career talk reflection essay

Guide on How to Write a Reflection Paper with Free Tips and Example

A reflection paper is a very common type of paper among college students. Almost any subject you enroll in requires you to express your opinion on certain matters. In this article, we will explain how to write a reflection paper and provide examples and useful tips to make the essay writing process easier.

Reflection papers should have an academic tone yet be personal and subjective. In this paper, you should analyze and reflect upon how an experience, academic task, article, or lecture shaped your perception and thoughts on a subject.

Here is what you need to know about writing an effective critical reflection paper. Stick around until the end of our guide to get some useful writing tips from the writing team at EssayPro — a research paper writing service

What Is a Reflection Paper

A reflection paper is a type of paper that requires you to write your opinion on a topic, supporting it with your observations and personal experiences. As opposed to presenting your reader with the views of other academics and writers, in this essay, you get an opportunity to write your point of view—and the best part is that there is no wrong answer. It is YOUR opinion, and it is your job to express your thoughts in a manner that will be understandable and clear for all readers that will read your paper. The topic range is endless. Here are some examples: whether or not you think aliens exist, your favorite TV show, or your opinion on the outcome of WWII. You can write about pretty much anything.

There are three types of reflection paper; depending on which one you end up with, the tone you write with can be slightly different. The first type is the educational reflective paper. Here your job is to write feedback about a book, movie, or seminar you attended—in a manner that teaches the reader about it. The second is the professional paper. Usually, it is written by people who study or work in education or psychology. For example, it can be a reflection of someone’s behavior. And the last is the personal type, which explores your thoughts and feelings about an individual subject.

However, reflection paper writing will stop eventually with one very important final paper to write - your resume. This is where you will need to reflect on your entire life leading up to that moment. To learn how to list education on resume perfectly, follow the link on our dissertation writing services .

Unlock the potential of your thoughts with EssayPro . Order a reflection paper and explore a range of other academic services tailored to your needs. Dive deep into your experiences, analyze them with expert guidance, and turn your insights into an impactful reflection paper.

Free Reflection Paper Example

Now that we went over all of the essentials about a reflection paper and how to approach it, we would like to show you some examples that will definitely help you with getting started on your paper.

Reflection Paper Format

Reflection papers typically do not follow any specific format. Since it is your opinion, professors usually let you handle them in any comfortable way. It is best to write your thoughts freely, without guideline constraints. If a personal reflection paper was assigned to you, the format of your paper might depend on the criteria set by your professor. College reflection papers (also known as reflection essays) can typically range from about 400-800 words in length.

Here’s how we can suggest you format your reflection paper:

How to Start a Reflection Paper

The first thing to do when beginning to work on a reflection essay is to read your article thoroughly while taking notes. Whether you are reflecting on, for example, an activity, book/newspaper, or academic essay, you want to highlight key ideas and concepts.

You can start writing your reflection paper by summarizing the main concept of your notes to see if your essay includes all the information needed for your readers. It is helpful to add charts, diagrams, and lists to deliver your ideas to the audience in a better fashion.

After you have finished reading your article, it’s time to brainstorm. We’ve got a simple brainstorming technique for writing reflection papers. Just answer some of the basic questions below:

• How did the article affect you?
• How does this article catch the reader’s attention (or does it all)?
• Has the article changed your mind about something? If so, explain how.
• Has the article left you with any questions?
• Were there any unaddressed critical issues that didn’t appear in the article?
• Does the article relate to anything from your past reading experiences?
• Does the article agree with any of your past reading experiences?

Here are some reflection paper topic examples for you to keep in mind before preparing to write your own:

• How my views on rap music have changed over time
• My reflection and interpretation of Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Why my theory about the size of the universe has changed over time
• How my observations for clinical psychological studies have developed in the last year

The result of your brainstorming should be a written outline of the contents of your future paper. Do not skip this step, as it will ensure that your essay will have a proper flow and appropriate organization.

Another good way to organize your ideas is to write them down in a 3-column chart or table.

Do you want your task look awesome?

If you would like your reflection paper to look professional, feel free to check out one of our articles on how to format MLA, APA or Chicago style

Writing a Reflection Paper Outline

Reflection paper should contain few key elements:

Introduction

Your introduction should specify what you’re reflecting upon. Make sure that your thesis informs your reader about your general position, or opinion, toward your subject.

• State what you are analyzing: a passage, a lecture, an academic article, an experience, etc...)
• Briefly summarize the work.
• Write a thesis statement stating how your subject has affected you.

One way you can start your thesis is to write:

Example: “After reading/experiencing (your chosen topic), I gained the knowledge of…”

Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs should examine your ideas and experiences in context to your topic. Make sure each new body paragraph starts with a topic sentence.

Your reflection may include quotes and passages if you are writing about a book or an academic paper. They give your reader a point of reference to fully understand your feedback. Feel free to describe what you saw, what you heard, and how you felt.

Example: “I saw many people participating in our weight experiment. The atmosphere felt nervous yet inspiring. I was amazed by the excitement of the event.”

As with any conclusion, you should summarize what you’ve learned from the experience. Next, tell the reader how your newfound knowledge has affected your understanding of the subject in general. Finally, describe the feeling and overall lesson you had from the reading or experience.

