Tips on Writing a Reflection Paper A reflection paper can be written on an assigned piece of reading, a

lecture or an experience, such as an internship, observation, or volunteer experience. For the most part,
a reflection paper cites your reactions, feelings and analysis of an experience in a more personal way
than in a formal research or analytical essay; however, it is not a book report. When writing a reflection
paper on literature or another experience, the point is to include your thoughts and reactions to the
reading or experience. You can present what you observed (objective discussion) and how what you
experienced or saw made you feel and explain why (subjective discussion). You also can use a reflection
paper to analyze what you have experienced (what worked well and what didn’t, what was fair or unfair,
what was effective or ineffective, why). Like any other paper or essay, it should be cohesive and refer
directly to the specific objective experience you had or something you observed and then explain how
this experience inspired the feelings you are feeling or helped you make a critical (not necessarily
negative, but just concrete and thoughtful) analysis of what you read or saw. This is not a book report,
which just recounts what you read or saw or experienced. It is much more important that you focus on
what you learned from that reading or experience and how you would incorporate what you took away
into the way you view or do things in the future. You can include personal experience in a reflection
paper, but do not depend on it; base your reactions and reflections on the material that is your subject.
Do not use a reflection paper simply to summarize what you have read or done. Also, a reflection paper
should not be a free flow of ideas and thoughts. This is not a free write. The idea of a reflection paper is
to write an organized essay describing your reactions and analysis to a reading or other experience;
however, it is more formal than a journal entry, so leave out informal language and form. Leave out
contractions, IM-ing language and colloquial terms, for example, yeah, it was awesome. Consider the
standards necessary for a college essay as you used in College Composition. A reflection paper should be
as organized as any other type of formal essay. Include an introduction, perhaps one that describes your
expectations before the reading or the experience. The easiest way to keep a reflection paper focused
and organized is to create a thesis statement as your last statement of the first paragraph. For example,
you may start with a paragraph (usually 5-12 sentences) describing a classroom visitation experience.
You may describe how the classroom looked, what was hanging on the walls, how the desks, chairs,
manipulatives, etc. were organized, where the teacher desk was located, how much light there was in
the classroom, etc. Then you make a thesis statement about the physical aspects of the classroom (if
that was your assignment). A thesis statement for this example might say, “Because of the disorganized
chaos of the classroom, students might not learn the necessary organization skills they should have
established by the conclusion of first grade.” You’d then have to back that thesis statement up with
examples of kids not being organized, the teacher lessons not being organized, and the layout of the
classroom not being organized. Or you might say, “Since everything in the classroom had a specific
function and location, students learned to organize their materials, their thinking, and themselves.”
You’d have to support that thesis by backing it up with examples of how the students knew where
everything went, put things back into place when finished, etc. The body of your paper should explain
the conclusions you have come to and why, basing your conclusions on concrete details from your
reading or experience.