1.

1
Identify the main themes.[1] In your notes, summarize the experience, reading, or
lesson in one to three sentences.
 These sentences should be both descriptive yet straight to the point.
2.

2
Jot down material that stands out in your mind. Determine why that material stands
out and make another note of what you figure out.
  For lectures or readings, you can write down specific quotations or summarize
passages.
 For experiences, make a note of specific portions of your experience. You could even
write a small summary or story of an event that happened during the experience that
stands out. Images, sounds, or other sensory portions of your experience work, as well.
3.

3
Chart things out.[2] You may find it helpful to create a chart or table to keep track of
your ideas.
  In the first column, list the main points or key experiences. These points can include
anything that the author or speaker treated with importance as well as any specific
details you found to be important. Divide each point into its own separate row.
 In the second column, list your personal response to the points you brought up in the
first column. Mention how your subjective values, experiences, and beliefs influence
your response.
 In the third and last column, describe how much of your personal response to share in
your reflection paper.
4.

4
 Ask yourself questions to guide your response. If you are struggling to gauge your
own feelings or pinpoint your own response, try asking yourself questions about the
experience or reading and how it relates to you. Sample questions might include:
 Does the reading, lecture, or experience challenge you socially, culturally, emotionally,
or theologically? If so, where and how? Why does it bother you or catch your attention?
 Has the reading, lecture, or experience changed your way of thinking? Did it conflict
with beliefs you held previously, and what evidence did it provide you with in order to
change your thought process on the topic?
 Does the reading, lecture, or experience leave you with any questions? Were these
questions ones you had previously or ones you developed only after finishing?
 Did the author, speaker, or those involved in the experience fail to address any
important issues? Could a certain fact or idea have dramatically changed the impact or
conclusion of the reading, lecture, or experience?
 How do the issues or ideas brought up in this reading, lecture, or experience mesh with
past experiences or readings? Do the ideas contradict or support each other?
Score
0/3
Part 1 Quiz
When charting your thoughts, which column would include your subjective
values?
Key experiences.

Personal responses.

Your plan for your response paper.

Part2
Organizing a Reflection Paper
1.
 1
Keep it short and sweet. A typical reflection paper is between 300 and 700 words
long.
 Verify whether or not your instructor specified a word count for the paper instead of
merely following this average.
 If your instructor demands a word count outside of this range, meet your instructor's
requirements.
2.
 2
Introduce your expectations.[3] The introduction of your paper is where you should
identify any expectations you had for the reading, lesson, or experience at the start.
 For a reading or lecture, indicate what you expected based on the title, abstract, or
introduction.
 For an experience, indicate what you expected based on prior knowledge provided by
similar experiences or information from others.
3.
 3
Develop a thesis statement. At the end of your introduction, you should include a
single sentence that quickly explains your transition from your expectations to your final
conclusion.
 This is essentially a brief explanation of whether or not your expectations were met.
 A thesis provides focus and cohesion for your reflection paper.
 You could structure a reflection thesis along the following lines: “From this
reading/experience, I learned...”
4.
 4
Explain your conclusions in the body. Your body paragraphs should explain the
conclusions or understandings you reached by the end of the reading, lesson, or
experience.
 Your conclusions must be explained. You should provide details on how you arrived at
those conclusions using logic and concrete details.
 The focus of the paper is not a summary of the text, but you still need to draw concrete,
specific details from the text or experience in order to provide context for your
conclusions.
 Write a separate paragraph for each conclusion or idea you developed.
  Each paragraph should have its own topic sentence. This topic sentence should clearly
identify your major points, conclusions, or understandings.
5.

5
Conclude with a summary. Your conclusion should succinctly describe the overall
lesson, feeling, or understanding you got as a result of the reading or experience.
 The conclusions or understandings explained in your body paragraphs should support
your overall conclusion. One or two may conflict, but the majority should support your
final conclusion.
Score
0/3
 Part 2 Quiz
What does every good body paragraph include?
A topic sentence, a conclusion or new understanding, and an explanation of how
you reached that conclusion.

A thesis statement including your conclusion, a topic sentence, and an explanation

of how you reached that conclusion.

