Tips on Writing a Winning Reflection Paper in College

Published on: 24 April 2018 Last Updated on: 07 October 2020
Writing

When it comes to college writing, most students quickly adapt to the rhythms of producing a fact-based paper. You visit your school’s online library, research some material, and slot it into a five-paragraph essay template, or a similar standard format. Bang! You’re done. But what happens when you are assigned a completely different type of paper that doesn’t fit neatly into the standard essay formats you learned in high school or in freshman composition class? When it comes to the personal reflection paper, many students struggle precisely because this type of essay is so different from most that they’ve written in their other classes. Fortunately, there are a few tips that will help you with this type of paper.

Before we get to the tips, it’s important to make sure we are all on the same page when it comes to what exactly a personal reflection paper is. As the name implies, a reflective essay looks back on something, and a personal reflection offers your own feelings and reactions. Typically, a personal reflection paper is intended to allow a student to share with the instructor his or her feelings about a course and how the course has impacted them. Some personal reflections, however, may examine other topics with which you have had personal experiences, such as a job or a volunteer opportunity. In most cases, the instructor is looking for you to draw connections between course material and your own experiences in order to discover how course content can be or has been relevant to your lived experience.

In order to write a terrific personal reflection essay, follow a few simple tips:

Start with simple pre-writing activities :

Start with simple pre-writing activities

Before you even begin writing, make sure you have read the essay question and understand it completely. For a personal reflection, you won’t likely be doing heavy research, the next step isn’t usually a visit to the library. Instead, you should make notes about your thoughts, feelings, and experiences so you can better understand your reaction to the essay topic. By writing down your thoughts, you can begin to organize them into categories so you can structure your paper around a few key themes. Try asking yourself key questions to guide your note-taking such as:

  1. How has the essay topic affected me personally?
  2. How has the essay topic changed the way I think about an issue or experience?
  3. Has the essay topic sparked any questions I want answers to?
  4. How does the essay topic relate to other course content or content in other courses?

Begin organizing your reflections :

The exact format you use for your paper will vary depending on your instructor’s requirements and the essay question, but in general, you will adapt a standard essay format for a reflective essay. You will still have an introduction with a thesis statement and a conclusion, but the body paragraphs might be organized somewhat differently. Depending on the essay question, you may follow the standard format and offer three reflective points (one per paragraph) which you support with evidence. Or, you might have a different format, such as telling a story about your reflective journey in chronological order or exploring one particular reaction across multiple paragraphs. Whichever style you choose, try to match it to the essay question so you are sure to answer the instructor’s question.

Remember that the personal essay is, well, personal :

The biggest difference between a personal essay and an expository essay like a term paper is that it involves your own views and opinions. In this genre of writing, it’s OK to refer to yourself and to talk about your thoughts and feelings without having to phrase them in an awkward third-person format (“One often feels…”). Don’t be afraid to share your honest views, but keep your instructor in mind. Even if you had a negative reaction, avoid insulting the instructor or viciously attacking course material. Instructors are open to reasoned disagreement, but they don’t want to find out that you want to set your textbook on fire.

 With these tips, writing a professional reflection paper from scratch should be an easy and refreshing change of pace from the standard academic term paper. The hardest part is getting your thoughts and feelings down on paper. Once you’ve mastered the art of sharing your feelings in written form, you’ll quickly find that these essays are quick to produce, and you’ll look forward to having time off from the more detailed research papers that take up a lot more time.

