A reflective essay describes a personal experience and explores its significance. It should describe the experience, evaluate what was learned, and encourage readers to think about how the experience relates to their own lives. The essay planning process involves exploring the experience and its meanings, deciding on the scope and message, and then drafting the essay by recounting the experience and explaining its significance and life lessons learned.

1. Sharing your experience . . .
Like many authors, 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

2. What is a reflective essay?
Describe the
facts that made
up the event or
the experience –
set the scene
+
Evaluate the
experience

3. Description vs Reflection
Past Experience Description Reflection
A student nurse
on a recent
clinical
placement
The physical
environment where
he was (the ward,
the beds, the
patients, the MDT),
who he talked to,
what he did or what
he was told to do
How he felt at the time, what
he learnt from the experience,
what he discovered he did not
know, what perceptions did he
have before placement, did the
experience confirm or
challenge it, what he plans to
do about his needs, skills he
needs to develop or acquire

4. B a s i c s i n a B o x
Reflective Essay at a Glance
RUBRIC Standards for Writing
A 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

5. 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.

6. 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?

7. Writing Your Reflective Essay
2 Drafting
A writer’s material is what he cares
about.
John Gardner

8. Writing Your Reflective Essay
2 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.

9. Writing Your Reflective Essay
2 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.

10. Writing Your Reflective Essay
2 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.

11. Remember the 3 WHAT’s
 What?
 So what?
 Now what?

12. WHAT (returning to the situation)
WHAT
1. What is the purpose of returning to this
situation/thinking about this subject?
2. What exactly occurred, in your words?
3. What did you see? did you do?
4. What was your reaction?
5. What did other people do?

13. SO WHAT (understanding the
context)
1. So what were your feelings at the time?
2. What are your feelings now? Are there any
differences? Why?
3. What were the effects of what you did (or did
not do)?
4. What “good” emerged from the situation, eg.
for self/others?
5. What troubles you, if anything?

14. NOW WHAT (modifying future
outcomes)
Now,
1. What are the implications for you?
2. What are you going to do about the situation?
3. What might you do differently if faced with a similar
situation again?
4. What have you learned from the situation?

15. Conclusion
1. Provide a summary of the issues explored
2. Remind the reader of the purpose of the
essay
3. Provide your judgment – what you learned
from the event/outcome/situation