An introduction including your expectations, a topic sentence, and evidence

supporting your topic sentence.
3
Part

As You Write
1.
 1
Reveal information wisely. A reflection paper is somewhat personal in that it includes
your subjective feelings and opinions. Instead of revealing everything about yourself,
carefully ask yourself if something is appropriate before including it in your paper.
 If you feel uncomfortable about a personal issue that affects the conclusions you
reached, it is wisest not to include personal details about it.
 If a certain issue is unavoidable but you feel uncomfortable revealing your personal
experiences or feelings regarding it, write about the issue in more general terms.
Identify the issue itself and indicate concerns you have professionally or academically.
2.
 2
Maintain a professional or academic tone. A reflection paper is personal and
objective, but you should still keep your thoughts organized and sensible.
 Avoid dragging someone else down in your writing. If a particular person made the
experience you are reflecting on difficult, unpleasant, or uncomfortable, you must still
maintain a level of detachment as you describe that person's influence. Instead of
stating something like, “Bob was such a rude jerk,” say something more along the lines
of, “One man was abrupt and spoke harshly, making me feel as though I was not
welcome there.” Describe the actions, not the person, and frame those actions within
the context of how they influenced your conclusions.
 A reflection paper is one of the few pieces of academic writing in which you can get
away with using the first person pronoun “I.” That said, you should still relate your
subjective feelings and opinions using specific evidence to explain them.
 Avoid slang and always use correct spelling and grammar. Internet abbreviations like
“LOL” or “OMG” are fine to use personally among friends and family, but this is still an
academic paper, so you need to treat it with the grammatical respect it deserves. Do not
treat it as a personal journal entry.
 Check and double-check your spelling and grammar after you finish your paper.
3.
 3
Review your reflection paper at the sentence level. A clear, well-written paper must
have clear, well-written sentences.
 Keep your sentences focused. Avoid squeezing multiple ideas into one sentence.
 Avoid sentence fragments. Make sure that each sentence has a subject and a verb.
 Vary your sentence length. Include both simple sentences with a single subject and
verb and complex sentences with multiple clauses. Doing so makes your paper sound
more conversational and natural, and prevents the writing from becoming too wooden.
4.
 4
Use transitions. Transitional phrases shift the argument and introduce specific details.
They also allow you to illustrate how one experience or detail directly links to a
conclusion or understanding.
 Common transitional phrases include "for example," "for instance," "as a result," "an
opposite view is," and "a different perspective is."
5.
 5
Relate relevant classroom information to the experience or reading. You can
incorporate information you learned in the classroom with information addressed by the
reading, lecture, or experience.
 For instance, if reflecting on a piece of literary criticism, you could mention how your
beliefs and ideas about the literary theory addressed in the article relate to what your
instructor taught you about it or how it applies to prose and poetry read in class.
 As another example, if reflecting on a new social experience for a sociology class, you
could relate that experience to specific ideas or social patterns discussed in class.
Sample Student Reflection Paper
Rather than simply endorsing reflection papers and their potential to dramatically
connect course content with students’ lives, I want to share an example. I display this
unedited reflection paper anonymously with permission of the author who I will call
John. Of particular note is the visceral experience John has in recognizing his own
positionality vis-a-vis the studied class topic. The impact of this experience
was heightened as John and the other students engaged one another in class on their
experiences writing these reflections.
(You will find the actual instructions for this assignment under the Paper Assignments
tab.)

November 5, 2013
Phil 389
Reflection 2

The concept of privilege positions in society was only made aware to me in recent years
as I have had the luxury of learning about these subtle forms of oppression through
continued study of social justice. I was lucky enough, privileged enough, to afford to be
ignorant of such phenomena, but for some, these facts of social life are daily lessons of
how they do not fit into a view of reality portrayed by mainstream culture. I had been
focused on seeing overt forms of oppression where one group actively impacts another;
however, I had never realized the part I played, and the advantages I gained from this
system of oppression. Once the privileges were pointed out to me, it was as if I had
become aware of a secret world that penetrates the very fiber of society. It wasn’t until I
learned of my privilege that I began to see examples of it everywhere I looked. For my
reflection I decided to do a little field work, so I took a walk around a local mall to search
for examples of privilege.

