Introduction
People often spend at least few minutes every day before the mirror.
Why do you stand before a mirror? What do you see when you look at the mirror? 'You', right?
Technically speaking we stand before a mirror to analyze ourselves by looking at our own reflection in the mirror.
The same can be said about the reflective compositions. A reflective composition is the result of introspection into past experiences or memorable events in our lives.
We introspect into these memorable events and reflect over them with regards the emotions and influences they have left in our lives.
In simple words a reflective essay is a piece of ‘you’ being presented in words.
What is Reflection?
In a reflective composition you really need to
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It analyzes and shows the reader the significance of a particular event or experience and its credibility and universal application.
Synthesis
A reflective essay expresses how do the components of your experience relate or react in the given situation, how similar experiences and interactions introduced changes in your outlook, what have you learned from your experience etc.
Evaluation
A reflective essay should evaluate your experience. It shows your attitude towards the subject, your degree of subjectivity, how it affected you, what you accept or reject, how the experience will help you to perceive or act differently in the future etc.
IT IS PURPOSEFUL
A reflective essay is not merely scribbling some thoughts that come up in your mind. It has a definitive purpose that you want to accomplish - to learn, to improve, to demonstrate an insight through your essay.
IT IS FORMAL
Of course, a reflective essay is personal, reflective and based on experience and observations but at the same time the style of presentation should be standardized. One has to use the standard format for preparing a reflective essay.
STRUCTURE OF A REFLECTIVE ESSAY
A reflective essay is a form of writing that examines and observes the individual experience. When writing a reflective essay, it is important to use descriptive language.
Reflective essays are based upon your own experiences, so it is expected that you write about yourself, your ideas and your opinions. As a result, it is
Reflective practice allows us to reflect on our actions and experiences so that we can learn from them and adapt our behaviour accordingly. Reflective practice can be uncomfortable as it challenges our own assumptions about ourselves however it is vital for improving the quality of the service we provide.
I will structure this essay using Gibbs Model of Reflection (Gibbs 1988). Reflective learning helps practitioners analyse their experiences and how they think and feel about them before
This report vividly explains how reflection helps one think about their employability and transferrable skills. Reflective writing deals with both description and analysis which helps in clarifying thoughts, understanding important aspect and working out strategies in solving problems. Reflective writing is beneficial to individuals especially students. For individuals, it gives them the opportunity to think critically about what and why they do things and for academic perspective, it provides students the idea on their learning experience and helps them identify any academic issues they need to address.
[1] How do I . . . Write a Reflection? [Online] Available from: http://www.trentu.ca/academicskills/documents/Reflectivewriting.pdf [12/01/15]
Effective reflection helps the practitioner to see the situation from an outsider's perspective, so that they can develop a better way to respond to a similar scenario in the future. Reflection is meant to achieve a change in practice, rather than simply repeating the same mistakes (Schon, 1983). Many different models exist for structuring the reflective process. Regardless of the framework used, the reflection models are meant to accomplish three things. They are supposed to promote reflecting on events, self-evaluation and analysis, and a plan to change actions in the future. This Reflective essay will utilize Driscoll's 'The What?' model as its structure (Driscoll, 1994). This model has three components"
Reflective writing is evidence of reflective thinking, which is a beneficial learning tool as it allows me to critically think about my personal employability skills. This self-reflection mode of writing allows me to recognise and identify my current skills, strengths, weaknesses, progress and achievements.
Sylvia, from “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, and I have experienced a very similar realization of our naivety. The good grades came easy in my high school English classes. I assumed they would in English 1102 as well, but I could not have been more wrong. This class has been especially trying, but I can honestly say that I have grown as a result of it. The unexpected bad grades I received influenced me to fully grasp and understand the errors I made throughout my essays, in order to create clear works that exhibit all of the necessary requirements. I intend to portray my strengths and weaknesses in my portfolio by specifically discussing my complications with introductions, generalizations, and grammatical errors.
Reflection at its most basic principle "provides us with an opportunity to review our decisions and decision-making processes" however, in practice, reflection is a far broader and contextual concept, it is about understanding a person’s life and the actions they have taken throughout their lives. (Nussbaum 1997).Reflective practice first emerged from the work of a man called Donald Schon, having found that there appeared to be a gap between theory and putting it into practice (Fook 2006a: 441). He went on to state that reflective practice is a way of improving professional practice, through critically evaluating how we respond to practice situations and being self-aware (Mezirow 1991). Whereas reflection is applicable in all aspects of living (Fook 2006a).
Usually, reflections are one of my stronger suits simply because I am good at pointing out my own mistakes, of which there are plenty in the first essay of the year. However, my summer reading essay was by far not the worst essay I’ve ever written, but it expectedly had some faults. While I made some good points about the role of societal standards in a person’s obligations, i stopped before analyzing much further. There were also issues with my sentences, as some of them ran on for too long, giving my essay a droning feel. This also forgoes concision, one of the two main principles of essay writing. The mistake I made that was by far the least conducive to my claim, however, was spending a sizable portion of my essay recounting plot events,
Reflective Essay As I began this semester, I was sure that I would absolutely despise English 112 since English has never been my strongest subject. Aside from those feelings, I still needed this class as a prerequisite for my nursing major. To my surprise, I found that this class actually became easier as it progressed. The more I had to write, the easier it became and each paper became less stressful.
More than a tool, reflective writing is a state of mind that invites the author to work towards a better exposition of his ideas. The attention to reflection is the key to successful encounter either big or small problems within the written text, allowing the author to rethink and discover a rhetorical solution for it. The process, regularly used, builds inside the author a need that can only be satisfied by its application, I would add, in almost everything he or she writes. Once regularly used, it transforms itself also into a learning tool, by creating the attraction of opening new horizons for every single piece of the work at hand. This action can and must be projected to other projects as Sandra L. Giles pointed out in “What Were You
I have been a student at DePaul University for three years now. Over the course of my stay I have grown and learned how to write essays as Biology major. This class pointed out to me the things that science majors tend to neglect when they write their essays and lab reports; for example, punctuation, and citation. This is something I’ve gotten better at, but still improving. Most importantly, I’ve learned how to analyze a text. The scientific essays I am used to reading, rarely do I have to read between the lines. It was hard but quite interesting to go read an essay and having to break it down from the argument, to the tools used and the author’s opinion even when not directly stated.
“Why I write?” This is one of the first essay that I can recall that we went over and discussed in class. I can remember doing peer reviews, going over example essays, and other interactive class activities. I can’t say that I remember everything or loved all of it. What I can say is that I did learn and I did get a lot out of this class. I feel like I learned something about myself from writing these essays as well as how to actually write a paper.
Through reflective journaling I have gained a better understanding of the world around me and am able to think about situations people are put in in sociological terms. Before taking this course I considered myself to have a general awareness of other people's situations and my own. After taking this course I have learned so much more about the why behind someone being stuck in a situation. This course has allowed me to have a better understanding of the situations of others and how there are many factors that affect what happens in your life.
My reflection will consist of three focuses such as, reflections on personal growth, areas of improvement. comparison of essays. I will be discussing some of the elements that I started to learn through the class. My personal growth as well as starting factors in my learning abilities. The question of my writing involvement will be entered this discussion as well.