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Reflective Essay Examples

50 best reflective essay examples (+topic samples).

If you have ever read reflective essay examples, you would know that these types of written works examine the writer’s life experiences . When you write a reflective paper example, you write about your own experiences and explore how you’ve changed, grown or developed because of those experiences. There’s no standard format for this essay as it may vary depending on the target audience.

Table of Contents

  • 1 Reflective Essay Examples
  • 2 What is a reflective essay?
  • 3 Reflective Paper Examples
  • 4 Format of reflective essay
  • 5 Creating the outline of reflective essay examples
  • 6 Reflective Paper Samples
  • 7 Tips for writing reflective essay
  • 8 Reflective Essay Samples

Free reflective essay example 01

What is a reflective essay?

A reflective essay is a type of written work which reflects your own self. Since it’s about yourself, you already have a topic to write about. For reflective essay examples, readers expect you to evaluate a specific part of your life. To do this, you may reflect on emotions, memories, and feelings you’ve experienced at that time.

Since you’re writing reflection essay samples about yourself, make sure that they’re interesting and exciting. This is very important so that your readers don’t get bored with what you’ve written. Reflective essays are very personal thus, they’re a special type of essay. As you write one, you need to reflect, think, and explain.

In the essay, you should demonstrate and describe different feelings or emotions which you’ve felt in the past. These statements breathe life into your essay as your readers start picturing what you’ve written in their minds. Reflective essays are very honest, personal, and emotional, especially those which describe painful experiences.

Reflective Paper Examples

Free reflective essay example 10

Format of reflective essay

As aforementioned, reflective essay examples don’t have a standard format. They seem easy enough to write but once you’ve sat down to start writing, you may suddenly find the task very challenging! Besides the format, you must think about the life experience you want to write about and remember everything about it.

A reflective paper example is a lot like a personal journal or diary. Of course, the difference is that other people will read your essay. Therefore, you must write it with good structure and coherence. In this regard, reflective essays are a lot like the other types of essays too.

When writing a reflective essay, you will have to examine your own life experiences. The purpose of writing such an essay is to provide yourself with a platform to share your most meaningful life experiences with other people. You can also use it as a way to explore how your experiences have changed you as a person.

You can present reflective writing in different formats. Most of the time though, people use a learning log or a diary entry format. You can use these formats and others. Just make sure that your essay has a good flow and that it’s easy for other readers to understand.

The format to use for your reflection essay samples would depend on your target audience. You can make an academic reflective essay or you can make it as a general and informal piece of writing. If you need to write the essay for a class assignment, follow the format given to you by your teacher.

No matter what format you choose, you may write an essay which:

  • Focuses on your personal growth Such an essay helps you learn how to evaluate and analyze the experiences you have had in your personal life. This helps promote emotional development and growth. It also helps you understand yourself and your behaviors better.
  • Focuses on literature For this type of essay, you may have to include references to literature and apply these to your own life experiences. Such essays are commonly given as assignments to students in school.

Free reflective essay example 20

Creating the outline of reflective essay examples

Before you write your reflective essay examples, you must create an outline for them. Although you’d write about your own life, creating an outline gives structure to your essay to serve as a guide for what you want to write about.

Whether you need to write an essay for school, for a magazine or for any other reason, creating an outline is the very first step. With a good outline, you have a better idea of how your essay will flow from one paragraph to the next all the way to the conclusion.

When creating the outline of your reflective paper example, keep it organized. Develop the outline gradually and put a lot of thought into it. In doing this, you make the writing process much easier. Here is a rundown of the steps involved in the essay-writing process:

  • Choose a topic (a significant life experience you want to write about)
  • Gather information
  • Create an outline
  • Write a draft
  • Finalize your essay

Reflective Paper Samples

Free reflective essay example 30

Tips for writing reflective essay

As you think about the content of your reflection essay samples, remember that the important thing is that such an essay must be highly personal but also engaging to readers. There’s so much more to reflective essays than just writing your story. You must also reflect on your experiences to engage your audiences.

For your starting point, think about the most significant experiences you had in your life. Those which had either a negative or a positive impact on you as a person. If the reflective essay is a school assignment, your professor would probably specify what you must write about. Here are some tips for you for writing your reflective paper example:

  • Reflection The most important part of writing your reflective essay is the reflective process. Think about the personal experience you want to write about. Focus on what happened, how this experience made you feel, and how it affected your life. Explore your memories and emotions for this part of the process. As you’re recalling and reflecting on your life experience, take a lot of notes . Write down all the details you remember and try to be as clear and as detailed as you possibly can. Take as much time as you need for reflection. You can even close your eyes as you try to remember those experiences vividly. When you’re confident that you have recalled all of the details of your life experience, it’s time to write your essay. To make it more meaningful, try to answer some important questions about your life experience including: Did you learn anything new about yourself because of this experience? Have you grown or developed because of this experience? If so, in what way? Did this experience impact your life positively or negatively? If you had the chance to experience this all over again, would you do anything differently? Why did you behave in such a way at the time of this experience? Did you make the right choices? What are your general thoughts and feelings about this experience? Can you say that you learned from this experience? Did you gain any new perspectives or skills because of this experience? These are “signpost questions” which can help you write a more meaningful essay. These are just some examples, you can also think of your own questions to ask yourself. The point of these questions is to make sure that you think critically and deeply about the experience you’re writing about.
  • Planning After you’ve reflected on your life experience, it’s time to start planning your essay. When it’s time to start, you might feel as if you’re not adequately prepared even though you’ve done a lot of reflection. This is a normal feeling, especially if you want to create a written piece which people will love reading. To ease your anxiety and doubt, come up with a well-rounded and comprehensive plan. The best way to do this is through an outline. With an outline to guide your writing process, you can come up with an essay that’s more coherent and which has a clear structure. An outline or plan is important for reflective essays. Since you’re writing about an emotionally-charged topic, you might find yourself getting “lost” along the way. This is especially true if you’re writing about a painful experience which still affects you until now. The outline serves as a map for you to keep your thoughts organized. In your outline, make sure to establish all of the fundamental details you wish to include in your essay. This helps you pick out and remove any superfluous information to make it easier to read and understand. Planning the points you want to write about makes it easier for you to stay on point. As such, your writing becomes a lot clearer and your readers can follow your line of thought. An outline also prevents you from missing out any relevant information. It’s very difficult and frustrating to go back after you’ve written the whole essay just to fit in this information! Planning your essay also saves you a lot of time. Coming up with the structure makes you more familiar with your essay even before you start writing it. Thus, you can spend more time writing, revising, and proofreading your essay to make it the best version possible.