Peggy McIntosh describes these privileges as an invisible knapsack of tools an

advantages, and how those advantages manifest themselves is by virtue of the
disadvantaged position it places those not lucky enough to be born into the right place in
society. While white privilege is a common example, there can be many forms of
privilege along the lines of sexual orientation, religion, physical attributes, and so on, as
long as there is a tipping of the scales of justice that leaves one group in an advantaged
position at the expense of another group. I think the main form of privilege I found in
my field trip to the mall was the expectation that my general appearance and sexual
orientation would be reflected in the products and advertisements, thus allowing me to
have an immersive shopping experience. I got the sense that the layout of the mall was
designed with me as its target customer, and this may be hard to explain, but it is a good
feeling to know that you are welcome in a public space, and that every storefront is
designed with you in mind.
A short list of the kinds of privilege I encountered included advertisements with young,
attractive, white, heterosexual couples, around my age. Mannequins with average to
slim body proportions. Makeup and pantyhose, with lighter skin tones listed as
“neutral”or “flesh”colored. Most of the stores I went into had white staff members in
positions of authority. Picture frames have white, attractive, heterosexual people
displayed in them. Greeting cards generally target white, heterosexual, people, with the
exception of a small section off to the side devoted to cards with people of color in them.
There were two events in particular which really stood out to me on this field trip.

The first was when I was walking through a toy isle looking at all the young white
children portrayed on the boxes having fun with their toys, and the only other customer
was a young Hispanic girl and her father. The girl was playing on the floor with a white
doll as her father perused the section. I thought it was so sad that this little girl must not
help but be able to notice that she was different somehow, that she didn’t fit in here, and
that her father had to search for a toy with a million smiling white faces staring at him.
The difficulty is that this kind of oppression is not overt, not malevolent on the part of
the toy makers, it is just the way that they system functions. Advertising works no
matter how hard we try to avoid its clutches and seeing oneself reflected in the product
is important for the customer satisfaction. The sad part is that the toy companies are
probably maximizing efficiency by targeting what they perceive to be the majority
customers appearance in their adds, and the minority customers are oppressed by virtue
of their groups position in the economy. The difficult part is how to correct these forms
of oppression, and I simply do not have an answer, but I do recognize the problem.

The second experience I had, and the thing I will remember most about my experiment,
was when I walked into a Hallmark store and asking the lady behind the counter if they
carried same sex greeting cards of any kind, but instead of simply saying that they did
not, she paused for a few seconds and gave me a look that made me feel instantly
uncomfortable. I could hear some of the other customers in the room stop for a second
to look at me, and I could feel a heat move over my face. I quickly clarified that I was
only doing a report for school, implying that I was not in fact homosexual, and the
clerk’s demeanor changed as she stated that she didn’t think so, but I was free to check.
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 walking into a situation where they
not only can’t find the product they are looking for, but also are made to feel like a freak
for even suggesting that they would like to be included along with everyone else. After I
walked out of the store I felt guilty for having denied being homosexual, I am not, but
still, why should I have to clarify anything when walking into a store? I have never had
to tell the clerk that I was straight before shopping for Valentine’s Day cards for a
significant other, but then again, no one asks if they carry heterosexual greeting cards.
 SAMPLE REFLECTION PAPER
(submitted by a student in CRIM 1006E, Fall term 2003)

Mark: 4/5

Please NOTE: This paper is presented as a model based on the way the author began
the inquiry, (i.e. narrowing the reflection by posing a question and focusing on
it). There are areas for improvement in the piece (e.g. carrying through with the
author's initially posed question; focusing more critically
on Bodi's argument and/or her responses to this author's comments), however, it is
offered as a formidable example of how to initially tackle a critically reflective piece
by focusing on only one point, argument, (or in this case, sentence).

