REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Order Description
This assignment asks you to reflect and consider the work you have done, how successfully you feel you
have completed it, and how the skills and strategies you have learned in completing this work may help
you in your future studies.
Since this assignment is reflective and self-evaluating, using “I, me, my” should be acceptable as you
write this essay.
The Assignment:
This assignment calls for you to write an essay of 800-1000 words, double spaced. The essay should have
the following academic essay elements:
1) a clear introduction, body, and conclusion
2) a clearly identifiable thesis statement in the introduction
3) evidence based upon your recollections and any material from the course (whether from the texts, the
online resources, the course modules, the feedback to drafts, or the conference topics) that you might
find relevant to mention in your discussion
Approach One: Self-Evaluating Your Research Essay Assignment
What You Must do:
In this essay, you will evaluate your work on the research essay assignment. Your purpose is to
evaluate whether you chose wisely in selecting your topic for research writing, if you used your
research successfully, and how well you believe you completed the assignment.
How You Might Do This:
Since your essay uses a traditional structure for academic writing, you could try the following
technique:
1) Decide what your thesis should say and design your introduction to lead to your thesis. The thesis
might begin with a phrase such as, “My research essay turned out successfully because…” or “My research
assignment became problematic due to….” Your introduction can, of course, briefly describe your
assignment.
2) Describe and analyze the following in the body of your essay:
a) your topic and why you chose it (this should go beyond mere interest and consider whether you
thought carefully enough about the research potential/problems your topic posed);
b) how/why you made research material decisions and conducted research in the manner you did. In this
section, you will want to comment on the databases you searched on in the UMUC Information and Library
Services interface. You might also comment on key words on which you searched, new key words you came
up with during your searches, and your experience in retrieving full-text articles.
c) how your process worked out as you completed it. In this analysis, please account for both successes
and difficulties.
3) Discuss your reflection and future application in the conclusion of your essay. You will want to
both reflect on what you have discussed and look towards future research assignments. You will explain
how the lessons you learned from this assignment can help you correct flaws you feel you had in your
process and can remind you of good practices you followed that can make future research projects
successful. You should also give yourself a “grade” on, not the essay itself, but on your research
process and experience.