There are a few good ways to conclude a reflection paper:

• Tie all the ideas from your body paragraphs together, and generalize the major insights you’ve experienced.
• Restate your thesis and summarize the content of your paper.

We have a separate blog post dedicated to writing a great conclusion. Be sure to check it out for an in-depth look at how to make a good final impression on your reader.

Need a hand? Get help from our writers. Edit, proofread or buy essay .

How to Write a Reflection Paper: Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: create a main theme.

After you choose your topic, write a short summary about what you have learned about your experience with that topic. Then, let readers know how you feel about your case — and be honest. Chances are that your readers will likely be able to relate to your opinion or at least the way you form your perspective, which will help them better understand your reflection.

For example: After watching a TEDx episode on Wim Hof, I was able to reevaluate my preconceived notions about the negative effects of cold exposure.

Step 2: Brainstorm Ideas and Experiences You’ve Had Related to Your Topic

You can write down specific quotes, predispositions you have, things that influenced you, or anything memorable. Be personal and explain, in simple words, how you felt.

For example: • A lot of people think that even a small amount of carbohydrates will make people gain weight • A specific moment when I struggled with an excess weight where I avoided carbohydrates entirely • The consequences of my actions that gave rise to my research • The evidence and studies of nutritional science that claim carbohydrates alone are to blame for making people obese • My new experience with having a healthy diet with a well-balanced intake of nutrients • The influence of other people’s perceptions on the harm of carbohydrates, and the role their influence has had on me • New ideas I’ve created as a result of my shift in perspective

Step 3: Analyze How and Why These Ideas and Experiences Have Affected Your Interpretation of Your Theme

Pick an idea or experience you had from the last step, and analyze it further. Then, write your reasoning for agreeing or disagreeing with it.

For example, Idea: I was raised to think that carbohydrates make people gain weight.

Analysis: Most people think that if they eat any carbohydrates, such as bread, cereal, and sugar, they will gain weight. I believe in this misconception to such a great extent that I avoided carbohydrates entirely. As a result, my blood glucose levels were very low. I needed to do a lot of research to overcome my beliefs finally. Afterward, I adopted the philosophy of “everything in moderation” as a key to a healthy lifestyle.

For example: Idea: I was brought up to think that carbohydrates make people gain weight. Analysis: Most people think that if they eat any carbohydrates, such as bread, cereal, and sugar, they will gain weight. I believe in this misconception to such a great extent that I avoided carbohydrates entirely. As a result, my blood glucose levels were very low. I needed to do a lot of my own research to finally overcome my beliefs. After, I adopted the philosophy of “everything in moderation” as a key for having a healthy lifestyle.

Step 4: Make Connections Between Your Observations, Experiences, and Opinions

Try to connect your ideas and insights to form a cohesive picture for your theme. You can also try to recognize and break down your assumptions, which you may challenge in the future.

There are some subjects for reflection papers that are most commonly written about. They include:

• Book – Start by writing some information about the author’s biography and summarize the plot—without revealing the ending to keep your readers interested. Make sure to include the names of the characters, the main themes, and any issues mentioned in the book. Finally, express your thoughts and reflect on the book itself.
• Course – Including the course name and description is a good place to start. Then, you can write about the course flow, explain why you took this course, and tell readers what you learned from it. Since it is a reflection paper, express your opinion, supporting it with examples from the course.
• Project – The structure for a reflection paper about a project has identical guidelines to that of a course. One of the things you might want to add would be the pros and cons of the course. Also, mention some changes you might want to see, and evaluate how relevant the skills you acquired are to real life.
• Interview – First, introduce the person and briefly mention the discussion. Touch on the main points, controversies, and your opinion of that person.

Writing Tips

Everyone has their style of writing a reflective essay – and that's the beauty of it; you have plenty of leeway with this type of paper – but there are still a few tips everyone should incorporate.

Before you start your piece, read some examples of other papers; they will likely help you better understand what they are and how to approach yours. When picking your subject, try to write about something unusual and memorable — it is more likely to capture your readers' attention. Never write the whole essay at once. Space out the time slots when you work on your reflection paper to at least a day apart. This will allow your brain to generate new thoughts and reflections.

• Short and Sweet – Most reflection papers are between 250 and 750 words. Don't go off on tangents. Only include relevant information.
• Clear and Concise – Make your paper as clear and concise as possible. Use a strong thesis statement so your essay can follow it with the same strength.
• Maintain the Right Tone – Use a professional and academic tone—even though the writing is personal.
• Cite Your Sources – Try to cite authoritative sources and experts to back up your personal opinions.
• Proofreading – Not only should you proofread for spelling and grammatical errors, but you should proofread to focus on your organization as well. Answer the question presented in the introduction.

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Self-reflection: a practical guide from career coaches.

In career coaching, we talk a lot about self-reflection.  To know where to take your career, it’s critical to have a strong sense of your goals, strengths, passions, and values.  So:  how can we self-reflect? How can we learn about ourselves? What are some techniques we can use?  What are some questions we can ask ourselves?  What are some resources we can take advantage of?  What can we read?  In this blog, our career coaches offer a range of answers:

Adrienne Howell, Career Coach:

Turn off the “noise” in order to self-reflect.