Read Also :

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

View all posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

JEE Main 2018

JEE Main 2018- Importance of Practicing with Previous Year Questions

JEE Main is the largest engineering entrance exam of the country. Due to sheer competition in the exam, it is not easy to crack it. However, there are many things candidates do or can do to get an edge over others. One of these things is to solve past year question papers for Joint entrance Examination which has become an important, rather essential part of preparation. Solving previous year papers can be beneficial in the following ways: Best Guidance about Important Topics The biggest question in the mind of JEE aspirants is that which are the most important topics. Well, you can have a lot of teachers and seniors telling you important topics and they can give accurate guidance as well. But isn’t it better to know these things directly from the papers? If you scan through the papers of the last 15 years, you will never need to ask anyone about the important topics for the exam. Therefore, while you are looking to start your preparation, just go through the past year papers once. Just note down the number of questions coming from each topic (don’t solve those papers for now), and there you go. You will have a self-made list of the weightiest topics for the exam. Read More: Free Student Guide To Help You Achieve Exam Success Perfect Source of Practice There are numerous sources from which you can practice questions for the exam such as books, mocks, coaching material and whatnot, but actually, the best source of practice will always be the past year papers. See it this way, on one side you have some random questions from all the topics, and on the other hand, you have questions that have actually appeared in the paper, and you know which one is better. Thus, previous year papers become the best source of practice. But we suggest that you do not start solving them right at the start of your preparation. Practicing with these after completing your entire syllabus will be a better option. Read More: How To Crack Civil Service Exam In One Attempt These Boost your Confidence Most people join coaching for JEE Main but coaching institutes generally provide study material that is way beyond the level of the exam as JEE is about concepts and not about all the toughest science problems of the world. Due to such high-level questions, many candidates tend to lose the confidence and past year papers can be the savior for such students. The questions asked in the actual exam are not as tough as those witnessed in mocks or coaching material. Thus, relevant questions take your confidence to another level, which is a very important factor of preparation. These are the Best Mocks, Ever! Taking mock tests have become an essential part of preparation these days. Many students enroll for national level mock tests to practice and know the level of their preparation. But there is always a problem with mocks regarding the relevance of their level of difficulty. Some candidates feel that the mock tests they enrolled for were not up to the mark, and some say it was above the required level. But what if we tell you about the best and the most relevant mock test series. Yes, the past year papers are undoubtedly the best mocks you can appear for. If you solve 10 papers as mocks, you would have appeared for the exam 10 times before the actual test. Isn’t it great? So use past year papers as mocks and you have the optimum level of practice you need. The ‘Repeated Questions’ Scenario Although it is not the ideal way to think, many a times questions from past year papers get repeated in the exam so if you go through these previous year papers, you will be able to solve such questions quickly. Although such repetition is not very frequent, even if you get just 1 or 2 questions repeated, isn’t it a great bonus of 4-8 marks. So why miss those 8 marks? How to Make the Best Use of Past Years’ Papers? Well, solving past years papers is always of great benefit, but you can maximize the benefit by applying some simple tips. Here is what you can do to make the best use of these papers- First: At the beginning of your preparation, scan through the papers of at least past 15 years. Note the important topics here. Second: After completing your syllabus, these papers should be your first preference for practice. Third: If you see any type of question(s) getting repeated, note it down separately, go through it during your final revision. Fourth: You can also prepare some strategies by referring to these papers. Fifth: Solving every question is not necessary (until of course, you want to score 330 or more). Look out for questions which are the most doable ones. We hope you have understood the importance of past year papers from above-mentioned information. So go through these and nail JEE Main 2018. Good Luck! Read More: Upcoming Educational Trends In 2017 5 Reasons Why You Should Get Your MCSA Certification Today 10 Tips For Writing A Dissertation Best MBA Colleges In India Attracting The Best Of Best Among Students 10 Tips To Memorize All Necessary Information Before Exams

