Complete guide to writing a self-reflective essay

Every experience you have ever had—regardless of how downright creepy it was—offers a learning opportunity that you can use to evaluate how you could have done things differently.

Reflection opens the mind to what is stored in memory about a subject. It allows information that is indirectly related to a subject but stored in memory to synchronize with the subject and present itself to the mind. It opens the mind to the possibility of tapping into new information from the Universal mind store. It coordinates all the information into an understandable form that could be articulated in language.

Einstein is quoted as saying “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.” Sometimes, to get a different result in our lives, we have to take a new approach. It is very common for people to feel powerless, and like the world is against them, or that some things just cannot be changed. Usually, these ideas are false. Self-reflection helps us take ownership of how we are participating in and helping to create what frustrates us in life.

Most of the essay experts become admirers and proponents of Reflective Writing, and this Gibbs reflective cycle makes a lot of sense, so far as self-reflective essays are concerned. Gibb’s cycle discusses the subject from different perspectives and gives writers a chance to explore even the minute details.

As far as reflective essays are concerned, Gibb’s cycle is one of the best tools an essay writer can employ to come up with an outstanding reflection.

So, let’s take a look at Gibb’s reflection, and how it helps in developing a reflection.

Gibb’s Cycle:

Gibb’s cycle consists of five components:

1. Description
2. Feelings
3. Evaluation
4. Conclusions
5. Actions

Application of the cycle:

You need to understand the guidelines below if you want to write an outstanding reflection paper. The guidelines below are in the form of questions that are developed according to the five components of the Gibbs cycle.

1. Why do you want to reflect on a certain topic and what is the topic?
2. What do you feel about the subject or topic you are reflecting?
3. What, about the subject, you liked or disliked?
4. What was the actual scenario and what is your analysis of the scenario?
5. What can you conclude about the topic or scenario?
6. What, in your view, could have been changed to make things better?
7. What effect did you suggest changes will bring?

The above questions are based on the 5 basic components of Gibbs’s reflective cycle. But I have a suggestion! Simply ask a professional writer “can you write my essay?”, if you think reflective writing is not your cup of tea.

• If you want to engage in reflective writing, you must answer the above seven questions. You might need time to think about the topic and develop your ideas for reflecting on the topic. It is pertinent to map ideas that altered your thought process, things you learned, and the things you encountered. All these are necessary, for you have to develop a certain amount of feel in your reflection. If you miss these, your reflection could be anything but ‘feelsy’. As far as the thinking process is concerned, you can think not only reflectively but also critically. Reflective and critical thinking are very different from each other but complement each other in one way or the other
• Remember! Reflective thinking does not offer right or wrong but brings some questions to light when you indulge in the thinking process. And that is where you start analyzing the situation from a different perspective. Following the detailed analysis, you will evaluate things based on your feeling, thinking, and analysis.
• Self-reflective essay offers you to create an organic link between your experiences and learning. So, this makes you an active and critical learner. Surely, standard university essays and self-reflective essays are poles apart, for self-reflective essays make you more rational.
• When you are done with analysis, you finally come to the conclusion. The conclusion must cover your reflective and critical thinking coupled with your feeling and evaluation. If your conclusion misses any of these, I’ll have to say that your reflection offers nothing but a plain explanation of a few facts.
• Last but not least, discuss the actions needed to bring any change that you deem necessary. This is the most important part of reflective writing. Sans’s action plan doesn’t even think of your reflection as effective. Combine your experiences and knowledge while writing necessary actions.

Moreover, the two main components of a self-reflective college essay are:

1. The story or narrative
2. The underlying message

If someone writes a self-reflection that does not contain any message, it brings no impact to the readers.

The main objective of the narrative in self-reflection is to entertain, and that of the message is to provide readers with knowledgeable information. They both complement each other, they resonate with each other.

There is no doubt that a story can be as valuable as any other piece of writing. However, a message wrapped inside the story will make the narrative not powerful and compelling but also effective.

So, this is all about reflective writing. However, you can also contact online writing services to help write a reflection, if you think you won’t be able to hit the mark.

Or else, you can ask such services for custom reflective essays; custom essays will definitely help you with your reflective writing.