I think back to when I was in high school and college, when I was truly getting to know myself.  I ask myself if I would have a shallower sense of who I was if I had algorithms that dictated what music I listened to, or if I had to compare myself to others via social media, or if my ADHD would have worsened if I had to constantly text and answer phone calls.  The answer is “yes”.  Therefore, I’ve come up with my own solution called “the back in the day method.”  Start by leaving your phone at home or turning it off once a week, and only answer texts and messages when you get home, like we did back in the day.  You can slowly add days or times.  This way, you aren’t bogged with nonsense and you truly get an understanding for your needs and who you are.

Sean McKelvie, Career Coach:

I think it is crucial to take time to self-reflect in order to understand the path we are on. Students can be elated with the satisfaction of receiving good grades, securing a position with a summer internship and beyond, or simply making new friends or relationships. On the other hand, students might be overwhelmed with their workload or frustrated with classes, lack of opportunities, or not securing a job or internship. I think always asking yourself, “what can I gain from this experience?” is a simple but direct question that can help frame our current circumstance. It is easy to answer this questions when everything is going well, but I would argue that through struggling, and sometimes failing, we are presented with opportunities to learn and grow if we take time to self-reflect.

Alex Barilec, Career Coach: 

Self-reflection is a critical skill to grow, change and adapt. It helps us to become more emotionally intelligent, a better leader and find roles that are a good personal fit so we can be highly effective. The foundation for self-reflection for me was understanding the basics of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, particularly learning about cognitive distortions. This helped me better understand the lens through which I was seeing the world, how it might not be the whole picture or the truth, and then what to do about it. A few of my favorite books on reflection is When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron, The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Finally, when you are ready consider working with a professional therapist or coach who is trained in conversational and behavioral techniques to reflectively inquire into how it is you are being in comparison to how you desire to be. This can one of the most powerful and supportive relationships to help you change positively. Here’s a link to some helpful exercises: https://positivepsychology.com/cbt-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-techniques-worksheets/

Nyman Brooks, Career Coach:

I am offering three provocative quotes and one question each that might generate some self-reflection or self-evaluation:

“But yield who will to their separation,

My object in living is to unite

My avocation [what I do for joy] and my vocation [calling, career]

As my two eyes make one in sight.

For only where love and need are one,

And the work is play for mortal stakes,

Is the deed ever really done

For Heaven and the future’s sakes.”   –Robert Frost

Q: To what degree does my calling or career align with what brings me joy? 

“Of actions some aim at what is necessary and useful, and some at what is honorable. And the preference given to one or the other class of actions must necessarily be like the preference given to one or other part of the soul and its actions over the other…”     –Aristotle

Q: Which parts of my soul am I giving to which of my actions and preferences?

“Looking back on my life since I left home, I count myself unusually fortunate that, during more than fifty years of earning a living, almost all the work I have elected to do has consisted of tasks that I would gladly have taken on even if I had had an independent income. If leisure work, as opposed to drudgery, comprises all those activities in which one would engage for reasons of intrinsic reward and without need of extrinsic compensation, then most of my paid employments have been largely leisure pursuits…. In between the extremes of subsistence work that is drudgery and leisure work for which one is paid, there lies a spectrum of occupations in which both aspects of work are found in varying degrees of admixture. My good fortune has been that I have had the opportunity to choose the occupations of my life so that they would be predominantly filled with leisure.”    –Mortimer Adler

Q: Adler uses the word “leisure” to describe activities that enlarge the soul rather than merely as “play” or “relaxation,” as the term is commonly used.  Most of us have jobs that lie somewhere between the extremes of drudgery one hand and leisure on the other. Where does my career fall on that spectrum?

Dan Moseson, Career Coach:

My take on self-reflection is a little bit different.  I typically need to get out of my head and into at least a bit of a “flow” state to reach new insights about myself and my life.  According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who first constructed the concept, flow is “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”  I typically reach these states through exercise and creative expression.  Techniques like journaling and meditation have never done nearly as much for me as an intense mountain hike, a whirlwind afternoon photographing lightning, or cranking up my electric guitar for an enthusiastic audience.  As Csikszentmihalyi wrote , “The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times . . . The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”  It’s an odd paradox, but I typically do my best thinking when I’m  not aware of thinking .  This is how I’ve made life-changing discoveries about my need to be creative, physically active, and immersed in nature.  As a side note, I agree strongly with Alex that a good career coach and (a good therapist) can also be extremely helpful in understanding your needs, desires, goals, and skills.

Career Reflection Questions to Ask About Your Job Experience

Reflection is a period of mental immersion. It helps you improve by allowing you to examine your thoughts, feelings, and direction in life.

As you go deeper into your reflection, realizations about your direction in life come to you. The more you understand yourself, the greater your drive to achieve your goals, especially if they involve job changes or career transitions.

Understanding Career Reflection

At some point in your career, you'll begin to ponder on several things about it. Whether personal experiences or a need to make a move, reflecting on your career is vital to furthering your employability.

