Reflective
Essay
Sharing your experience . . .
From Reading to Writing Frank McCourt
was sick in a hospital bed when his father
kissed him for the first time. In Angela’s Ashes,
Frank says this gesture from his father made
him so happy he felt like “floating out of his
bed.”
Reflective
Essay
Sharing your experience . . .
Writing about a strong memory can help you
better understand it. A reflective essay
narrates a personal experience and reveals its
significance. Autobiographies, letters, and
memoirs often use reflective writing to share
important experiences from a writer’s life.
Basics in a Box
Reflective Essay at a Glance
RUBRIC Standards for Writing
A successful reflective essay
should
• be written in the first person
• describe an important experience in
your life or in the life of someone you
admire
• use figurative language, dialogue,
sensory details, or other techniques
to recreate the experience for the
reader
• explain the significance of the event
• make an observation about life based
on the experience
• encourage readers to think about the
significance of your experience in
light of their own lives
Writing Your Reflective Essay
1 Prewriting
I write to find out what I’m thinking
about.
Edward Albee, dramatist
Begin by identifying an experience that you
want to write about. Try recalling past events
by looking through a photo album, or listing
frightening or funny memories.
Planning Your Reflective Essay
1. Replay the experience in your mind. What
happened to you? In what order did the
events occur? What will other people find
interesting about it?
2. Picture the specific details. Where did the
experience take place? What did people say?
What were they feeling? What did things look,
smell, and sound like? What details stand out
in your memory?
Planning Your Reflective Essay
3. Reflect on what the experience means to
you. Why did things develop as they did?
What is the most obvious meaning you took
away from this experience?
4. Decide what you want others to think
about. Which of your reflections do you feel
are most important to share with readers?
How will you help readers understand the
significance of these reflections?
Writing Your Reflective Essay
2 Drafting
A reflective essay may combine both
“telling” and “showing” to recreate the
experience and make clear its deeper
meanings for the reader. You may begin
writing your essay by describing the events
in chronological order, starting with the
first moment you recall from your
experience.
Writing Your Reflective Essay
2 Drafting
Or, begin the essay with an intriguing
moment that occurred during the middle or
end of the experience. Make sure,
however, that you fill in the missing pieces
and that the order of events is clear.
Writing Your Reflective Essay
2 Drafting
As you draft, act as an eyewitness,
writing down everything you remember.
Include sensory details, such as sights
and sounds, and any conversations you
recall.
Writing Your Reflective Essay
2 Drafting
While you’re writing, additional levels of
significance may become clear to you.
Continue to reflect on your experience
after you draft, as well. Later, you may
revise your draft to emphasize the most
important meanings of your experience.
Writing Your Reflective Essay
3 Revising
Target Skill
ADDING DETAILS
Remember that concrete details help
readers picture your experience. When
adding details, use strong, sensory words
that show people and events, rather than
just telling about them.
Writing Your Reflective Essay
4 Editing and Proofreading
Target Skill
STRONG VERBS, VERB TENSES
Carefully select your action words, or
verbs, to make your writing stronger and
more lively. Also note the sequence of verb
tenses. Jumping from past to future to
present tense can confuse readers.