I found the article written by Sonia Bodi was very informative and interesting.
Although many of the ideas she presented I agreed with, there were also a few points
that I'd like to argue against. First I would like to answer the question that was
proposed in the title of this article: How do we bridge the gap between what we (
professors) teach and what they ( students) do? To fill in that gap, both sides need to
work together. Students need to push themselves to expand their knowledge and help
themselves become more inquisitive, critical, and reflective. Professors, on the other
hand, should push and challenge the students to become better thinkers and help them
use what skills they know to their advantage. When students and professors are
thinking on the same page, they will start to understand each other's viewpoint, thus
making researching a paper more easier.

I agree that students do have a more difficult time to deal with the pressure of writing
a research essay. "Choosing a topic and its focus is perhaps the most difficult task in
research." This statement is very true. I sometimes complain when I have to write an
essay focusing on a specific topic that a professor has assigned, but in reality, writing
an essay on a topic you can pick yourself is even harder. Sometimes I have so many
ideas to write down on paper I become overwhelmed and stressed; even though I am
researching a topic that I myself have freely chosen. This is the time where, as stated
in the Bodi article, that students "experience uncertainly and confusion." This quote
was made after studying high school students' behavior while researching topics. I
thought about this statement while I read the rest of the article and came to a
conclusion about the truth of this quote. Although I understand how to now, I was
never taught how to write a proper research paper in high school; and I am sure that
many people also feel this way as well. The teachers were very lenient about the way
our research essays were presented, so it was never a big deal if I forgot to add a
bibliography to the paper. This might be a possible answer to some of Sonia Bodi's
statements about the quality of first year students' papers: some early year university
students might just never have been taught properly.

Another problem that seems to affect students, from my experience, is the method of
acquiring the information for the research paper. The Internet use to be where I got
most of my information, and while I feel it is a valuable source, I know that libraries
are even more beneficial. I can understand why students seem to turn away from
Libraries because all that information can be overwhelming and stressful. Therefore,
another problem is presented before the actual research process has even begun. I
really enjoyed the quote by William Blake: "You never know what is enough unless
you know what is more than enough." It seems to add to the confusion of writing a
research paper: How much information should I put in my paper? What are the most
important topics and which topics should be left out?
As mentioned above, there were a few points I disagreed with. Quotes such as
"students search in a haphazard, unplanned way, happy to find whatever" and "lack of
patience" were easy for me to contradict. Although I have never been taught how to
write a properly finished research paper, I have been taught how to write an outline.
And though I may sometimes get overwhelmed with all the possible information I
could write in my paper, I don't search for that information haphazardly and
unplanned. I write an outline to help narrow down the field of topics I wish to write in
my paper, but even with that, there are still vast amounts of information that I could
research on. And unlike most scholars, who get paid to research and have all the time
in the world, I can't afford to shift through all that information when I have a deadline.
I don't feel it is fair to compare students with scholars, because it makes hard working
students seem uneducated. Doing research is a way for scholars to make a living, and
for most students, researching a paper is simply a way to make a grade. I feel that I do
try my best while researching a paper, but the problem is, I don't have the time to look
through all that information that scholars do have the time to look through. It is very
hard to pick a focus that can have such vast topics. And I feel this is the main problem
for many students, like myself.

I enjoyed very much reading this article. It allowed me to critically reflect upon the
way students carry out their research papers. Sonia Bodi presented many valuable
points that will help me focus on any future papers I will research.

Sample Reflective Essay #1

Author: Prefers to remain anonymous

As an English major I have learned to appreciate the peaceful, yet

exhilarating moment when my mind engages with an author's thoughts
on a page. As Toni Morrison says in The Dancing Mind , "[reading is] to
experience one's own mind dancing with another's." In my early days as
a college student, I wanted to know the "true" meaning of a work or what
the author intended, however, I have now realized this would void
literature of its most noteworthy complexities. Individual interpretations
bring varied insights to a work and it is also interesting to point out
messages the author may not have realized s/he included in the piece.

I have always been a thinker, but throughout my coursework, I have

greatly sharpened my critical analysis skills. Instead of focusing on
proposed meanings or biographical background, I have learned to
continuously ask "why" on many different levels. I challenge myself to
dig into a text as deeply as possible and unpack every detail to develop a
satisfying close read. Also, by reading multiple novels by the same author
I have learned to identify different writing styles and make connections
that weave texts together; this helped me develop a deeper
understanding of the novels. When I look at one of my freshman level
novels and see clean pages, I realize that I did not actively read the book.
I guess you could say that I have learned to read with a pen, which has
drastically taken my writing to a new level because I am able to connect
back with my initial insights marked on the page.