Through a career or job reflection, you can identify the key skills and learnings you have acquired throughout your job experience. Assessing them through select career reflection questions is a great way to track your strengths and weaknesses, build perseverance, and determine other skills you'll need to learn in the next part of your career.

Career Reflection Questions to Ask Yourself

Here are seven questions to ask yourself to assess your career:

Who am I really?

Take a deep dive into your thoughts to evaluate who you are as an individual. From your hopes and passions to your strengths and flaws, acknowledging these things can help you accept who you are.

It's also good to reflect on your professional life. Know where you want to go, what drives you, and what inspires you. Your answers to these things paint a clearer picture of what career you truly desire and how it can fulfill you.

What are my USPs?

As you prepare for a career shift, it's best to note what makes you a cut above the rest. Consider your most valuable skills and the contributions you've made in your previous job. Hiring managers will appreciate it if you give them specific examples of your efficiency and dependability .

What do I want from my career?

Are you seeking better pay? Do you want a better work-life balance and healthier work culture? Career reflection questions pinpoint your needs and will guide you in applying for suitable companies and job roles.

How happy am I?

During your job reflection, ask yourself: what do I like and don't like about my job? Is the stress still worth the salary? Being honest about your happiness with your current role helps you decide whether to stay or move on to better opportunities.

What kind of work environment will help me thrive?

Are you more productive working on-site? Would a hybrid or fully remote setup allow you to focus more? Finding a suitable work environment is crucial because your productivity and mental health matter the most.

Am I OK with commuting far?

Assuming that your next job will be fully on-site, you'll have to consider your home's proximity to the office. If it takes 45 minutes to an hour to get there, think about the cost of fuel and how tedious long-distance driving can be.

The nearer the office is to you, the better. If you're lucky, you might end up with one within walking distance from your home, which is time-efficient and easy on the wallet.

Are my resume and job hunting profiles updated?

Job hunting these days is often done online. Because your work experience and skills grow over time, make sure to update your profile and resume to draw out more searches from companies and hiring managers.

Putting Job Reflection into Action

Reflection is essential for self-improvement. It lets you clear your mind and think about which direction you want your life to go. Finding time to reflect on your career path and knowing what goals to set for yourself is equally important.

Job reflection and noting the career reflection questions listed here are only half the picture, which is why Career.com is here to help. With over 49,204 job postings available, Career.com provides a vast list of job opportunities that could be fitting for you and your skills.

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January 22, 2024

Seven Important Tips for Your HBS Post-Interview Reflection

Congratulations! You’ve just completed another step on the road to acceptance to Harvard Business School (HBS) – your interview . Now, you have 24 hours to send HBS your Post-Interview Reflection…so let’s get started!

When it comes to this part of the process, there’s really one major thing you need to do – reflect! 

How to reflect efficiently and effectively

As soon as possible after your interview , sit down and think about everything that happened during your meeting. Try to complete the first three tips on the following list immediately after your interview.     

1. Think about any of your responses that might not have been as clear as you wanted them to be.

Make note of any answers you gave in which you didn’t hit the nail on the head or your logic or story was a little fuzzy. Was the point you were trying to make relevant and important? If not, let it go. If it was, consider how you could clarify the point in your Reflection essay.     

2. Analyze any responses you gave that you feel were incomplete.

Jot down any points you would have liked to have made if you’d thought of them      during the interview. What should you have included?

3. Take note of the responses you feel you did a great job on.

Take a moment to appreciate the answers you gave that were on point — where your thought process was organized, you were articulate, and you conveyed your response clearly. Give yourself a pat on the back! But then move on – there’s no need to be redundant or circle back to these responses.

4. Choose the elements you want to focus on in your Reflection.

Most of the content of your Reflection should come from what you identified in the first two tips on this list. Focus on the points that relate to what you most want HBS to learn and remember about you.     

Because you don’t want your Post-Interview Reflection to be only about clarifications and adding things you forgot to mention in your interview, make sure to also weave in and close with a reference to something in the interview you feel you aced – but do so in a way that is additive or enhances meaning, rather than being redundant.       

Also, don’t shy away from reflecting on the interaction itself. Think about what you learned during or from the interview experience. For example, did the interviewer question you on a topic from a perspective you hadn’t considered before? Did you gain insight from being thoughtfully challenged on an answer? Showing that you are always learning and thinking – always open to reevaluating experiences and ideas – can only help your case.

5. In terms of tone, think of your Reflection as a one-on-one conversation with another person, or as HBS advises, “Think of it… as an email you might write to a colleague or supervisor after a meeting.”

While the email metaphor connotes dialogue and conversation, it does not imply – or permit – a lack of professionalism. Write your Reflection as you would a business email: you can use the first (“I”) and second (“you”) person in your writing. Keep it cordial, and be sure that it is well written, grammatically correct, and professional. 

6. Be succinct.

Don’t repeat any information that was conveyed in your application. The HBS adcom already has that on file and has reviewed it. And don’t repeat what you said in the interview. They’ve heard that information already, too. 

7. Be sure to express your thanks for their time and continued consideration.

Your social IQ is on display. They’ve invested time in reviewing and considering your application and in meeting with you. Say, “Thank you.”

