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Reflective Essay Examples

50 best reflective essay examples (+topic samples).

If you have ever read reflective essay examples, you would know that these types of written works examine the writer’s life experiences . When you write a reflective paper example, you write about your own experiences and explore how you’ve changed, grown or developed because of those experiences. There’s no standard format for this essay as it may vary depending on the target audience.

Table of Contents

• 1 Reflective Essay Examples
• 2 What is a reflective essay?
• 3 Reflective Paper Examples
• 4 Format of reflective essay
• 5 Creating the outline of reflective essay examples
• 6 Reflective Paper Samples
• 7 Tips for writing reflective essay
• 8 Reflective Essay Samples

What is a reflective essay?

A reflective essay is a type of written work which reflects your own self. Since it’s about yourself, you already have a topic to write about. For reflective essay examples, readers expect you to evaluate a specific part of your life. To do this, you may reflect on emotions, memories, and feelings you’ve experienced at that time.

Since you’re writing reflection essay samples about yourself, make sure that they’re interesting and exciting. This is very important so that your readers don’t get bored with what you’ve written. Reflective essays are very personal thus, they’re a special type of essay. As you write one, you need to reflect, think, and explain.

In the essay, you should demonstrate and describe different feelings or emotions which you’ve felt in the past. These statements breathe life into your essay as your readers start picturing what you’ve written in their minds. Reflective essays are very honest, personal, and emotional, especially those which describe painful experiences.

Reflective Paper Examples

Format of reflective essay

As aforementioned, reflective essay examples don’t have a standard format. They seem easy enough to write but once you’ve sat down to start writing, you may suddenly find the task very challenging! Besides the format, you must think about the life experience you want to write about and remember everything about it.

A reflective paper example is a lot like a personal journal or diary. Of course, the difference is that other people will read your essay. Therefore, you must write it with good structure and coherence. In this regard, reflective essays are a lot like the other types of essays too.

When writing a reflective essay, you will have to examine your own life experiences. The purpose of writing such an essay is to provide yourself with a platform to share your most meaningful life experiences with other people. You can also use it as a way to explore how your experiences have changed you as a person.

You can present reflective writing in different formats. Most of the time though, people use a learning log or a diary entry format. You can use these formats and others. Just make sure that your essay has a good flow and that it’s easy for other readers to understand.

The format to use for your reflection essay samples would depend on your target audience. You can make an academic reflective essay or you can make it as a general and informal piece of writing. If you need to write the essay for a class assignment, follow the format given to you by your teacher.

No matter what format you choose, you may write an essay which:

• Focuses on your personal growth Such an essay helps you learn how to evaluate and analyze the experiences you have had in your personal life. This helps promote emotional development and growth. It also helps you understand yourself and your behaviors better.
• Focuses on literature For this type of essay, you may have to include references to literature and apply these to your own life experiences. Such essays are commonly given as assignments to students in school.

Creating the outline of reflective essay examples

Before you write your reflective essay examples, you must create an outline for them. Although you’d write about your own life, creating an outline gives structure to your essay to serve as a guide for what you want to write about.

Whether you need to write an essay for school, for a magazine or for any other reason, creating an outline is the very first step. With a good outline, you have a better idea of how your essay will flow from one paragraph to the next all the way to the conclusion.

When creating the outline of your reflective paper example, keep it organized. Develop the outline gradually and put a lot of thought into it. In doing this, you make the writing process much easier. Here is a rundown of the steps involved in the essay-writing process:

• Choose a topic (a significant life experience you want to write about)
• Gather information
• Create an outline
• Write a draft
• Finalize your essay

Reflective Paper Samples

Tips for writing reflective essay

As you think about the content of your reflection essay samples, remember that the important thing is that such an essay must be highly personal but also engaging to readers. There’s so much more to reflective essays than just writing your story. You must also reflect on your experiences to engage your audiences.