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Free reflective essay example 40

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Project Management Reflective Essay Example

Project Management Reflective Essay

Author : Breton Nokia

Project management is an extensive field of study for students in the UK and all over the world. To be able to handle different types of projects, it is important to gain a comprehensive outlook on the concepts that are covered in the project planning process. The students who aspire to become great project managers have to polish their skills in reflecting upon their learning.

This is the reason students are given the task of writing reflective essays in their project management assignments. Realising this, our project plan dissertation help experts have always been engaged in this field to bring forth well-curated project management reflective essay examples that can come handy when they begin their work. Over the years, a lot of students have benefitted from this, as a result of which they have achieved stellar results in their assignments.

Due to the high demand of the project management courses all over the UK, students are also given the opportunity to get a project management professional (PMP) certification online. Irrespective of whether a student is an amateur in the field of project management, or looking to enhance their skill set in this discipline, the PMP certification is a must-have!

Owing to the importance of this course in the UK and all across the world, it is essential to be thorough with how to write project management reflective essay . Fret not, as our project management help experts are fully geared up to assist you with this assessment task. Since 2010, we have stuck to our motto of “making assignments simpler”. In the last ten years, we have curated professional reference assignment samples for students to make it possible for them to complete their assignments on time. In this blog, we will be dealing with certain aspects of such an assessment and see how to write them the best. So, let’s get started.

project management process

How To Reflect On A Project Management Assignment?

Before we throw some light on the basic approach to writing project management reflective essays , it is important to let you know the process of how to write it. In the recent few years, we have transcended all our boundaries to impart all the requisite knowledge to students for such tasks.

The reference project management reflective essay examples that we have drafted for students adhere to 5 basic objectives, which are as follows:

  • Describing the setting of the project
  • State the reasons for choosing the project and the aims of the project undertaken
  • Give a brief overview of the project planning and how it will be carried out
  • Explain the objectives that were achieved
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of the project
  • Reflect upon the professional learning from the project

These are the steps that you need to include in your reflections. Without these, your work would not be complete. This is the reason, you will find all of these points in the project management reflective essay examples that we have prepared for students all over the world.

Now that you have got a brief overview of how to go about with this assessment task, our management assignment help will make it even simpler for you to understand it with the help of one of our best samples.

Confused On Any Aspect Of Reflective Essays? Clear Them All With The Help Of The Best Project Management Reflective Essay Example!

My Assignment Services has been a paradise for all those students who find it tedious to combat with these technical assignments. So, let us quickly brief you all on the most important aspects of these reflection assignments with the help of the samples that we have prepared for our clients previously.

project management assignment sample

From our storehouse of hundreds of thousands of high-quality project management reflective essay examples, this is that one question that has been catered by us most of the times for students. As you can see in the image above, here is the assessment brief for this question. Students have approached us to get assistance on several similar kinds of assignments in the last decade and we have successfully helped them with high-quality reference assignment solutions.

The main objective of this task is to identify at least one scenario from personal experience where the students could not apply the different theories of project management. Covering the five process groups in project management, which include initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, the task is to reflect upon the key learning and suggest the areas of improvement.

This is one of those questions where our business assignment help experts can come to be really useful for students. Adhering to a fixed format for the work, it is just a matter of a few moments for us to work upon this assignment file and furnish students with instant solutions. Here, our project plan dissertation help writers begin with giving a short description of the event that has taken place in the assignment. Then, using appropriate literature to support the claims, we analyse the existing event. The next step is to ponder over the ways by which the future outcomes can be modified in the favour of the person who has undertaken the project by making some changes. The last and the final step in this project management reflective essay example is to reflect upon the key learning to find out the loopholes in the existing setting that can be rectified in the future.

So, this brings us to the end of the assignment. However, it is not as easy as it seems to be. There are several aspects that have not been touched yet. If you require the guidance of our project management help experts on any of these assignments, then you can simply hand us over all the requirement and we will get back to you with a well-structured project management reflective essay example for your reference. And, if you need an instant doubt clearing session from our experts, then you can stay assured as we have already got this covered for you. With the help of the live one-on-one sessions that we hold for you regularly, we can provide you with instant feedback on all your doubts so that you can ace your assignments.

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Not only do we possess PhD degrees in various disciplines from a wide range of reputed universities all over the world, but we also hold a great industry experience of over ten years in this academic field. Our professional industry veterans are always brimming with enthusiasm when it comes to helping students with their assessment tasks. Be it a query regarding a sample to providing them with unlimited revisions, there has never been a single stone that our project management help experts have left unturned for students.

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About the Author

project management reflective essay examples

Breton Nokia

Hello! My name is Breton Nokia and I am Juris Doctor (JD) from a prestigious law school. I am a prominent corporate attorney at a top New York law firm. I specialize in corporate law and have successfully negotiated highly successful mergers and acquisitions which resulted in my first title award of “Lawyer of the Year. I am excited to work with an Online Assignment Expert and share my knowledge with all the law students who are here to learn something new and insightful.

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Critical Reflection

A Critical Reflection (also called a reflective essay) is a process of identifying, questioning, and assessing our deeply-held assumptions – about our knowledge, the way we perceive events and issues, our beliefs, feelings, and actions. When you reflect critically, you use course material (lectures, readings, discussions, etc.) to examine our biases, compare theories with current actions, search for causes and triggers, and identify problems at their core.   Critical reflection is   not   a reading assignment, a summary of an activity, or an emotional outlet.   Rather,   the goal is   to change your thinking about a subject, and thus change your behaviour.