Make your Reflection meaningful!

Using the seven tips we just presented will make writing your Post-Interview Reflection a much easier and more meaningful experience. And the result will be a more effective, compelling statement that puts the final, lasting shine on your application.       

After a successful career in business publishing, Cindy Tokumitsu worked with Accepted for more than 20 years. Although she no longer works directly with applicants, every year her clients were accepted to top MBA, law, and med programs. She is a pioneer in the niche area of EMBA application consulting. Want an admissions expert to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• Harvard Business School MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines 
• Rejected by HBS – Now What?
• Admissions Straight Talk Podcast for MBA Applicants

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Unlocking Your Career Potential: 7 Self-Reflection Questions to Ask Yourself

Think you can achieve more career-wise it’s time to do some self-reflection to gain clarity in your professional journey..

In the fast-paced and ever-evolving landscape of the professional world, it’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind without taking a moment to reflect on your career path. Even if you’re currently comfortable at work, or not looking to switch careers any time soon, self-reflection can be a transformative tool, unlocking untapped potential and opening doors to new possibilities you may not be aware of. 

On the other hand, if you’re looking to level up in your career, embarking on this introspective journey helps you to gain the invaluable opportunity to chart your own course, align your passions with your professional pursuits, and ultimately thrive in your chosen field.

All you need to do is to set some time aside and start asking yourself some questions relevant to your professional self. 

Unsure of what to ask yourself? Workipedia by MyCareersFuture has got you covered. Here are ten questions we’ve carefully compiled to help you in your self-reflection process.

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7 questions to ask yourself

1. what are my strengths.

Identifying your strengths allows you to leverage them to your advantage. Reflect on the skills, qualities, and expertise that set you apart. Assess how you can further develop and showcase these strengths in your current role or explore opportunities to maximise them. 

Consider seeking feedback from colleagues and mentors or even taking assessments to gain a comprehensive understanding of your strengths.

2. What are my areas for improvement?

No one is perfect, and recognising your areas for improvement is crucial for growth. Reflect on the skills or habits you’d like to develop or refine. 

Consider seeking training or mentorship in these areas, setting specific goals, and creating a plan to address them. Embrace a growth mindset and see challenges as opportunities for learning and improvement.

Have a job but want to level up? Achieve career excellence, develop your skills, and expand your knowledge with resources from Career GRIT. Check it out now!

3. Am I investing in my professional development?

Continuous learning is essential for career growth. Reflect on how you invest in your professional development. Consider whether you’re actively seeking new knowledge, attending conferences or workshops, pursuing certifications, or engaging in networking opportunities. 

Assess how to create a learning plan and allocate time and resources to invest in your skills and knowledge.

Read More: Upskilling and Reskilling: Know the Difference and Why They’re Important for Career Resilience

4. Am I on the right career path?

Take a step back and evaluate if your current career path aligns with your long-term goals. Reflect on whether you feel a sense of purpose and fulfilment in your work. Consider your desired lifestyle, work-life balance, and potential growth opportunities. 

If you find yourself disconnected or unfulfilled, explore alternative paths and be open to making changes that align with your aspirations.

5. Am I challenged enough?

Growth often comes from stepping out of your comfort zone and embracing new challenges. Reflect on whether your current role provides opportunities for growth and development. Consider whether you’re being intellectually stimulated and if there’s room to take on additional responsibilities or projects.

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If you find yourself in a stagnant position, seek out new challenges or consider pursuing professional development opportunities.

Read More: How to Adopt a Growth Mindset for Career Success

6. How do I handle setbacks and failures?

Resilience is a critical skill for success in any career. Reflect on how you handle setbacks, failures, and obstacles. Consider your coping mechanisms, problem-solving skills, and ability to bounce back. 

Assess how you can build your resilience and develop strategies to overcome challenges more effectively. Embrace failure as an opportunity for growth and learning.

7. How do I communicate and collaborate with others?

Strong communication and collaboration skills are essential in today’s interconnected workplace. Reflect on how effectively you communicate your ideas, actively listen, and build relationships with others. 

Consider seeking feedback on your communication style and exploring ways to enhance your interpersonal skills. Look for opportunities to collaborate with diverse teams and build your network.

Career success is not a destination but a journey

Career success is not a destination but a continuous process of learning, adapting, and evolving. You don’t have to self-reflect on your career every day, but at regular intervals – once a year is a good time frame. 

Embrace the power of self-reflection, take deliberate actions, and watch as you unlock new opportunities, fulfilment, and success in your professional life.  

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Reflective essays

Guidance and information on using reflective essays.

The reflective essay is one of the most common reflective assignments and is very frequently used for both formative and especially summative assessments. Reflective essays are about presenting reflections to an audience in a systematic and formal way.

Generally, all good academic practice for assignments applies when posing reflective essays.

Typical reflective essay questions

Reflective essays tend to deal with a reflective prompt that the essay needs to address. This also often means that the essay will have to draw on a range of experiences and theories to fully and satisfactorily answer the question.

The questions/prompts should not be too vague, for example ‘reflect on your learning’, but should define an area or an aspect relevant to your learning outcomes. This is most easily ensured with thorough guidelines, highlighting elements expected in the essay.