For your starting point, think about the most significant experiences you had in your life. Those which had either a negative or a positive impact on you as a person. If the reflective essay is a school assignment, your professor would probably specify what you must write about. Here are some tips for you for writing your reflective paper example:

• Reflection The most important part of writing your reflective essay is the reflective process. Think about the personal experience you want to write about. Focus on what happened, how this experience made you feel, and how it affected your life. Explore your memories and emotions for this part of the process. As you’re recalling and reflecting on your life experience, take a lot of notes . Write down all the details you remember and try to be as clear and as detailed as you possibly can. Take as much time as you need for reflection. You can even close your eyes as you try to remember those experiences vividly. When you’re confident that you have recalled all of the details of your life experience, it’s time to write your essay. To make it more meaningful, try to answer some important questions about your life experience including: Did you learn anything new about yourself because of this experience? Have you grown or developed because of this experience? If so, in what way? Did this experience impact your life positively or negatively? If you had the chance to experience this all over again, would you do anything differently? Why did you behave in such a way at the time of this experience? Did you make the right choices? What are your general thoughts and feelings about this experience? Can you say that you learned from this experience? Did you gain any new perspectives or skills because of this experience? These are “signpost questions” which can help you write a more meaningful essay. These are just some examples, you can also think of your own questions to ask yourself. The point of these questions is to make sure that you think critically and deeply about the experience you’re writing about.
• Planning After you’ve reflected on your life experience, it’s time to start planning your essay. When it’s time to start, you might feel as if you’re not adequately prepared even though you’ve done a lot of reflection. This is a normal feeling, especially if you want to create a written piece which people will love reading. To ease your anxiety and doubt, come up with a well-rounded and comprehensive plan. The best way to do this is through an outline. With an outline to guide your writing process, you can come up with an essay that’s more coherent and which has a clear structure. An outline or plan is important for reflective essays. Since you’re writing about an emotionally-charged topic, you might find yourself getting “lost” along the way. This is especially true if you’re writing about a painful experience which still affects you until now. The outline serves as a map for you to keep your thoughts organized. In your outline, make sure to establish all of the fundamental details you wish to include in your essay. This helps you pick out and remove any superfluous information to make it easier to read and understand. Planning the points you want to write about makes it easier for you to stay on point. As such, your writing becomes a lot clearer and your readers can follow your line of thought. An outline also prevents you from missing out any relevant information. It’s very difficult and frustrating to go back after you’ve written the whole essay just to fit in this information! Planning your essay also saves you a lot of time. Coming up with the structure makes you more familiar with your essay even before you start writing it. Thus, you can spend more time writing, revising, and proofreading your essay to make it the best version possible.

Reflective Essay Samples

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Reflective Writing examples

Evaluation of project.

In analysing my work, I feel that this project compelled me to find inspiration from so many various sources, subsequently building on my imaginative capacity as well as my practical knowledge. Therefore I feel I have gained and developed many skills in terms of my own personal creativity and development.

Through creating my styling concepts, I not only became inspired by other practitioners, but felt I gradually began to find my own style in terms of composition and construction of narrative. I thoroughly enjoyed constructing the set for my photo shoot and sourcing possible locations as well as sourcing ideas for stylings from markets and museums and just taking in everything around me. Photographically, I was forced to consider and understand technical concepts of shooting in different locations. Technically I did find some difficulties transferring the image from film negative to computer screen, where I went through processes of scanning negatives etc, so next time I would like to improve on this element.

On reflection I feel the photo shoot was successful, in terms of it being well planned and in terms of realisation of my concept. I found the storyboards to be of great assistance on the day of the shoot. Putting my work into context, I do feel it works well as a CD cover. This is mainly due to my constantly keeping in mind the frame of a CD cover when planning and shooting my compositions, in order to allow for cropping. I feel the images also successfully visually represent and evoke the feel and atmosphere of the artist, the zeitgeist and, most importantly, the track.

As a whole in terms of a finished product I feel I fully transferred my original visualisation into a finished image, and feel it reflects many of my research sources from surrealism to psychedelia. I was really pushed to think conceptually and found this project challenging, enjoyable and, most importantly, a significant step in furthering my creativity, and hope this is reflected visually through my journal.