Tip: Critical reflections are common in coursework across all disciplines, but they can take very different forms. Your instructor may ask you to develop a formal essay, produce weekly blog entries, or provide short paragraph answers to a set of questions. Read the assignment guidelines before you begin.

How to Critically Reflect

Writing a critical reflection happens in two phases.

  • Analyze:   In the first phase, analyze the issue and your role by asking critical questions. Use free writing as a way to develop good ideas. Don’t worry about organized paragraphs or good grammar at this stage.
  • Articulate:   In the second phase, use your analysis to develop a clear argument about what you learned. Organize your ideas so they are clear for your reader.

First phase: Analyze

A popular method for analyzing is the three stage model: What? So What? Now what?

In the  What?  stage, describe the issue, including your role, observations, and reactions. The   what?   stage helps you make initial observations about what you feel and think. At this point, there’s no need to look at your course notes or readings.

Use the questions below to guide your writing during this stage.

  • What happened?
  • What did you do?
  • What did you expect?
  • What was different?
  • What was your reaction?
  • What did you learn?

In the second  So What?   stage, try to understand on a deeper level why the issue is significant or relevant. Use information from your first stage, your course materials (readings, lectures, discussions) -- as well as previous experience and knowledge to help you think through the issue from a variety of perspectives.

Tip:  Since you’ll be using more course resources in this step, review your readings and course notes before you begin writing.

Below are three perspectives you can consider:

  • Academic perspective: How did the experience enhance your understanding of a concept/theory/skill? Did the experience confirm your understanding or challenge it? Did you identify strengths or gaps in your knowledge?
  • Personal perspective:   Why does the experience matter? What are the consequences? Were your previous expectations/assumptions confirmed or refuted? What surprised you and why?
  • Systems perspective:   What were the sources of power and who benefited/who was harmed? What changes would you suggest? How does this experience help you understand the organization or system?

In the third   Now what?   stage, explore how the experience will shape your future thinking and behaviour.

Use the following questions to guide your thinking and writing:

  • What are you going to do as a result of your experiences?
  • What will you do differently?
  • How will you apply what you learned?

Second phase: Articulate

After completing the analysis stage, you probably have a lot of writing, but it is not yet organized into a coherent story. You need to build an organized and clear argument about what you learned and how you changed. To do so,   develop a thesis statement , make an   outline ,   write , and   revise.

Develop a thesis statement

Develop a clear argument to help your reader understand what you learned. This argument should pull together different themes from your analysis into a main idea. You can see an example of a thesis statement in the sample reflection essay at the end of this resource.

Tip: For more help on developing thesis statements, see our   Thesis statements  resource

Make an outline

Once you have a clear thesis statement for your essay, build an outline. Below is a straightforward method to organize your essay.

  • Background/Context of reflection
  • Thesis statement
  • Introduce theme A
  • Writer's past position/thinking
  • Moment of learning/change
  • Writer's current/new position
  • Introduce theme B
  • Introduce theme C
  • Summarize learning
  • Discuss significance of learning for self and others
  • Discuss future actions/behaviour

Write and revise

Time to get writing! Work from your outline and give yourself enough time for a first draft and revisions.

Even though you are writing about your personal experience and learning, your audience may still be an academic one. Consult the assignment guidelines or ask your instructor to find out whether your writing should be formal or informal.

Sample Critical Reflection

Below are sample annotated paragraphs from one student’s critical reflection for a course on society and privilege.

Introduction

Background/context of reflection : I became aware of privileged positions in society only in recent years. I was lucky enough, privileged enough, to be ignorant of such phenomena, but for some, privilege is a daily lesson of how they do not fit into mainstream culture. In the past, I defined oppression as only that which is obvious and intentional. I never realized the part I played. However, during a class field study to investigate privileged positions in everyday environments, I learned otherwise.   Thesis:   Without meaning to, I caused harm by participating in a system where I gained from others’ subtle oppression. In one of these spaces, the local mall, everything from advertisements to food to products, to the locations of doorways, bathrooms and other public necessities, made clear my privilege as a white, heterosexual male.

Body paragraph

Topic sentence : Peggy McIntosh describes privilege as an invisible knapsack of tools and advantages. This description crystalized for me when I shopped for a greeting card at the stationary store. There, as a white, heterosexual male, I felt comfortable and empowered to roam about the store as I pleased. I freely asked the clerk about a mother’s day card.   Writer’s past position:   Previously, I never considered that a store did anything but sell products. However, when I asked the sales clerk for same sex greeting cards, she paused for a few seconds and gave me a look that made me feel instantly uncomfortable. Some customers stopped to look at me. I felt a heat move over my face. I felt, for a moment, wrong for being in that store.  I quickly clarified that I was only doing a report for school, implying that I was not in fact homosexual.   Writer’s current position:   The clerk’s demeanor changed. I was free to check, she said.  It was the only time during the field study that I had felt the need to explain what I was doing to anyone. I could get out of the situation with a simple clarification. But what if I really was a member of the homosexual community? The looks and the silence taught me that I should be feared.  I realized that, along with its products, the store was selling an image of normal. But my “normality” was another person’s “abnormality.”  After I walked out of the store I felt guilty for having denied being homosexual.

Summary of learning:   At the mall I realized how much we indirectly shame nonprivileged groups, even in seemingly welcoming spaces. That shame is supported every time I or any other privileged individual fails to question our advantage. And it leads to a different kind of shame carried by privileged individuals, too.   Value for self and others:   All of this, as Brown (2003) documents, is exacerbated by silence. Thus, the next step for me is to not only question privilege internally, but to publicly question covert bias and oppression. If I do, I may very well be shamed for speaking out. But my actions might just encourage other people to speak up as well.

Sample paragraphs adapted from James C. Olsen's Teaching Portfolio from Georgetown University .