Questions could be something like (not exhaustive):

• reflect on learning in the course with regards to [choose an aspect]
• reflect on personal development across an experience with regards to certain skills
• reflect on development towards subject benchmarks statements and the extent to which these are achieved
• reflect on the progression towards the course’s defined learning outcomes or the school’s or the University’s Graduate Attributes
• reflect on some theory relevant to the course. (Remember that for this to be a reflective essay and not an academic/critical essay, the student must use that theory to explain/inform their own experiences, and use their own experiences to criticise and put the theory into context – that is, how theory and experience inform one another.)

Typical structure and language

Reflective essays will often require theoretical literature, but this is not always essential.  Reflective essays can be built around a single individual experience, but will often draw on a series of individual experiences – or one long experience, for example an internship, that is broken into individual experiences.

The typical language and structure is formal – for thorough descriptions on this, see ‘Academic reflections: tips, language and structure’ in the Reflectors’ Toolkit, which can be valuable to highlight to students.

Academic reflections: tips, language and structure (within the Reflectors’ Toolkit)

Length and assignment weight if assessed

There is no one length that a reflective essay must take. As with all written assignments, the main consideration is that the length is appropriate for evidencing learning, answering the question and meeting the criteria.

Similarly, there is no clear answer for what percentage of the overall mark is attached to the assignment. However, the choice should mirror the required workload for the reflector to complete it, how that fits into your initiative, and the amount of preparation the reflector has had.

For instance, if the student has received formative feedback on multiple pieces of work, a larger proportion of the course mark may be appropriate, compared to if the student had not had a chance to practice. It is important to keep in mind that many students will not have had many chances to practice reflective essays before university.

Back to ‘Components of reflective tasks’

Reflections on My Life as Career Coach

Implications for helping professionals and their clients..

Posted February 27, 2021 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina

• What Is a Career
• Find a career counselor near me

• One career coach reflects on lessons learned, including the centrality of a counselor's ethics and the importance of truly understanding a range of careers.
• The client base includes many who need help with motivation , and those who will end up self-employed, making these key arenas in which to hone one's coaching skills .
• Counselors themselves should be self-starters, emotionally stable and willing to broaden their own skill-sets.

I’m in my 36th year as a career and personal coach, and I've had the privilege (that's not just a cliche, it's true) of helping more than 6,000 clients navigate a central part of their life.

Perhaps it's time to share some candid reflections in hope they might be helpful not just to career counselors and coaches but to other helping professionals as well as to clients.

A few observations on ethics

I want to start with ethics. The older I get, the more central I am finding ethics to be. I’ve been a little disappointed in myself for not fully walking my talk about career counselor ethics. On these pages, I’ve wondered about the ethics of career counselors' making their clients look like better candidates for a job than they are. And I've been critical of hired guns who write their clients’ resume—I view that as no more ethical than a parent writing their child’s college application essay. I haven't done the latter but have helped job candidates prepare for interviews, including suggesting compelling answers. I don't do that for the money. It's mainly because it’s hard to say no, and perhaps because I rationalize , “It’s not that big a deal.” I'm not really sure I understand why I do it; I only know it's true.

One more ethical issue: There’s temptation to encourage a private-practice client to schedule a next session, even if not really needed. Here, I believe I'm on solid ground. At the end of each session, I honestly describe the extent to which I believe a next session is appropriate. If anything, I err on the side of not pushing for another session to ensure that my ethics are solid. A related point, I consider it unethical for counselors to offer only packages of multiple sessions. Progress and compatibility vary in ways that often cannot be anticipated, so I believe that the only ethical pricing is per-session.

On a more positive note, I feel good about helping people choose a career and make the most of their work life, and more often than I would have anticipated, their romantic life and parenting —career often bleeds into the personal. Over the decades, I've spent more and more time learning about and helping clients with such issues.

I do think that career coaching requires much more expertise than many coaches have. Many are nice people with a bent toward marketing themselves, but they don't know enough about the world of work.

Work-world expertise that makes for an effective career counselor

• Understanding a range of careers, not just their existence but the not-obvious but central abilities required. These often are subjective and thus rarely find their way into authoritative articles and books.

For example, the physician who doesn’t burn out needs to balance caring with a thick skin in the face of death and intractable disease, a tolerance for inordinate paperwork, the humility to recognize that despite the long, expensive, sometimes boring training, because medicine is still in its adolescence and the field is rapidly changing, there's much they don’t know, and the overwhelmed health care system means that even if the doc knows what to do, errors in the health care chain and bureaucratic delays cause excess morbidity and mortality. Even pre-COVID, 150,000 patients die unnecessarily every year in hospitals alone because of medical errors, the third leading cause of death! As a result, many doctors try to transfer out of clinical practice into management , patient review, etc. It’s tough for a career counselor or client to discover such information by reading or in an informational interview. I’ve learned such things from confidential discussions with thousands of clients, and because I’ve chosen to specialize in just a few fields: physicians, attorneys, executives, and educators, I know more of those fields' subtleties than I would had I been a generalist.

