3. Sharing your experience... From Reading to Writing In their essays, Emerson and Thoreau reflect upon some basic truths about life that they derived from personal experience. Emerson’s words, “Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist,” still prod us to examine our lives today. Reflective Essay

4. Sharing your experience... Like Emerson and Thoreau, you, too, have experiences from which you learn important lessons. A reflective essay describes a personal experience and explores its significance. Autobiographies, letters, and memoirs often include reflective writing that gives insight into the writer’s action. Reflective Essay

5. 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 re-create 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 the experience in light of their own lives

6. Writing Your Reflective Essay Try listing some memorable experiences. You might look through family photograph albums to help jog your memory. Make a list of people who inspire you. What have these people done to earn your admiration? Jot down some notes about an incident from each person’s life that shows his or her special qualities. 1 Prewriting To find ideas for your essay

7. Planning Your Reflective Essay 1.Think about your experience. Why do you remember this experience more clearly than others? What different emotions did you go through during the experience? Did your emotions change? 2.Explore the significance. What is the significance of your experience? What is the most obvious meaning to you? What else did your experience teach you? Keep exploring to uncover as many levels of meaning as you can.

8. Planning Your Reflective Essay 3.Decide on the scope of your essay. Due to the limited range of the assignment, you must find an event or person that can be discussed in detail, but is not too broad in scope. 4.Decide on the message you want to convey. How can you encourage your readers to apply the meaning of the experience to their own lives?

9. Writing Your Reflective Essay 2 Drafting A writer’s material is what he cares about. John Gardner A writer’s material is what he cares about. John Gardner

10. Writing Your Reflective Essay 2 Drafting Begin Writing You might write about your experience as though you were writing a journal entry. Or, you may want to begin your draft by trying out a variety of ideas. Let your ideas flow even though you sense problems you’ll need to address later.

11. Writing Your Reflective Essay 2 Drafting Organize Your Essay Start your paper with an account of your experience and then explain its significance. From that point, go on to discuss the larger lesson about life that the experience has taught you. Or, begin with the larger lesson you want to share with your readers and then describe the experience that helped you learn this lesson.

12. Writing Your Reflective Essay 2 Drafting Elaborate on Ideas Precise, vivid language will help you convey the lesson about life you want to explain. After you write a rough draft of your whole essay, set it aside for a while before you go back to revise it. Taking a fresh look will help you see problems that you may have overlooked.

13. Writing Your Reflective Essay 3 Revising Target Skill AVOIDING CLICHÉS Make sure that none of your images are clichés, expressions that were once fresh and powerful but have since been overused.

14. Writing Your Reflective Essay 4 Editing and Proofreading Target Skill POSSESSIVES AND PLURALS As you revise your reflective essay, be sure that you have formed plurals and possessives correctly.

15. Your Prompt… Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family. Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

16. Introduction: Attention Chronological Start – this is where you write your story in chronological order (start at the beginning of the event and continue) and build up the experience as it evolves. “It was Tuesday when the letter arrived. Flash-Forward Start. This is where you start in the middle of a really exciting bit to catch attention … then move backwards in time to give the necessary information needed for full understanding. “The slamming door reminded me that this relationship was over before it ever really started. “The music seemed to share my tears and heart ache as I said my final goodbye.

17. Body Paragraphs Use a strong statement (topic sentence) at the beginning of each paragraph to help you focus your ideas on the experience you are going to explore in the rest of that paragraph. Try to make a reflective comment somewhere in each paragraph to help the reader understand the significance of the experience.

18. Conclusion Time This is where you stand back from the events and experiences that you have been describing. You have the advantage of time now and you can compare your present feelings with what you felt at the time. The broader the gap between the two, the greater your maturity may seem to have developed. (i.e. try to sound wise and all-knowing in your conclusion!!)

19. Guidelines Word Length: Intermediate Min 300 Max 500 AdvancedMin 450Max 650 Rough Draft – Due Thursday, 8 January 2015 Neatly handwritten Final Draft – Due Thursday, 15 January 2015 Must be typed and stapled to the rough draft. Typed and in MLA Format