READ MOREDetails
Digital Promise

Google and Digital Promise Team Up to Make Teachers More Tech-Savvy than Ever

Collaborating with innovators at Digital Promise, some brilliant minds at Google got together with some more at EdTechTeam to come up with a modern-day training program for teachers with a focus on making superb use of technology in the classroom teaching setting. This comes as much welcome news at a time when the government is launching into a cost-cutting mode for educational sectors in the USA, leaving many public schools rushing to cover their expenses for education in all fronts. The new teacher-training program announced by Google in association with Digital Promise and EdTechTeam will focus on imparting technological education for the teachers, enabling them to use that knowledge in classroom settings and to share that knowledge with educators. The Dynamic Learning Project at a glance : The Dynamic Learning Project (DLP) is a pilot of the teacher-training project brought to fruition by Google, Digital Promise, and EdTechTeam. The training program will focus on equipping the teachers with the necessary knowledge and resources to use technology in day-to-day classroom teaching experiences. Through the use of the technological resources at their disposal, the educators will be able to open newer vistas of knowledge for the students, thus bridging the gap between learning and technology successfully in the digital age. 50 middle schools from five states in the USA have been selected for the pilot of DLP. The states in the country that will be the first to receive the results of this unique and beneficial training program are Texas, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, California, and Alabama. If the reports from Google and EdTechTeam are to be believed, the coaches at the teacher-training program will be looking to provide customized learning solutions for teachers so that they can make the best use of technology that is available within the infrastructural framework of the schools. The DLP not only focuses on helping teachers to learn to use the Google resources, but other hardware or software platforms that are available and they are comfortable using. Integrating learning with the assignment help of the latest technological advancements, the teachers from the 50 middle schools have started to undergo training under the able guidance of experts from EdTechTeam and Google. The disparity between the uses of technology in a traditional classroom setting has been more pronounced in the last few years despite most of the schools equipping themselves with smart learning software and hardware platforms in the country. As Liz Anderson from Google for Education states in her blog post for The Keyword, “This second-level digital divide is fueled by major differences in how effectively that technology is being used for teaching and learning.” DLP aims to overcome precisely that. By enabling the teachers to become tech-savvy within the classroom setting, the program imparts in them the invaluable knowledge of putting technology to good use so they can share that with their fellow teaching community. What this means for educators and classroom teaching “A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instil a love for learning.” Brad Henry (American politician and lawyer) Sometimes alluded to as the noblest profession on earth, teaching is the profession that creates all other professions. Whether we are diplomats, astronauts, dancers, chefs, or motivational speakers, all of us started from school someday, and the teachers were there for us to teach us the basics of all that we have learned so far. The significant role of the educators in our lives is thus undeniable, and the new teacher-training program launched by Google acknowledges just that. In the sphere of education, the new technical training program for teachers in the middle schools chosen for the pilot of DLP will be able to bring about a refreshing change in the way teaching was envisioned so far. The pilot started off with Google sanctioning a $6.5 million grant to Digital Promise for conducting the research and implementing the professional skill development program for the teachers. EdTechTeam aided in creating a viable model for the training program that takes into account the resources within the school framework and the individual needs of the teachers undergoing the training program. The program has been in place since last fall, and the teachers from the schools that have selected from the programs are to be monitored and evaluated on the basis of their acceptance and performance within the existing framework. Based on the reports prepared from the pilot, Google aims to launch this program all over the country, creating a network within the teaching community for sharing knowledge on advanced technologies. The teacher-training philosophy of the program has three fundamental benefits for the teaching community in a whole and is expected to form the foundation stone for many such innovative projects and programs in the coming years with more innovators and educators coming forward to make learning through technologies a fun and achievable reality. The primary focus of the pilot DLP thus aims at empowering teachers in the following ways. Localization and empowerment within the teaching community is the first goal of this program. Through the course of the training program, teachers will be able to have in-depth knowledge on the learning resources that they have at their disposal to make classroom learning more innovative and will be able to use the resources for the completion of complex tasks as well. Secondly, through the custom-made design of the program, the teachers will be able to infuse their pedagogy within the technological framework and not the other way round. This way, the challenges in the classroom will be overcome more quickly while supported by modern education technology. Lastly, this program opens up a world of possibilities for further research within the educational sphere. Based on the success stories of this program, Google and its partners will be able to focus on the development of a teacher-training program in a much larger scale for the future that includes the entire country in the coming years. Enabling the teachers to focus on equipping themselves with the resources of the modern age, this program brings the opportunity towards further networking and knowledge-sharing possibilities among the teaching community. DLP is thus a program of the future that aims to bridge the gap between traditional pedagogy and advancements in technology for education. Read Also : Things To Consider Before Finalizing An Online Barber Training School The Importance Of Writing Business Reports In College 5 Questions To Ask Yourself While Finalizing An E-Learning Platform For Quality Education