Adapted from Hannah Robinson, FdA Fashion Styling and Photography (LCF)

In the music image project, my aim was to resolve the problems I had in my last project with my accessories. This time, I customised and modified the gas masks and belts and printed some logos on a flag. I also made a mask from a T-shirt and printed an image onto a jacket. This has all come out quite well, but after I had made them, I continued developing the ideas in my head, and realised I could have done some alternative modifications.

It took a long time to create the images for this project. This is because I was dealing with political and historical content. I thought I could create good ideas if I explored them enough, but it was too time consuming, and I became confused when coming up with my own ideas. It was, however, very stimulating and inspiring to do some research on western history and politics.

In the styling section, my ideas for customising and modifying were not perfect, but I was able to achieve a certain amount. I am pleased with the work, and feel encouraged to push myself in the next project. I liked my styling, but found it difficult to make four outfits, because I had to use each garment separately. What I could have done was have put all the garments in one or two outfits only instead of spreading them through all of them.

In relation to the photography, I feel I should have explored more photographers. This would have given me inspiration for the mood, composition, lighting and location. I need to do more research on a daily basis not only for projects but for my visual diaries as well. On the day of the photo shoot, one of the models didn't turn up, so I had to consider everything again on location. From this I learnt that I need to be more responsive and flexible as this is likely to happen again. Choosing which photographs to use was difficult as well, as I had to consider both composition and layout for the cover.

In terms of IT, I really improved. I started using Photoshop about a month ago, and I can now create a quality of work which I am confident about.

Overall, what I discovered from this project is the importance of a schedule. I have to set a proper timetable and follow it. I also need to fully consider things before I actually do them, as otherwise I get lost and lose inspiration. Finally, reflecting on the positive and negative aspects of my project will, I believe, really help me improve myself for the next one.

Adapted from Ryusuke Kase, FdA Fashion Styling and Photography (LCF)

Reflective statement for dissertation

The dissertation process has been an important journey for me in which I have developed my independent learning. It has, however, been challenging at times.

It has been a time consuming process needing much focus and commitment. At first, I thought everything would be straightforward and that I could manage my time, but it was hard to juggle between my part-time work and family commitments. In order to prioritise the dissertation, I took a short period of time out from work and held back from family events.

To keep myself on track I constructed action plans. At the beginning of each week I would make a daily plan of what I hoped to achieve and how I would do it. I then ticked off each task as achieved. This helped me achieve smaller goals within the research. So throughout this process I have learnt to be self-disciplined, organised and become better at time management. These are clearly needed for future employment.

The primary research part was difficult and at times very frustrating. It was hard to find staff in retail companies that were willing to take part, and I did not have enough information. Through a personal contact I was able to interview someone who gave me a much clearer insight into my field of study. I learnt that it is important to test out your questions before actually doing an interview. Next time I would approach key people earlier and also maybe try to vary the research method: a telephone interview may be more successful for very busy people.

I also had to research a variety of sources such as industry journals and key texts. This at first felt overwhelming. My tutor gave me some targeted references and I also asked the library staff for support in accessing the information I required. I learnt that asking for help can be a good thing.

The information itself needed to be interpreted which required critical and analytical skills. I kept having to return to my initial question to avoid missing the point. At times I felt that I was not getting anywhere. I now understand that this is all part of doing research and, over time, I discovered some interesting themes.

Writing up the dissertation was also a challenge. I had to disregard a lot of information that was not entirely relevant to my research question. Also at times the content was vague, and the ideas did not always follow logically. I used Study Support to develop my writing skills, but wished I had approached them for help at an earlier stage, as this would have saved me a considerable amount of stress.

To conclude, the dissertation assignment has improved my confidence in my ability, through producing a lengthy piece of work. I feel it has effectively concluded the academic phase, and I am excited and motivated by the prospect of getting a job in the fashion industry.

