Sharing your experience . . .

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Sharing your experience . . . From Reading to
Writing Frank McCourt was sick in a hospital bed
when his father kissed him for the first time. In
Angelas Ashes, Frank says this gesture from his
father made him so happy he felt like floating
out of his bed.
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Sharing your experience . . . Writing about a
strong memory can help you better understand it.
A reflective essay narrates a personal experience
and reveals its significance. Autobiographies,
letters, and memoirs often use reflective writing
to share important experiences from a writers
life.
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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 recreate 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 your experience in light of their own lives

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Writing Your Reflective Essay
I write to find out what Im thinking
about. Edward Albee, dramatist
Begin by identifying an experience that you want
to write about. Try recalling past events by
looking through a photo album, or listing
frightening or funny memories.
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Planning Your Reflective Essay
1. Replay the experience in your mind. What
happened to you? In what order did the events
occur? What will other people find interesting
about it? 2. Picture the specific details. Where
did the experience take place? What did people
say? What were they feeling? What did things
look, smell, and sound like? What details stand
out in your memory?
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Planning Your Reflective Essay
3. Reflect on what the experience means to you.
Why did things develop as they did? What is the
most obvious meaning you took away from this
experience? 4. Decide what you want others to
think about. Which of your reflections do you
feel are most important to share with readers?
How will you help readers understand the
significance of these reflections?
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Writing Your Reflective Essay
A reflective essay may combine both telling and
showing to recreate the experience and make
clear its deeper meanings for the reader. You may
begin writing your essay by describing the events
in chronological order, starting with the first
moment you recall from your experience.
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Writing Your Reflective Essay
Or, begin the essay with an intriguing moment
that occurred during the middle or end of the
experience. Make sure, however, that you fill in
the missing pieces and that the order of events
is clear.
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Writing Your Reflective Essay
As you draft, act as an eyewitness, writing down
everything you remember. Include sensory details,
such as sights and sounds, and any conversations
you recall.
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Writing Your Reflective Essay
While youre writing, additional levels of
significance may become clear to you. Continue to
reflect on your experience after you draft, as
well. Later, you may revise your draft to
emphasize the most important meanings of your
experience.
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Writing Your Reflective Essay
Target Skill ADDING DETAILS Remember that
concrete details help readers picture your
experience. When adding details, use strong,
sensory words that show people and events, rather
than just telling about them.
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Writing Your Reflective Essay
Target Skill STRONG VERBS, VERB TENSES Carefully
select your action words, or verbs, to make your
writing stronger and more lively. Also note the
sequence of verb tenses. Jumping from past to
future to present tense can confuse readers.