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A reflective blog: an academic reflection in four paragraphs (from Master of Project Management)

From an activity in this week's lecture I learned that the best place to start resource planning is with questioning to clarify the client needs and to enable the work breakdown structure (WBS). The guest lecturer in Project Management Techniques, Dr Strangelove, started her presentation by asking us to assemble as a group of five and then build a tower from straws. She said it would be judged in terms of strength, height, and how aesthetically pleasing it was. My group and I did the task cooperatively and we finished it in the prescribed time. We thought we had done very well. Then Dr Strangelove made her point: all groups built the tower without much attention to project management techniques in terms of asking clients for clarification for planning, resources allocation, etc. None of us had asked a single question about the purpose, constraints, resources or stakeholder needs. The group displayed what she describes as ‘groupthink’. I was amused and embarrassed but I learned a lesson about project management.

Understanding the importance of clarification is central to my understanding of project management. It underpins my use of PM tools and techniques. Asking clarifying questions about types of work resources (people and equipment) and material resources (supplies, stock, and other consumable resources) allows me to identify what resources are needed for project effectiveness. When we want to designate who or what is accountable for accomplishing tasks in our project schedule I can use PM tools to assign tasks and responsibilities ... All this is possible only if requirements are clarified through questions.

A major benefit of understanding the critical role of questioning in project management is that it might give me more confidence about asking questions. It changes my view of questioning government authorities. In my job as a project manager in the reserve bank in Phnom Penh I traditionally would not feel able to question my superiors in these projects. I would try to establish the requirements and resources in some other way. I thought I could avoid asking questions by transferring lessons learned from one situation to another. I could do this by using a framework as a predictive aid to resourcing (Crawford and Pollack, 2004)... But now I feel I am required by my position to determine the dimensions and resources of a project. Knowing the role of questioning to achieve objective clarity for a specific purpose is very valuable for me to give me confidence in my position as a project manager in government projects.
I believe this new realisation will be useful throughout my degree and in my future professional and private life. In my degree studies, I will endeavour to clarify the critical aspects of project planning by using a questioning technique that allows for understanding objective dimensions, and also any subjective aspects. In my practice as a project manager in Cambodia I will use questioning to clarify the project goals and objectives with all stakeholders. In my life I will question my own assumptions about what is expected of me before I jump in (and build any more towers).
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A reflective essay is a type of writing where you explore how an event, experience, or concept has influenced your development or perspective. It involves deep thinking, self-analysis, and personal reflection. In a reflective essay, you explai what you learned and how you changed as a result of that experience.

In this article, you will learn how to write a reflective essay, and how to highlight impactful experiences. A reflection essay seems easy as you don’t have to defend one’s point of view or convince the reader of something. But it has its challenges, so we recommend to keep on reading and find out everything you need to know about this type of essay. More complex examples are available down below.

What Is a Reflective Essay: Definition

A good question to start with is, “What is a reflective essay?” A reflective essay is a type of academic writing, in which the student has to test personal life experience/position towards a particular topic. Unlike in argumentative writing, the student does not have to defend the personal position. It does not require a complicated, professional language with some terminology. Do not define something - focus on sharing personal life experience, skills, development, and the most vivid examples to illustrate the topic.

Reflective Essay Format

A reflection essay student writes to meet the college writing standards has a different format from the one a magazine writer should present to reach the issue’s audience. However, each reflective paper has a similar outline. Reflective essay format depends on the general requirements your teacher provides. Some of them can ask for a specific format for your essay. APA writing style , MLA, and Chicago are the basic formats you can use. But if you don’t know exactly which formatting to use, you can use reflective essay apa format. This is the most common college essay format, so knowing its requirements is critical: Font:  Times New Roman, 12 points Interval:  Double interval Margins:  1 inch all round Page Numbers:  Insert a title in the upper left corner of each page.  

Reflective Essay Outline and Structure

Knowing how to write a reflective essay is essential. Even if you feel confident about your thoughts and knowledge, don’t start your writing without a clear and well-designed plan. Without logical essay structure , your essay will likely achieve lower marks. To avoid this situation, follow 10 easy steps we provided below. The first thing every student needs to understand how to write a good reflective essay is an effective, detailed outline. It has 3 typical sections: introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Writing a reflective essay does not require any references – the only person to refer is the student who decides to share his thoughts & ideas. Let’s look at 4 main reasons to include an outline of reflective essays.  

  • An outline assists in laying out the details the student wants to leave after narrowing down the draft before working on the final paper. It prevents them from concluding the essay by realizing something is missing.
  • An outline provides a clear, concise roadmap, which prevents the writer from taking curvy paths and facing dead ends. It shows the way like a compass in the woods.
  • An outline helps to save a lot of time.
  • An outline helps the potential readers, including teachers & classmates, to avoid falling off the main point when reading the essay partially.

Reflective essay outline is not much different from other types of essays. Use this reflective essay template in creating your perfect reflective essay:

Reflective essay outline

How to Start a Reflective Essay: Creating an Introduction

Let’s figure out how to write a reflective essay introduction. Start with stating the primary focus of the personal reflection. Avoid being indirect and covering a range of topics; stay direct and concise by underlining the basic purpose of sharing a life experience. Professional Opinion:

“Giving a preview of the most exciting part of the story is a clue. The target reader may lack time to read the full piece from cover to cover. “There are many things I have learned from Marketing class. The most valuable lesson I have obtained is checking the effectiveness of 2 different approaches or services through utilizing so-called A/B testing.” It will make the reader think about what is special about this specific method. The reader will go on reading the body paragraphs to find out!” Professor Hemsworth, History & Anthropology teacher and academic writer at StudyCrumb

Another way to attract attention in the introductory paragraph is to come up with the intriguing hook for essay sentences like statistics, fact, quote, metaphor, rhetorical question, or joke. It depends on the mood of your reflective narrative.

Working on Reflective Essay Thesis

Some people may say that a reflective essay does not need a thesis. However, the example shared in the previous section talking about introduction is an example of the inspiring thesis statement. Include at least a reflective summary of the primary idea. The best idea would be to focus on previewing the peak of the plot development or highlighting the most valuable lesson learned. Let’s take a look at this little reflective essay thesis sample.

“Now I realize the value of sports in the life of every student. The swimming courses I have attended since I was 13 are a great example of the way to support positive thinking and a healthy body.”