Writing had always been one of my strengths, but it was challenging to

take that initial step past the high school, five-paragraph essay form that
constricted my ideas for so long. Moving past this form, however, has
greatly opened my mind. My thoughts are now able to be more complex
because I have learned how to sustain a logical argument in an organized
manner. My writing has become increasingly more concise and I no
longer have room for added "fluff" or "padding." Another improvement is
my ability to point out multiple complexities within a text, instead of
sticking to one-sided arguments in my papers. Furthermore, learning
how to find peer reviewed journal articles and order books through
interlibrary loan has significantly widened the scope of my research,
which has lead to more scholarly papers with credible references. My
writing is so much more interesting than it used to be.
It is difficult to identify gaps in my knowledge as an English major, only
because I feel like I have learned so much. I feel that I have largely
expanded my literary analysis and writing skills, but I need to be
prepared to teach high school students their required literature. I think it
would be useful to identify commonly taught novels in our local high
schools and study them myself. By studying the required literature and
thinking about how to teach it, I will have a sturdy foundation to work
from once I am in the classroom.

Sample Reflective Essay #2

Author: Nekisa Mahzad

I have been a student at California State University Channel Islands (CI)

for 5 semesters, and over the course of my stay I have grown and learned
more that I thought possible. I came to this school from Moorpark
Community College already knowing that I wanted to be an English
teacher; I had taken numerous English courses and though I knew
exactly what I was headed for-was I ever wrong. Going through the
English program has taught me so much more than stuff about literature
and language, it has taught me how to be me. I have learned here how to
write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the
answers to the things that I don't know. Most importantly I have learned
how important literature and language are.

When I started at CI, I thought I was going to spend the next 3 years
reading classics, discussing them and then writing about them. That was
what I did in community college English courses, so I didn't think it
would be much different here. On the surface, to an outsider, I am sure
that this is what it appears that C.I. English majors do. In most all my
classes I did read, discuss, and write papers; however, I quickly found
out that that there was so much more to it. One specific experience I had
while at C.I. really shows how integrated this learning is. Instead of
writing a paper for my final project in Perspectives of Multicultural
Literature (ENGL 449), I decided with a friend to venture to an Indian
reservation and compare it to a book we read by Sherman Alexie. We had
a great time and we learned so much more that we ever could have done
from writing a paper. The opportunity to do that showed me that there
are so many ways that one can learn that are both fun and educational.

The English courses also taught me how powerful the written word and
language can be. Words tell so much more than a story. Stories tell about
life and the human condition, they bring up the past and people and
cultures that are long gone. Literature teaches about the self and the
world surrounding the self. From these classes I learned about the world,
its people and its history; through literature I learned how we as humans
are all related. By writing about what we learn and/or what we believe,
we are learning how to express ourselves.

I know that my ability to write and express my ideas, thoughts and

knowledge has grown stronger each semester. I have always struggled to
put my thoughts on paper in a manner that is coherent and correct
according to assignments. I can remember being told numerous times in
community college to "organize your thoughts" or "provide more
support and examples". These are the things that I have worked on and
improved over the past couple of years and I feel that my work shows
this. The papers I wrote when I first started here at C.I. were bland and
short. In these early papers, I would just restate what we learned in class
and what I had found in my research. I did not formulate my own ideas
and support them with the works of others. The classes I have taken the
past couple semesters have really help me shed that bad habit and write
better papers with better ideas. I have learned how to write various
styles of papers in different forms and different fields. I feel confident
that I could write a paper about most anything and know how to cite and
format it properly.

There are a couple of things that I do feel I lack the confidence and skill
to perform, and that is what I hope to gain from participating in
Capstone. I am scared to teach because I don't know how to share my
knowledge with others-students who may have no idea what I am talking
about. I hope to learn more about how teachers share their knowledge as
part of my Capstone project.