Extracts from BA (Hons) Fashion Management students' dissertations (LCF)

Reflective journal - work experience

In a small salon environment such as London Beauty, customer service and communication skills are really important as the clients tend to know the therapist very well and have a close trusting relationship with her. The manager Shelly knows all the clients and talks very easily to them. This is a skill that I find comes very naturally to me and I have a few clients for whom special communication skills were required. They were nervous about some of the treatments. I could reassure them and put them at their ease. For example, a man came into the salon for a facial. It was his first time and was very uncomfortable. I saw this as a challenge and engaged him in conversation as I would with any other client. By the end of the treatment he was very relaxed and planned to come back again soon! I felt proud I had been able to make him feel comfortable.

Something that did not come easily to me was promotion. It was my job to stand outside the spa giving leaflets to people who went past explaining the treatments that were on offer. This is an awkward task as people do not like to be approached by others to sell them things. I was worried I would not be successful. I threw myself into the task and gave out over 100 leaflets and secured 7 bookings! I learnt that sometimes you just have to be enthusiastic and think positively about trying to sell things.

I felt my personal appearance was good throughout my time in the salon. I wore a light amount of make up and had no jewellery on at all. It is important in maintaining a professional appearance as well as the health and safety implications about following the dress code.

My organisational skills have always been a weakness for me and I did not want this to affect my work in the salon. I made sure I was always punctual and any task was completed in the appropriate time.

Overall I think my communication skills and my ability to work on my own initiative are my biggest strengths. I have learnt how to sell the services and also become more organised with my time. One thing I need to do is spend more time thinking about the more complicated treatments. Making a note in my learning journal on a regular basis would have helped me reduce my stress levels, and reminded me of where I was likely to mix up the order of the routine.

Overall, I learnt a great deal on my placement and I am now more determined than ever to qualify as a Beauty Therapist and have my own salon.

Adapted from Geraldine Topping, FdSc Beauty Therapy and Health Studies student (LCF)

Evaluation of work experience

Over the course of the week I examined work as diverse as From the House of the Dead, Demented and Deformed , to the Cunning Little Vixen . I feel this emphasises the importance of drawing as a tool for any designer, and by honing this skill I will feel more confident in expressing my ideas. I am pleased that I chose the Figure in Context as an elective. I have improved my technique and developed more competence with various media, particularly paint, an expressive means of suggesting texture.

Stan Won't Dance has opened up a new area of costume for performance thus far in my experience. I particularly enjoyed the process of examining designs and breaking down the image into practical components that can be sourced and customised to create viable, wearable costumes that must withstand the demands of movement and dance. Working closely with the assistant supervisor has given me practical exposure to the role of costume supervisor in the creative process. It was also satisfying to share these experiences with a member of my class peer group. I have drawn the conclusion that it is a role I would be interested in pursuing during my professional future.

Regarding the overall visual style of the production, I am now aware that I find an alternative approach to costume more stimulating than the conventional approach. I feel that such projects encourage an assistant to use his or her own creativity to a considerable extent, notwithstanding the development of pre-ordained designs.

The daily work schedules were regular, thus I had more time to attend exhibitions, read and draw. These activities have been inspiring and fruitful, and have helped me achieve an enjoyable balance between work, studies and leisure time. In the past I have not taken enough time to reflect on work and its related experiences, so it is a personal progression for me to do so now.

Perhaps one negative aspect of this industry-linked project has been that I have not been intensely involved in any one project. Yet this only serves to confirm my belief that I must be thoroughly engaged by a project with sufficient responsibility in order to feel satisfied by the process. The fragmented nature of this term's projects was partially down to circumstance - the archive did not require an assistant or trainee for the duration. However, the situation has taught me to be more pro-active in the future.

In conclusion, I believe that as a result of this experience, I have gained new perspectives on the roles I would like to pursue, and also on how teams - designers, supervisors, makers - work together to realise a creative vision. I am also more aware of the areas that inspire me, for example, how movements in art history (often symptomatic of social flux) have provoked design, and how the abstract and esoteric can, paradoxically, become material, and make comment on the world in which we live by way of a performance narrative. This is demonstrated by both the work of artist Antony Gormley, and proposed by Off the Wall.

Finally, I feel that I now can apply my research, drawing and academic skills to produce work that will do justice to this new, lucid perspective.

Adapted from a final year, BA (Hons) Costume for Performance, LCF

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