If you find it challenging, rely on our  professional essay writing service  and have your reflective essay done with academic standards in mind. 

Writing a Reflection Essay Body Paragraph

What is the purpose of a body paragraph ? The body paragraphs of the reflective analysis interpret the way the author evolved or what he/she has absorbed from a particular life lesson (mention 3 different lessons). When writing your reflective essay you should mention the circumstances that forced you to pass a certain way. If you study a subject like English Literature or Arts, the paper’s prompt may ask you to describe how you changed as a field professional during the course of study. It is important to choose a specific interval of time to list the improvements. Compare & contrast the initial skills to the knowledge you have today. It is a great idea to tell the audience the ways various tasks, challenges, and lessons made the author grow since the beginning of his education. There is no need to conduct research to collect the supporting evidence. The author alone is responsible for defending every stated claim with the help of vivid samples that describe the topic the best. Example: In case the student has become more professional in the field of writing, he should list the causes of those changes (new English teacher, more practice at home, part-time job related to the field of writing). Who knows – some of the ideas may be used by other students to succeed!  

How to Write a Reflective Essay Conclusion

The question of how to end a reflection paper is not less important. The last challenge is to prepare an impressive, inspiring, and powerful conclusion, which will make the target readers want to develop the same positive way. Write a reflective summary regarding the way you have changed over a given period of time. Share some forecast by looking ahead: how the experiences listed in the essay would influence further personal development. By looking at the past events, decide which of them was the most important. The good idea is to compare & contrast past and future events to stress the gaps between the obtained skills and experience, possibly gained in the future. Don't want to bother with writing any conclusions? Use a summary maker to generate e reflective essay conlusion in seconds.

How to Write a Reflective Essay: 10 Easy Steps

Writing personal reflection helps students to stress their individuality by highlighting various skills, knowledge, behavior, feelings, and even mood. The purpose of writing a reflective essay is to show how the person changed over time and what factors played an important role in those metamorphoses. Keep on reading this section to learn steps that will make your reflective writing perfect. Step 1:  Think of the questions that interest you the most. It may be your experience, feelings, or an event in life. Make sure you analyzed the question well. Check credible sources and collect relevant information. Step 2:  Decide what you want to write about. Make sure you know how to title an essay . Identify the topic. Step 3:  After you decided on a topic, create an appealing title that will entice readers. Make sure your title is clear and to the point. Step 4:  Create an outline of your essay. Step 5:  Create an attention-grabbing hook for reflective essay. It should be some intriguing sentence or phrase that will arouse the interest of your readers. Step 6:  Create an introduction of your reflection paper. Step 7:  Think what you will include in the main body of your text. Start writing your body paragraphs. Step 8:  Diversify your text with all the necessary details to make your readers see a clear picture of the environment in your story. It can be some place, people, atmosphere, etc. Step 9:  After the reader is already familiar with the setting and characters, you should tell about yourself. What were your feelings? How has the situation affected you? What did you learn from this situation? Step 10:  Conclude your reflective essay. Briefly summarize all the points that were mentioned in your text and provide a short moral with recommendations. You can use these steps as a checklist for your writing process. In case you need another step-by-step guide on response essays  or any other type of writing, we've got you covered.

>> Read more: How to Write Essays

Reflective Essays Sample From Successful College Students

No recommendations, tips & tricks help the students to understand the way a particular assignment should look like in the end as effectively as the examples. The article contains one of the up-to-date reflective essay examples from a college student.

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Writing a Reflective Essay: Bottom Line

Congratulations, we have learned how to write a reflective essay. We really do hope that our guidelines, tips, and examples were useful to you. Now, you can definitely work on your reflection assignment with a clear understanding of its structure and main points. So start your writing, and the sky's the limit! 

In case you need more writing tips, feel free to browse our Blog. Be it a diagnostic essay , a synthesis essay  or a response paper , we have tutorials for any type of writing. 

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Consider  buying essay papers  in case you've got other plans for the evening. Submit your details to StudyCrumb and get an astounding paper written in line with your requirements. Your assigned writer will handle any assignment with a blink of an eye!

Frequently Asked Questions about Writing a Reflective Essay

1. what is a common mistake when writing a reflective essay.

A common mistake when writing a reflective essay is to drift away from the subject you're writing about. It usually happens when you don’t stick to your initial plan. So plan your writing well and if you feel that you go a bit off topic, be sure that you return to the same topic you originally discussed.

2. What is the purpose of writing a reflective essay?

The purpose of writing a reflective essay is to make a student write about their personal experience, explore it, reflect on it and find positive and negative aspects. The goal is to analyze how a student changed due to this experience and what made them change. What lesson a student learned is an essential point in persuasive writing.

3. How to write a reflective essay on a book?

If you are writing a reflective essay on a book, the main task is to show your teacher how you reflect on a chosen book, how you understand the problem presented by an author. To create a good essay, start with brief information about the author. Then, without spoilers, briefly summarize the main points of a book. After that explain the main conflicts, share your impressions. Ask questions like: “What are the peculiarities of the main characters?”, “What did an author want to say by indicating the main issues?”

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Free Project Management Essay Examples & Topics

Writing a project management essay can be a daunting task if you do not understand what to write about and what topic to choose. But it won’t be a problem for you! Our team has prepared this article to see this process clearly. First of all, let us figure out what project management is as a discipline.

Project management is the use of specific tools, methods, skills to complete a project. In its foundation are the efforts to create value through the final result. A project usually has a team, a schedule, a budget, and set goals and expectations. It is a temporary and progressive attempt to reach a specific objective.

On this page, you will also find project management essay examples on specific topics. These samples will reveal critical terminology for completing this assignment. Plus, you’ll see the author’s reflection on the issue. Additionally, our experts have gathered topics and prompts that can give you a direction for a good start.

Project management essays are mainly about planning, management, and organizing. To not miss anything out, start working on your paper with a detailed action plan or outline.

