How many paragraphs in a reflective essay

Develop a thesis statement. At the end of your introduction, you should include a single sentence that quickly explains your transition from your expectations to your final conclusion. A thesis provides focus and cohesion for your reflection paper. Explain your conclusions in the body. Your body paragraphs should explain the conclusions or understandings you reached by the end of the reading, lesson, or experience.

You should provide details on how you arrived at those conclusions using logic and concrete details. The focus of the paper is not a summary of the text, but you still need to draw concrete, specific details from the text or experience in order to provide context for your conclusions.

Write a separate paragraph for each conclusion or idea you developed. Each paragraph should have its own topic sentence. This topic sentence should clearly identify your major points, conclusions, or understandings. Conclude with a summary.

Your conclusion should succinctly describe the overall lesson, feeling, or understanding you got as a result of the reading or experience. The conclusions or understandings explained in your body paragraphs should support your overall conclusion.

One or two may conflict, but the majority should support your final conclusion. Part 3. Reveal information wisely. A reflection paper is somewhat personal in that it includes your subjective feelings and opinions.

Instead of revealing everything about yourself, carefully ask yourself if something is appropriate before including it in your paper. If you feel uncomfortable about a personal issue that affects the conclusions you reached, it is wisest not to include personal details about it. If a certain issue is unavoidable but you feel uncomfortable revealing your personal experiences or feelings regarding it, write about the issue in more general terms.

Identify the issue itself and indicate concerns you have professionally or academically. Maintain a professional or academic tone. A reflection paper is personal and objective, but you should still keep your thoughts organized and sensible. Avoid dragging someone else down in your writing.

If a particular person made the experience you are reflecting on difficult, unpleasant, or uncomfortable, you must still maintain a level of detachment as you describe that person's influence. Do not treat it as a personal journal entry. Check and double-check your spelling and grammar after you finish your paper. Review your reflection paper at the sentence level.

A clear, well-written paper must have clear, well-written sentences. Keep your sentences focused. Avoid squeezing multiple ideas into one sentence. Avoid sentence fragments. Make sure that each sentence has a subject and a verb. Vary your sentence length. Include both simple sentences with a single subject and verb and complex sentences with multiple clauses.

Doing so makes your paper sound more conversational and natural, and prevents the writing from becoming too wooden. Use transitions. Transitional phrases shift the argument and introduce specific details. They also allow you to illustrate how one experience or detail directly links to a conclusion or understanding. Common transitional phrases include "for example," "for instance," "as a result," "an opposite view is," and "a different perspective is.

Relate relevant classroom information to the experience or reading. You can incorporate information you learned in the classroom with information addressed by the reading, lecture, or experience. For instance, if reflecting on a piece of literary criticism, you could mention how your beliefs and ideas about the literary theory addressed in the article relate to what your instructor taught you about it or how it applies to prose and poetry read in class. As another example, if reflecting on a new social experience for a sociology class, you could relate that experience to specific ideas or social patterns discussed in class.

Did you know you can get premium answers for this article? Unlock premium answers by supporting wikiHow. Alicia Cook Professional Writer. Alicia Cook. Support wikiHow by unlocking this expert answer.

Not Helpful 1 Helpful Not Helpful 3 Helpful Not Helpful 4 Helpful You can use "one" instead. For example, "One might say Not Helpful 33 Helpful It can have as many paragraphs as you see fit, but there is usually at least an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

Not Helpful 23 Helpful It might serve as an inspiration for you. Ensure you follow the classical essay structure, proofread, and check your paper for plagiarism.

If you want to save some time, you may try academic assistance. They will help you with your piece of writing. Reflective papers do not have unique length requirement.

You should check the instructions. They should contain all the requirements regarding length, format, and content. Usually, these are short essays, taking close to words. If the word count is not mentioned, you can either clarify this question with your professor or write a medium size essay of about words.

These are different essay types. In a narrative essay, you may use the story just to describe the situation or to express your viewpoint. The purpose of a reflective essay is not just to tell the story.

If it is a reflection paper on a book, you should describe what feelings, emotions, questions it raises. No matter if you are writing a reflection paper on an interview, book, or event, the rules remain the same. There should be a clear introduction with a strong thesis statement, logically developed main body, and conclusion that summarizes the whole paper.

Think of the answers you did not like, those that you consider incomplete or unclear. Reflect on why you think they were not that good, how could you make them better. Also, point to the answers and aspects you are totally satisfied with and also explain why and how it makes you feel so.

If you want to learn how to write a reflection paper on a book, follow three rules, have purpose, be personal, and analyze. It is not about just saying whether you liked it or not. The goal of this essay is to present your insights regarding the book. For sure, you are not supposed to retell the whole story. You need to demonstrate critical thinking and show that you analyzed the book. Highlight the main ideas of the book. Even if you are writing not about your particular experience, have a personal approach.

Express your position regarding the information read. Learning how to write an illustration essay is crucial for academic success. There is a number of writing styles that require the skillful use of illustrations. In fact, it is a properly chosen illustrative evidence that helps a writer communicate their main idea. For that reason students should be a Selecting a topic for an essay is a challenging task.

Those who work on this academic assignment will agree with us that deciding on a theme of their writing is the toughest part. But what can be more difficult than choosing an essay topic? Picking a theme for a persuasive essay is perhaps something Describing a specific process is a typical assignment for college students.

Be it a technical discipline, medicine, or humanities, chances are you will need to learn how to write a process analysis essay. Deep-dive in this article from to find out how to create a step-by-step process description, st Table of Contents.

How to Formulate a Strong Thesis Statement? How long should a reflective essay be? What is the difference between reflective essays and narrative? How to write a reflection paper on an interview? How to write a reflection paper on a book? Seeking professional writing guidance? Choose your Type of Work. Writing Editing Slides. Choose your Academic Level.

Set Pages Count to. Related posts. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Research Paper What are the three parts of a reflective essay? Research Paper. Ben Davis June 1, What are the three parts of a reflective essay? What are reflective topics? What should you accomplish in the conclusion of a reflective essay? How do you end a reflective essay example? What is a reflective essay outline? How many paragraphs is a reflective essay? How do you write a critical reflective essay? Is a critical reflection written in first person?