Higher Writing Portfolio
Reflective Writing
The information in this power point
presentation is based on the information
from the textbook: Intermediate 2 and
Higher English Essay Writing Skills for the
Writing Portfolio.
Personal Reflective Essay
What better subject to write about than
our own life?
A reflective essay allows you the freedom
to explore your own memories as well as
your thoughts and attitudes on a
particular topic.
Things to Avoid…
• Reflect! It’s not enough to consider your
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thoughts and feelings on a basic level. Reflect on
the situation more thoroughly – consider what
you have learned from the experience.
Consider the view points of others.
You should be demonstrating a reasonable
amount of emotional maturity which should go
well beyond what you conveyed at Standard
Grade.
Careless errors that can be avoided! Proof read
and spell check all of your work thoroughly.
Choosing Your Subject Matter
• It is wise to select a topic which you have
strong feelings on or vivid memories of.
• You may wish to reflect on your views on
a particular topic.
• Think about your experiences – what
things have helped to shape your opinions
on the world?
Structure
• It is essential that you plan your essay –
your ideas must be presented in a sensible
order.
• Try to ensure that your essay is interesting
to your reader – grab their attention.
• Reflect on your experience – what have
you learned?
Expression
• Remember when you were told that every
single word in a poem is important?
• As a writer, you are responsible for
carefully selecting your words. Think
about what ideas you want to convey.
• What do you want your reader to
imagine?
• Avoid hackneyed expressions and clichés.
Technical Accuracy
• Your folio consists of two polished essays
– you are responsible for proof reading
and amending your work once it has been
checked.
• There is no excuse for careless
grammatical errors or spelling mistakes.
• Take care over your work – make sure you
are 100% happy with it and that there are
no mistakes.
What will my essay be about…?
• Here are four
different types of
personal reflective
essay you might
choose:
Event
Driven
experience
Relationship
Driven
Experience
Me
Activity
Driven
Experience
Emotion
Driven
Experience
Event-Driven Experience
• Can you think of any significant thing -
exciting or happy or sad that’s happened
to you?
• A family or social event? Wedding, funeral,
party, competition.
• A time when you lost something or
someone, were wrongly accused, a serious
illness suffered by you or someone close
to you, divorce, moving
house/country/school
Emotion Driven Experience
• Think of a time when you experienced a
particular emotion – you should choose a
really significant memory to you.
• Fear, anger, guilt, loss, envy, responsibility,
confidence, excitement, prejudice,
disappointment, happiness…
• Tip: Have a look through photographs you
have – this may trigger an interesting
memory.
Activity-Driven Experience
• Think about your hobbies and past times.
• Do you participate in any groups or
sporting activities, clubs, societies that you
could write about.
• Maybe you have been involved in
competitions or community events. Do you
have responsibility within the school?
Relationship-Driven Experience
• Writing about your relationships with other
people:
• Best friends, fall outs, meeting new
people, being let down by friends.
• Changes to family relationships due to
births, deaths, divorce, remarriage etc.
• Consider any changes that you have had
to adapt to within your life.
Important Tip:
Only write about the memories and
experiences that are truly important to
you and that are vivid. This will help you
to write a more convincing and passionate
essay which your reader will be truly
interested in.
4 Steps = Effective Planning
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2.
3.
4.
Note your memories.
List the detail.
Explore your feelings.
Reflect.
1. Note your memories
• Writing down what you remember will
help you to figure out what details and
events need to be included in your essay.
• Arrange your thoughts in chronological
order so that you can make sense of the
situation.
• This should help you to figure out how
many paragraphs your essay will have.
2. List the Detail
• Try to bring your story to life:
• Explore your senses – what do you
remember seeing, smelling, touching,
hearing, tasting…?
• How did you feel and how did you act
towards others? How did others behave
towards you?
• Try to bring your story to life.
3. Explore Your Feelings
Before
Now
My
Feelings
After
During
Getting Started
• Introduction – hook the reader, you want them
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to enjoy and be interested in reading your essay
from the very start.
Body Paragraphs – you should have a strong
topic sentence at the start of each paragraph to
maintain your focus. Add a reflective comment
to each paragraph.
Conclusion – consider your own attitudes and
feelings towards the experience. Try to show off
what the experience has taught you about
yourself.
Ways to Write the Introduction:
• Decide how you are going to tell your
story:
1. The chronological start: this enables you
to build up to the events as they happen.
2. The flash forward start: you may wish to
start in the middle of the experience in
order to grab the reader’s attention
before going back in time to fill in the
necessary details.
Final Checklist:
• Does the story make sense and is it told clearly?
• Are there any important details which are
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missing?
Do I have a nice balance between narrative and
reflection?
Have I included imagery and interesting word
choice?
How will my reader perceive me? Do I come
across in a positive fashion?
Does this essay help the reader and myself to
get to know Me better?
If the answer is no – take the opportunity
to fix it!
Editing Your Story
• It is important to realise that you may
need to edit your essay many times before
you are truly satisfied with it.
• Edit to catch out any careless errors such
as punctuation, expression, spelling,
repetition… there is no excuse for errors
that could have been avoided.
• Take pride in your work - polish your story,
there’s a good chance this will improve
your grade!
Presentation
Stick to the following guidelines:
1. Use font size 12
2. Use a standard font: Arial, Times New
Roman – nothing elaborate
3. Justify your essay alignment
4. Margins should be 2cm
5. Line spacing should be either 1.5 or 2 –
so that the marker can easily add
comments
6. Print in black ink
One Last Thing…
Is this essay truly personal and truly
reflective? Do you feel like you have
learned something valuable about yourself
or revealed something important about
yourself?
Are you proud of what you have achieved
and do you enjoy reading your essay?
Yes? Then hopefully others will too.