Your structure should include the following aspects:

  • Introduction. Your project management essay should begin with an overview of the project. In your introduction, identify the main goals and finish it with the thesis statement.
  • Thesis . This one sentence should express the main idea of the essay, its message. It also helps to control the pictures in the paper. Our thesis generator can create one for you.
  • Paragraph 1 . Your first body paragraph should relate to the thesis statement the closest. Be mindful that every section should introduce one argument and distinctive thought.
  • Paragraph 2. Your second paragraph should include your strongest argument. Start it by telling your reader what will be inside the section. Provide supportive evidence with quotes. Try a plagiarism checker to see whether you’ve cited correctly.
  • Paragraph 3 . The last section of the body should contain the weakest argument and example. It can also be a natural follow-up to the second paragraph or a counterargument.
  • Conclusion . This last conclusive paragraph should demonstrate your findings. Here, you restate your thesis and include the ideas for further dialogue.

Still not sure how to start your paper? In this section, you will find ideas to use in your assignment and practice. You can also use our topic generator for this purpose.

Students can use the following topics for this task:

  • The importance of project management software for successful project completion.
  • Organizational culture and effective conflict management.
  • An analysis of project delays in the construction industry.
  • Introduction to agile-scrum in project management theory.
  • Understanding the role of soft skills in project management.
  • Employment background and its correlation with project management success rates.
  • Social media and project management risk.
  • Contemporary approaches to project and chain management.
  • Define possible difficulties and constraints with project scheduling and control during pandemics.
  • How can project management be done sustainably?
  • Critical path method application to project scope.
  • Application of the goal-setting theories in improving the outcomes of the project.
  • An impact of culture on managing expectations for the project.
  • Cross-cultural communication and work ethos in multinational project management.
  • Project management triangle and its variations.
  • How is a project management plan used in the marketing industry?
  • Project lifecycle in project management.

If you still have difficulties starting your essay, we have a solution for you! These prompts can guide your process. You’ll get the needed motivation and direction for your project management essay.

These questions will provide you with the arguments and essay ideas:

  • What is the relationship between project management and the overall performance of a company ? Project management and overall company performance got to hand in hand. To succeed in today’s world, a company needs to implement proper techniques and tools.
  • What is p roject management in regards to a legal project? In this essay, apply the academic knowledge you’ve acquired to the legal profession and project. Try to ask yourself what methods and tools can be best utilized when handling a legal project.
  • What is the importance of project management organizational structures? In this essay, include all four traditional types of project organizational structures. Give a brief analysis of each one of them. You can also describe how the digital age disrupted old conventional models and systems.
  • How can project management planning help improve a company’s organizational structure? Business owners and project managers cannot overlook the importance of project management. It can help every part of a business to run successfully. In this essay, focus on how it can improve the success of your organization.
  • What are the processes in project management human resource training? Human resources concern project team recruitment, training, and management. It also involves team building and motivation. In your essay, give particular examples of project human resource management in a specific organization.

Thank you for paying attention and staying with us till the end. Now you can read project management paper examples down below.

496 Best Essay Examples on Project Management

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A great example of a reflective essay

(Last updated: 12 May 2021)

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Fieldwork experiences can often be a daunting way of conducting research but they can also be fulfilling. I have had first-hand experience conducting fieldwork for my master’s degree, and while it was a generally enjoyable experience, I did make a number of mistakes during the process. However, I learned some valuable lessons as a result of this too. During my fieldwork in Rwanda, I increasingly realised that it was important to incorporate primary research data into my study, but because of a lack of data on my topic, I made use of other sources of qualitative data to validate my findings. This strategy, according to Denzin (1970), is known as methodological triangulation and it allows researchers to make use of various data gathering methods to ensure internal validity. Based on the use of methodological triangulation, I specifically designed interviews targeted at both elite groups and slum dwellers in Rwanda to investigate the thinking behind the urban policies designed by political elites, and how it impacts marginalised slum dwellers.

The first group of interviewees that I targeted comprised of government officials and the second comprised of a group people living in slums. The elite interviews were generally semi-structured in nature and were based on open- and closed-ended questions. Scholars such as Harvey (2011) have noted that this is the best approach for elite interviews because it allows flexibility and hence, maximises response rates. Notably, scholars such as Aberbach and Rockman (2002), Hoffmann-Lange (1987) as well as Zuckerman (1972) have also shown that elites prefer to engage with open-ended questions so that they can articulate their views coherently. During my interviews with elite groups, I did not always draft formal questions, but I made sure that I was familiar with the topic so that I could comfortably develop a natural rapport with the respondents. Interview times ranged from thirty minutes to up to two hours, and respondents commonly offered me some data sets to consult, which followed with some discussion. I was often required to submit a formal application to access these files, and although I formally submitted a request letter to the Ministry of Urban Development, my efforts proved futile, and it became increasingly frustrating for me to access the data sets I needed.

In some of the interviews, I found that political elites provided evasive answers because of the politically sensitive nature of some of the questions posed. The general etiquette according to Peabody et al. (1990) suggests that political elites should ideally not be interviewed using recording devices as it can cause elusiveness and anxiety – although I did not use a recorder, I continued to receive elusive responses which sometimes left me frustrated and disillusioned with my project. I felt particularly irritated because the absence of a recording device meant I was unable to get hold of a verbatim record of my interviews. Because I had to write down observational notes while engaging with the respondent, it was difficult to record all the information and I lost out on some important points. I tried to strike a balance between note taking and the interview process, but I found this to be a difficult endeavour. I was able to access more political elites than initially anticipated, however it often felt futile because I couldn’t source as much information as I had wanted from this sample group. I tried to counteract these limitations by shifting my focus to the second sample in my study, the slum dwellers, although this was also fraught with some complications. Comparatively and overall, the second sample group proved to be more cooperative and I quickly learned that I had wasted a significant amount of time focusing on political elites, when a lot of the responses I desired could have easily been sourced from policy documents and government reports.