• Knowing what it takes to succeed at a high level in the real-world workplace: people management, project management, running meetings, public speaking , diversity and inclusion issues, stress management, time management , and procrastination .
• Understanding what it takes to succeed in self-employment. Career counselors, especially those in private practice, tend to attract many clients who have difficulty getting hired, so they often consider self-employment. It's especially important to understand how to help people who aren't natural entrepreneurs to maximize their likelihood of success: under-the-radar, low-investment viable niches, the art of minimizing costs while remaining ethical, etc.
• In any specialty, being a counselor demands the ineffable but central ability to motivate people to move forward, something on which I’d give myself only a B. Even at this late point in my career, I think about and occasionally even ask clients whether they have a suggestion for how I might be more helpful in unlocking their motivation.
• You must be a responsible self-starter. No one will make you prepare for each session, take notes after, stay current, and, in private practice, spend time on marketing, which alas, in the beginning at least, is usually necessary.
• You must be emotionally stable. People don’t pay a coach or counselor because they or their situation are easy. Disproportionately, they procrastinate, are long-winded, emotionally sensitive, not as rational as you’d wish, etc. And all of them won't share your values. Unless a person’s values violate your ethics (I have turned-down prospective clients who work in the tobacco and the surprisingly dangerous cannabis industries), you need the emotional restraint to put aside, for example, your political perspectives, and help the client achieve their goals.
• It’s important to go beyond your clinical work. That broadens your expertise and keeps you from burning out. For example, writing this blog and public speaking solidify and expand my knowledge and allow me to share it. Also, I have been a consultant to organizations, which provides a reality check—If I spent all my time in the bubble of my counseling office, it would be easy to forget how complex things are in the real world.

Would I become a career coach/counselor if I were starting over? I’m not sure. I love the autonomy, feel pretty good about the ethics, appreciate the peaceful work environment, and that almost all my clients find me helpful. But as any helping professional knows, change often occurs slowly. I’m fast-paced and wonder if I might have made a bigger contribution as an in-and-out consultant to organizations that I believed in, or even doing something completely different, for example, full-time writer or even genetics researcher.

So, dear reader, whether helping professional or client, as I am wont to ask at the end of sessions and talks, is there at least one thing you want to remember from today’s session?

I read this aloud on YouTube.

Marty Nemko, Ph.D ., is a career and personal coach based in Oakland, California, and the author of 10 books.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Self Reflection — Reflecting on My Internship Experience: Lessons Learned

Reflecting on My Internship Experience: Lessons Learned

• Categories: Internship Self Reflection

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Published: Feb 7, 2024

Words: 628 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, overview of the internship, goals and expectations, learning and professional growth, challenges and lessons learned, interactions and networking, application of classroom knowledge, ethical considerations.

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Your Career is a Reflection on Your Life

by Martha Duesterhoft | Jan 15, 2015 | Career Advice

So what career strategies can be put in place so that our working life is as fulfilling as possible? After all, if you’re going to spend all that time working, why not make it one of the best parts of your life?

While I’m nowhere close to retiring, I’ve worked long enough to have some ideas about what can make a career a great part of life. Here are my three favorites:

Make Your Health is a Top Priority:

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and being proactive about addressing any health issues is critical. A healthy mind and body provides you with the energy and fortitude to tackle tough business problems, travel as needed, and motivate those around you. You have to be present and physically able to work to make a contribution. When you are not feeling well, you can’t contribute like you should. Be proactive in making good eating, drinking, sleeping and exercise choices. Keep those doctor/dentist appointments and remember, your health is the foundation for everything…your quality of life depends on it!

Develop Positive Relationships:

Relationships take work. But it’s work that can reap huge benefits. Having solid relationships, both personally and professionally can make a big difference in your outlook and coping skills when things get tough. If there are people who are toxic and detrimental to your well-being, make a choice to extract yourself from those relationships. Instead, use the time to build and maintain the relationships that are positive and add meaning. Surround yourself with people that support you and feed your soul. That means YOU need to reach out and connect, stay interested in their lives and support them when needed.

Find a Balance:

This is not about balancing time you spend at work and home…that’s just not realistic ALL the time. What is realistic is finding a balance in experiencing achievement and enjoyment. Most of us have a similar understanding of “achievement”. My definition of “enjoyment”, relative to this balance, is about doing things that give you satisfaction, happiness, and sense of well- being. If you focus only about achievement, it can result in those situations where you are “successful”, but not really happy. If you can find something to do each day that gives you a sense of achievement AND something you do for yourself that you enjoy, then you have a winning balance. I’m fortunate in that I enjoy exercise, so when I go to the gym in the morning, I’m doing a bit of both achieving and enjoying…plus it’s a way I can keep health a top priority!

These three strategies don’t guarantee that you’ll always love your job, but they can help you manage through those tough patches and keep you on the road to finding work that is meaningful for you.

Also, remember that your career is a long-distance race, not a sprint. Pace yourself, enjoy the journey and make your career story interesting and rewarding!

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Adultery Gets Weird in Miranda July’s New Novel

An anxious artist’s road trip stops short for a torrid affair at a tired motel. In “All Fours,” the desire for change is familiar. How to satisfy it isn’t.