READ MOREDetails
Workload

Workload Survival Guide for Academics

Going to university is exciting and fun; however, it means you have to balance your studies and social life. It can be stressful if you don’t know how to manage your workload. Responsibilities sound fantastic, but they can overwhelm you if you don’t plan effectively. The UAE hosts top-notch universities with world-class facilities that offer high-quality education. The country has partnered with international education providers to bring the most prestigious higher education institutions globally. These resources provide students with the best education; it also means that they have to balance their lives and studies. Studying in the UAE The United Arab Emirates is known for its hospitality, diversity, economic vitality, political stability, religious tolerance, and safety. The education sector is also competitive and provides world-class institutions. Pursuing higher education in the UAE enables you to study in some of the most reputable universities in the world. This is a guarantee that you will receive an internationally-recognized certificate at the end of your studies. Studying in this country also means that you have extensive resources and facilities to help you pursue your degree. Higher education facilities in the UAE are keen to provide their students with the best education. It also enables you to build a strong network that can help you in your career. Also, you can confidently look for jobs anywhere in the world. How to Manage Your Workload How do you manage your social life, education, and extracurricular activities at the university? Here is the survival guide to workload management. Planning: Planning is crucial for balancing your life at university. It is necessary to have a planner; write down your lectures and other significant events throughout the semester. Look through the modules and note down assignments due dates. Decide how many hours you will spend studying every week and stick to this plan. Set realistic and achievable goals. This way, you can do your assignments on time, study for exams, and have a social life. Balance: Studying at a university in Dubai allows you to study and socialize; however, you must prioritize your studies and find a balance in your life. Allow enough time for studies and rest. It is tempting to want to party and have fun with friends, but you have to remind yourself why you decided to study. If you always feel overwhelmed, try to do the most vital or challenging tasks first. Avoid Multitasking: You will never get anything done if you focus on many things at once. The best way to excel at your university in Dubai is to follow your planner; study when you need to and do your assignments as you have planned. Multitasking like watching TV or using your phone while studying distracts you and causes poor absorption of information; this might cause failure or requiring more time to study. Focusing on many tasks also causes brain-drain. Don’t Overwork: Working hard will help you excel in your studies; however, overworking will strain you, and you might not achieve your goals. Study breaks are crucial to achieving success; it motivates and helps you to stay focused. A productive study break leaves you energized and ready to study again.  Effective breaks should refresh and give your mind a break. Doing different things activate different parts of your brain. If you were revising, do something completely different, like taking a short walk. Allowing your mind to rest allows it to absorb and retain more information. Start Early: The best way to excel and have balance your studies and social life in the university is to start early. Start with your assignments and essays early; it reduces stress, and you can submit an extensively-researched paper. Waiting to write several essays and meet deadlines at the last minute increases pressure and stress. It also leads to low-quality output which means failure. Stress is harmful to your physical and mental wellbeing. Routine: Having a routine and sticking to it crucial for your wellbeing. You get enough rest and still accomplish your goals. It’s easy to go with the flow in the university because life is not structured and you have a few rules on what to do at a particular time. Routines can be exciting, reduce stress, and improve health; these are essential for goal achievement. Ask for Support: Do not shy away from asking for help if you find anything too hard to grasp. Knowing when to ask for support helps you to avoid mistakes and save time. Some topics can be hard to understand, and no matter how hard you try, you just don’t get it. It’s necessary to ask your peers or the professor for help instead of failing. Going to university is fun and exciting because you have more freedom. However, there are more responsibilities. You want to study, socialize and have time for yourself and all these can be overwhelming. You have to prioritize and plan how to deal with every aspect of your life. Read Also: Effective Contribution of Educational Apps How To Live Stress-Free

READ MOREDetails