As mentioned, I discovered that slum dwellers, after gaining their trust, provided a great deal of nuanced insight into my understanding of urban regeneration in Rwanda, which was very beneficial for my project. Harvey (2011) has highlighted how field researchers must endeavour to earn the trust of their respondents to gain access to high quality data and looking at the results I garnered, I believe I was able to do this successfully. The data acquisition from the sample group was however, not without complications. The first complication pertained to my status as a foreigner, which I realised made several people wary of my presence. After visiting the research site continuously over a period of time, they became more familiar with me and thus opened up to the idea of participating in my study. I also ensured that I hired a local research assistant, and I realised that my association with a local gave me a greater deal of legitimacy in the eyes of my potential research respondents.

While oftentimes the data collection process was extremely stressful, and sometimes precarious, I learned to be resilient in, and how to maintain focus on meeting my set objectives. Concurrently, I also learned when to change approaches in the field – especially when a particular research method had proven to be unsuccessful. In hindsight, I should have changed my approach much earlier to save a lot of the time I wasted. Looking back, I would have placed less emphasis on the elite sample group as primary data was not necessary for addressing my research questions concerning government policy. I could have saved time and effort in sourcing this information from secondary sources such as government reports and books. I also would have employed a local researcher much earlier in the process as it paved the way for gaining the trust of respondents. At the same time, I realised that I should have provided a lot more training for the research assistant who also served as a translator, due to the events that ensued in the field.

According to scholars such as Temple and Edwards (2002, p.2) “the interpreter is a conduit linking the interviewer with the interviewee and ideally is a neutral party who should not add or subtract from what the primary parties communicate to each other” but in my research, I quickly realised that this was not the case. Generally, the research assistant was highly opinionated and in some instances tried to impose his political views on my respondents. Looking back, I think I could have done a better job in training him and getting him to understand why the responses of interviewees should not be pre-empted. There were several instances where I also noticed that the translation process was not as effective as it should be during the fieldwork process. Due to my increasing familiarity with local dialects, I was able to discern when the translator was not providing the full picture with respect to the responses of the respondents. In my opinion, this was indicative of the lack of training which the translator received and I learned to not just assume that job roles were obvious, especially in this context. In instances where omissions were obvious, I questioned the translator to gain further details. During the early stages of the fieldwork, he was also far too independent and in some instances, did not stick to the script, in terms of the interview questions I had drafted. In hindsight, I should have done a trial run or pilot study, so that he was better acquainted with the standard of research I was expecting.

Overall, the process was a challenging one that introduced me to the iterative nature of fieldwork. It became increasingly obvious to me that in the field, nothing ever goes as neatly as planned on paper. I realised how imperative both resilience and flexibility was in the field. In hindsight, I would have prepared back-up alternatives for each aspect of my study, since in some cases I was completely thrown off guard and had to take a few days off to re-strategise. I lost a few valuable days by doing this and if I had managed my expectations with more caution, I believe I would have been better prepared for the unexpected occurrences in the field. On reflection, I would also have taken my positionality far more seriously, as I never imagined that the way I was perceived by others could affect my study. During my interviews with elite groups, they were often bemused and yet intrigued at the same time about my role as a foreign female researcher. Scholars such as Kobayashi (1994) have highlighted how gender identities play out during fieldwork, meaning women are often discriminated against on the basis of their sex. I did not experience discrimination, but I feel my being a woman helped me gain access to certain respondents that I never anticipated to access, because I was somewhat perceived as a damsel in distress who needed help. While the pity I received worked in my favour, it had no bearing within the interviews themselves as I was not able to acquire the data that I hoped to. Having a better understanding of the cultural nuances would have helped me to manage my expectations better. Indeed, researchers such as Denzin and Lincoln (2011) have highlighted how a researcher’s ability to gain access is shaped by personal characteristics, including gender. Looking back, I believe my fieldwork project was fairly successful, mostly because of its ability to gain nuanced insight from the second sample involving slum dwellers. The major pitfalls of the project mostly pertained to the logistics of the project – specifically the lack of training for the research assistant, and the general lack of a research focus.

References Aberbach, J. & Rockman, B., 2002. Conducting and Coding Elite Interviews. PS: Political Science and Politics, 35(4), pp.673–676. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1554807?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents [Accessed November 20, 2015].

Denzin, N., 1970. The Research Act in Sociology, Chicago: Aldine. Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S., 2011. The Sage handbook of qualitative research. Sage.

Harvey, W.S., 2011. Strategies for conducting elite interviews. Qualitative Research, 11(4), pp.431– 441. Available at: http://qrj.sagepub.com/content/11/4/431.abstract [Accessed May 6, 2015].

Herod, A., 1999. Reflections on interviewing foreign elites: praxis, positionality, validity, and the cult of the insider. Geoforum, 30(4), pp.313-327.

Highley, J., Deacon, D. & Smart, D., 1979. Elites in Australia, London: Routledge.

Hoffmann-Lange, U., 1987. Surveying national elites in the Federal Republic of Germany. In G. Moyser & M. Wagstaffe, eds. Research Methods for Elite Studies. London: Allen & Unwin, pp. 27– 47.

Johl, S.K. and Renganathan, S., 2010. Strategies for gaining access in doing fieldwork: Reflection of two researchers. The Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 8(1), pp.42-50.

Kobayashi, A., 1994. Coloring the field: Gender,“race,” and the politics of fieldwork. The Professional Geographer, 46(1), pp.73-80.

Mullings, B., 1999. Insider or outsider, both or neither: some dilemmas of interviewing in a cross-cultural setting. Geoforum, 30(4), pp.337-350.

Nolinske, T., 1995. Multiple mentoring relationships facilitate learning during fieldwork. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 49(1), pp.39-43.

Rose, G., 1997. Situating knowledges: positionality, reflexivities and other tactics. Progress in human geography, 21(3), pp.305-320.

Overing, J., 1987. Translation as a creative process: The power of the name. Comparative anthropology, 70, p.71.

Peabody, R., Hammond, S., Torcom, J., Brown, L., Thompson, C. & Kolodny, R., 1990. Interviewing Political Elites. PS: Political Science and Politics, 23(3), pp.451–455.