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By Alexandra Jacobs

ALL FOURS, by Miranda July

Erica Jong’s Isadora Wing feared flying , but womanned up to attend the first psychoanalytic conference in Vienna since the Holocaust. Fifty years later , the unnamed heroine of Miranda July’s new novel, “All Fours” — let’s call her Amanda Huggenkiss — can barely begin a cross-country road trip.

Huggenkiss — aah, never mind — the anonymous narrator is five years from 50 herself: a “semi-famous” artist with a desk that’s a little wobbly and a career to match. “I worked in so many mediums that I was able to debut many times,” she recounts. “I just kept emerging, like a bud opening over and over again.”

She’s married to a music producer, Harris, who divides people up not into hedgehogs and foxes but Drivers and Parkers. The former, like himself, are functional and content. The latter, like his wife, are bored by ordinary life but, craving applause, thrive in tight spots and emergencies.

One was the birth of their baby, Sam (a nonbinary “ theyby ”), after the kind of fetal-maternal hemorrhage that often results in stillbirth. Mrs. Harris is ecstatic about her child, now a second grader — taking weekly candlelit baths with them, she weeps with love — but she feels her parenting efforts, which include massaging kale for a five-part bento box lunch, go underrecognized or criticized. And her sex life, which is dependent on fantasy, a.k.a. “mind-rooted,” has suffered. Sometimes when she delays initiating, she can hear her body-rooted husband’s penis “whistling impatiently like a teakettle.”

After a whiskey company unexpectedly licenses one of her saucy sentences for $20,000, she decides to splurge for her birthday on a room at the Carlyle, the fancy-pants hotel on New York’s Upper East Side. But, starting from Los Angeles, she only makes it as far as a motel in the nearby suburb of Monrovia. And that’s when things get weird in that Miranda July way that some critics find the ne plus ultra of twee (Harris twee?) and I happen to enjoy very much, with a few caveats.

Angst about the change of life — what Jong would call “ Fear of Fifty ” — seems a family curse. At 55, the narrator’s paternal grandmother had fatally flung herself out the window, first considerately placing herself in a garbage bag; an Aunt Ruthie followed; and her own mother is cognitively impaired and hard of hearing (while her father perpetually occupies a “deathfield” of depression and panic). But she is most immediately concerned with losing her looks and libido: of falling off, what she sees on a graph of shifting hormones over a life span, the “estrogen cliff.”

She blows her windfall to redo Room 321 in lavish and idiosyncratic style, carpeted in New Zealand wool and scented with tonka beans, then begins a torrid and all-consuming romance with the decorator’s husband, a hip-hop hobbyist named Davey who works at Hertz and resembles Gilbert Blythe from the “Anne of Green Gables” series. (Blythe and a Grand Parterre Sarouk carpet are the kinds of allusions July drops for her cultivated audience without explanation.)

A few words about the sex in “All Fours,” which is titled for what the narrator’s best friend, a sculptor, calls “the most stable position. Like a table.” (Well, not a wobbly one.) It is gaspingly graphic, sometimes verging on gross (urine, tampons and a suspected polyp — “hopefully benign”— all come into play), and supplemented with masturbation galore. Compelled to read these definitely not twee-rated passages, I briefly considered filing a complaint with human resources. Then I remembered the protracted and messy sex scenes released with such fanfare into the culture by Philip Roth, Harold Brodkey, et al., and decided I was being discriminatory and prudish.

Jong popularized the idea of “zipless” intercourse (more snappily than that); July’s term is “bottomless.” Her perimenopausal protagonist’s desire is insatiable, unfathomable, roving across genders and generations: a kind of supernova of lust preceding what she anticipates will be the black hole of senescence.

Even more than this adulterous appetite, her casual ageism, in a milieu where preferred pronouns are sacred, can shock. “Nobody except the doctor knew — or could even conceive of — what was going on between her legs,” she thinks of a woman in her 70s glimpsed in the gynecologist’s office, imagining “gray labia, long and loose.” ( Paging Arnold Kegel !) And, buying a 1920s bedspread from a “free spirit” at an antique mall: “Sometimes my hatred of older women almost knocked me over, it came so abruptly.”

Hatred is fear-based, of course — and you come to understand that the main character’s real journey will not be on Route 66, but the path to self-acceptance. In order to ride shotgun comfortably, though, you have to accept her preoccupation with the reflection in the rearview mirror; her indifference to any current affairs but her own.

When this unnamed She spray-paints “CALL ME” on a chair for the now-estranged Davey, it’s like John Cusack’s boombox serenade in “Say Anything.” When she posts a wild dance on Instagram after firming her own body at the gym, frantically seeking his Like, it’s like the boombox turned up to arena volume.

Are the mental-health professionals back from Europe yet? One pops up late on Harris’s arm, as the marriage reconfigures, but otherwise they’re strangely absent from “All Fours,” whose woman on the verge of chronological maturity has the intense focus of an artist, sure — but also a yearning adolescent.

ALL FOURS | By Miranda July | Riverhead | 336 pp. | $29

Alexandra Jacobs is a Times book critic and occasional features writer. She joined The Times in 2010. More about Alexandra Jacobs

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