anything, make sure that you have understood correctly what kind of academic paper you need to write. If you don’t know how to start a reflection paper or what facts to write about in it, you may always try to surf the internet and find available ready-made samples of this academic task. For instance, you may find a rich collection of sample reflection paper at Paperstime.com. Also, you can contact our customer support team via chat and we will explain what is a reflection paper and how you can get one for a very affordable price.

Our writing experts do know how to write reflection paper. They will willingly help you because they have a great expertise in completing 100 % and mistake free reflection paper examples for our customers.

A reflection paper is a common type of college and high school written assignment. To put it simply, writing a reflection paper or essay is putting your thoughts in writing. The topics for a reflection paper can range from books, movies, or even past experiences from your own life.

Reflection Paper Format

Even though the format of a reflection paper is not as strict as some of the other written assignments you’ve already encountered, there are still some major points you need to cover and fragments you need to include into your work. Here is what your reflection paper should consist of:

NAME:

SUBJECT:

PROFESSOR:

DATE:

TITLE:

Summary. This part should take between 2 and 3 paragraphs. In the summary you are expected to summarize the material you’re reflecting on, but without doing a simple retelling of the text. It’s allowed to use quotes in this segment, but the quotes should be properly formatted and referenced.

Critique. Dedicate this part of your reflection paper to presenting a short critical analysis of the work you’re basing your work on. Doing a critical analysis doesn’t just mean listing all the negative things you have to say about the piece. Instead, you should determine whether the author was successful in making their point seen and whether anything can be changed for the better in the work.

Meaning. The central part of this section of your reflection paper is the theme of the work. Choose a fragment of the piece or the whole work and analyze the theme that can be seen throughout the narrative, using examples to further prove your point.

Reaction. This may be the most personal part of the reflection paper, as here you are expected to offer your own thoughts on the work. Did you enjoy reading it? How did you feel about the different aspects of the world? Are you overall happy that you’ve read it or do you wish to have worked with another piece? Provide detailed explanations for each of your points.

Application. Another highly personal part of the paper is the application, where you need to address the ways the work you’re reflecting on can relate to your personal experience.

The two most common formatting styles used for reflection papers are MLA and APA, and here are the guidelines for each format.

MLA

• 12pt Times New Roman font;
• Double-spaced;
• 1-inch margins;
• Last name + title in the top right corner of every page;
• Centered titles;
• The header should include your name, professor’s name, course title, and date in the dd/mm/yy format;
• Last page is the Works Cited section.

APA

• 12pt Times New Roman font;
• Double-spaced;
• 1-inch margins;
• Page header with a page number in the top right corner of every page;
• The essay should have four parts: Title, Abstract, Main Page, and References.

You can also add an outline to make your paper look more refined.

Reflection Paper Sample?

If you’ve never dealt with a reflection paper before, you could really use some reflection paper samples you can find on our website. Our reflection essay examples offer you a chance to master the art of writing a reflection paper with zero hassle.

Each reflection paper sample you will find in our collection will teach you how to correctly format and write your paper. In every sample you will also find the required number of symbols and other aspects of a beautifully written reflection paper.

Topics & Ideas

Unless you are given the topic by your professor, finding the right topic to write about may not be easy. Here are some examples of reflection paper that will give you the inspiration to craft your own work:

• A life-changing discovery you once made.
• Have you ever felt lost? Why?
• Name and explain the difficult choice you had to make.
• Reflect on the most unforgettable experience of your life.
• How and when were your beliefs challenged?
• Is it always easy for you to make the right choice?