Temple, B. and Edwards, R., 2002. Interpreters/translators and cross-language research: Reflexivity and border crossings. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 1(2), pp.1-12.

Zuckerman, H., 1972. Interviewing an Ultra-Elite. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36(2), p.159. Available at: http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/36/2/159.abstract [Accessed November 20, 2015].

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  1. 50 Best Reflective Essay Examples (+Topic Samples)

    A reflective essay is a type of written work which reflects your own self. Since it's about yourself, you already have a topic to write about. For reflective essay examples, readers expect you to evaluate a specific part of your life. To do this, you may reflect on emotions, memories, and feelings you've experienced at that time.

  2. PDF Reflecting on your project

    el that it went very well. I found time management within this project. difficult skill to grasp. I didn't manage to complete things on. time and missed deadlines. If I were to complete this project again, I would plan. etter and leave more time.For each of the examples of reflective writing, decide what is good/bad and what could be.

  3. PDF REFLECTIVE WRITING

    Types of reflective writing. 1. REFLECTION: when you ask questions about something you would like to better understand, e.g. a problem to solve or an issue to consider. 2. REFLECTIVE PRACTICE: when you reflect on the relationship between practice in your area of study and the theories you are being introduced to. 3.

  4. PDF Improve Performance Through Reflective Practice and ...

    Key words: Reflective Practice, Improvement, Knowledge sharing, Learning, Project 2. Introduction This paper will discuss the reflection process of a project case which address that knowledge and reflective practice are the driver of enhancing project management performance. The first

  5. Project Management Reflective Essay Example

    The reference project management reflective essay examples that we have drafted for students adhere to 5 basic objectives, which are as follows: Describing the setting of the project. State the reasons for choosing the project and the aims of the project undertaken. Give a brief overview of the project planning and how it will be carried out.

  6. Project Management Reflective Essay

    Project Management Reflective Essay essay example for your inspiration. ️ 323 words. Read and download unique samples from our free paper database.

  7. How to Write a Reflection Paper in 5 Steps (plus Template and Sample Essay)

    Use these 5 tips to write a thoughtful and insightful reflection paper. 1. Answer key questions. To write a reflection paper, you need to be able to observe your own thoughts and reactions to the material you've been given. A good way to start is by answering a series of key questions. For example:

  8. Critical Reflection

    Critical Reflection. A Critical Reflection (also called a reflective essay) is a process of identifying, questioning, and assessing our deeply-held assumptions - about our knowledge, the way we perceive events and issues, our beliefs, feelings, and actions. When you reflect critically, you use course material (lectures, readings, discussions ...

  9. Sample reflection

    A reflective blog: an academic reflection in four paragraphs (from Master of Project Management) From an activity in this week's lecture I learned that the best place to start resource planning is with questioning to clarify the client needs and to enable the work breakdown structure (WBS). The guest lecturer in Project Management Techniques ...

  10. How to Write a Reflective Essay: A Quick Guide + Examples

    Step 6: Create an introduction of your reflection paper. Step 7: Think what you will include in the main body of your text. Start writing your body paragraphs. Step 8: Diversify your text with all the necessary details to make your readers see a clear picture of the environment in your story.

  11. Reflective writing

    Reflective writing may ask you to consider the link between theory (what you study, discuss and read about at university) and practice (what you do, the application of the theory in the workplace). Reflection on practical contexts enables you to explore the relationship between theory and practice in an authentic and concrete way.

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    This is where management skills acquired theoretically are put into practice or tested. The process of solving conflicts that emerge in a group should be succinct and clear. Each member's point of view must be taken into consideration to harness success. Get a custom assessment on Group Project Management and Teamwork Reflection.

  13. Reflective Essay On Project Management

    Reflective Essay On Project Management. 735 Words3 Pages. Every successful project has a plan and goals that they work hard for it to reach their objectives. Since we are studying a project management, I am going to consider my goals for this course as a project. I will use the skills that we are going to cover it to drive my project to the ...

  14. A complete guide to writing a reflective essay

    1. Identify the topic you will be writing on. 2. Note down any ideas that are related to the topic and if you want to, try drawing a diagram to link together any topics, theories, and ideas. 3. Allow your ideas to flow freely, knowing that you will always have time to edit your reflective essay. 4.

  15. Free Project Management Essay Examples & Topics

    A project usually has a team, a schedule, a budget, and set goals and expectations. It is a temporary and progressive attempt to reach a specific objective. On this page, you will also find project management essay examples on specific topics. These samples will reveal critical terminology for completing this assignment.

  16. Project Management Reflection

    1174 Words. 5 Pages. Open Document. Prior to this course, I thought that in order to manage a project you need to be a project manager. However, this course changed my perspective on project management. As I continue to read the book, I realized that I actually manage many projects, and project management is not only limited to organizations.

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    Improved Essays. 997 Words. 4 Pages. Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Show More. Throughout the course, I learned different aspects of project management, and skills that can be used in the everyday life as long as involve interacting with other people. In this class I learned about how to be a better team member.

  18. How to Write a Reflective Essay

    1 Choose a tone. Before you begin to write your reflective essay, choose a tone. Because a reflective essay is more personal than an academic essay, you don't need to use a strict, formal tone. You can also use personal pronouns like I and me in your essay because this essay is about your personal experiences.

  19. Embedding Project Knowledge through Reflective Practice

    The aim is to provide the foundations for a project manager to recognise, judge, and then deliver outcomes through applying reflective theory-in-practice to meet the growing demands of a complex and changing environment. Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, S. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning.

  20. Individual Reflections Essay (IRE)

    (Please refer to the recommended sample submission template below for presenting your Individual Reflections Essay.) Submission deadline: Friday of Week 13 at 5 Submissions (in Canvas) are to follow the following file naming convention: TX_IRE_name, where "X" represents the tutorial number and "name" represents the student's name as ...

  21. Reflective Essay Examples

    View examples of reflective essays. Seeing reflective essay examples can help you understand how to accomplish a reflective essay writing assignment. View examples of reflective essays. ... but I did learn some much-needed time management skills. I also learned how writing without the looming cloud of a deadline could open a creative door.

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