How Do You Write A Personal Reflective Essay: Key Aspects

It may often appear that there is a special kind of essay for any occasion. The intent behind writing a paper is to help you better express yourself and also give your analytical skills some practice. A personal reflective essay challenges you to write about something which happened in your life, and what was it about the experience that influenced your development. It demonstrates the impact an event has had upon you. There are several parts of such a composition which will require your attention.

• The Introduction. Here is where a thesis statement that previews the content which will be developed. You are giving the reader a glimpse regarding what you will be writing.


• The Experience Itself. The reflection is going to start coming out in this area. You develop the incident, what happened, and what it was about this that created a change within you. You can be detailed in your description, and include some special loads about its impact.


• Pondering the Changes. What happened as a result of the episode? Was there anything that was reinforced or did you decide that you need to work on parts of your character? You are analyzing what changes are the direct result of the experience. This is the depth of the reflection and you can look at both the positive and the negative, assuming that you use the negative as justification for additional improvement.


• A Conclusion. Here you summarize what you derived from all that happened. You will give a very clear picture of the effect. The actions had on you, and what wisdom was gained.

This is an intensely personal exercise. It is not something that you can rush right through because there is so much emotion and personal growth included. Take your time in developing the reflections and the results. The conclusion will probably be the most important part of the essay. You will be explaining what benefit was derived from all that happened. The work involved in a personal reflective essay centers on the self-examination. It can be a very highly emotional composition, perhaps bringing to the surface old sentiments which surrounded the event itself. However, this can be extremely healthy for you. Bring back to the surface old sentiments can be a way of developing closure over something that was very traumatic. The lessons you learned can be inspiring and strengthen you. This is perhaps one of the hardest essays you will ever have to write. It may also be the best thing you have ever done.