Sharing your experience . . .From Reading to Writing In their essays, Emerson and Thoreau reflect upon some basic truths about life that they derived from personal experience. Emerson’s words, “Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist,” still prod us to examine our lives today.

Reflective Essay

Sharing your experience . . .Like Emerson and Thoreau, you, too, have experiences from which you learn important lessons. A reflective essay describes a personal experience and explores its significance. Autobiographies, letters, and memoirs often include reflective writing that gives insight into the writer’s action.

Reflective Essay

B a s i c s i n a B o x

Reflective Essay at a Glance

RUBRIC Standards for WritingA 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 re-create 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 the experience in light of their own lives

Writing Your Reflective Essay

Try listing some memorable experiences. You might look through family photograph albums to help jog your memory.

Make a list of people who inspire you. What have these people done to earn your admiration? Jot down some notes about an incident from each person’s life that shows his or her special qualities.

1 PrewritingTo find ideas for your essay

Planning Your Reflective Essay

1.Think about your experience. Why do you remember this experience more clearly than others? What different emotions did you go through during the experience? Did your emotions change?

2.Explore the significance. What is the significance of your experience? What is the most obvious meaning to you? What else did your experience teach you? Keep exploring to uncover as many levels of meaning as you can.

Planning Your Reflective Essay

3.Decide on the scope of your essay. Will you dwell on one example in-depth or relate several events to create the impression you want?

4.Decide on the message you want to convey. How can you encourage your readers to apply the meaning of the experience to their own lives?

Writing Your Reflective Essay2 Drafting

A writer’s material is what he cares about.

John Gardner

Writing Your Reflective Essay2 Drafting

Begin Writing You might write about your experience

as though you were writing a journal entry. Or, you may want to begin your draft by trying out a variety of ideas. Let your ideas flow even though you sense problems you’ll need to address later.

Writing Your Reflective Essay2 Drafting

Organize Your Essay Start your paper with an account of your

experience and then explain its significance. From that point, go on to discuss the larger lesson about life that the experience has taught you. Or, begin with the larger lesson you want to share with your readers and then describe the experience that helped you learn this lesson.

Writing Your Reflective Essay2 Drafting

Elaborate on Ideas Precise, vivid language will help you

convey the lesson about life you want to explain.

After you write a rough draft of your whole essay, set it aside for a while before you go back to revise it. Taking a fresh look will help you see problems that you may have overlooked.

Writing Your Reflective Essay3 Revising

Target Skill AVOIDING CLICHÉSMake sure that none of your images are clichés, expressions that were once fresh and powerful but have since been overused.

Writing Your Reflective Essay4 Editing and Proofreading

Target Skill POSSESSIVES AND PLURALSAs you revise your reflective essay, be sure that you have formed plurals and possessives correctly.