What is a Reflection Paper?
Reflection papers are written expressions of how a specific article or set of articles has shaped
your understanding of a given topic. The reflection papers are required to tie together all the
assigned readings, exploring how to complement or refute each other.
They should take the form of a brief critical essay. Quality over quantity counts! However, at
the graduate level you are expected to properly cite your in-text sources as well as provide a
proper cited sources list at the end of each assignment. Points will be deducted for improper
citation format and grammar errors. Be sure to proofread your work before your final
submission.
You can explore many styles of writing reflection papers, especially depending on the topic of
the week, but you can organize your views around explaining questions, such as:
• What is the overarching theme that ties the readings together?
• What is their significance to the discipline of strategic communication?
• How reading the assigned works have shaped your views?
• Why are these articles important, and how they contribute your understanding of the
issue?
Present the most critical issues from the readings, such as:
• What contrasting positions can be taken?
• What do you think about the core argument of the paper?
• How do you support your idea? Etc.
Reflection Paper format when submitting your assignments:
• Include your name
• Follow the APA style formatting
• Double spaced
• Length: Refer to each reflection paper assignment for details
• Properly cite your in-text sources and provide a works cited page, if you use someone
else’s thoughts, ideas or words!
• Points will be deducted for improper citation format and grammar errors
Assignment Points:
• Reflection Paper 1 – 10 points
• Reflection Paper 2 – 10 points
• Reflection Paper 3 – 10 points
• Reflection Paper 4 – 10 points
NOTE: CONTINUE READING TO SEE A SAMPLE REFLECTION PAPER OUTLINE AND AN ACTUAL
REFLECTION PAPER.
Reflection Paper Sample Outline
The first section of the outline is the introduction, which identifies the subject and gives an
overview of your reaction to it. The introduction paragraph ends with your thesis statement,
which identifies whether your expectations were met and what you learned. The thesis
statement serves as the focal point of your paper. It also provides a transition to the body of the
paper and will be revisited in your conclusion.
The body of your paper identifies the three (or more, depending on the length of your paper)
major points that support your thesis statement. Each paragraph in the body should start with a
topic sentence. The rest of each paragraph supports your topic sentence. Keep in mind that a
transition sentence at the end of each paragraph creates a paper that flows logically and is easy
to read. When creating the outline, identify the topic sentence for each paragraph, and add the
supporting statements, evidence, and your own experiences or reactions to the subject
underneath.
The conclusion wraps up your essay, serving as the other bookend in stating and proving your
thesis statement. In outlining the conclusion, identify the thesis statement and add the main
points from the body paragraphs as a recap. Don’t add new information to the conclusion and
be sure to identify the closing statement of your reflection paper.
A sample outline format should reflect the main points of your paper, from start to finish:
I. Introduction
A. Identify and explain subject
B. State your reaction to the subject
1. Agree/disagree?
2. Did you change your mind?
3. Did the subject meet your expectations?
4. What did you learn?
C. Thesis Statement
II. Body Paragraph 1
A. Topic Sentence
1. Supporting evidence 1
2. Supporting evidence 2
3. Supporting evidence 3
III. Body Paragraph 2
A. Topic Sentence
1. Supporting evidence 1
2. Supporting evidence 2
3. Supporting evidence 3
IV. Body Paragraph 3
A. Topic Sentence
1. Supporting evidence 1
2. Supporting evidence 2
3. Supporting evidence 3
V. Conclusion
A. Recap thesis statement
B. Recap Paragraph 1
C. Recap Paragraph 2
D. Recap Paragraph 3
E. Conclusion statement
Reflection Paper Example
Country Music: The Second Time Around
I used to despise country music. I hated everything about it: the slow background instrumentals,
the corny lyrics, the big hair. I didn’t know who the singers were and felt like I had nothing in
common with them. I owned a dog, but I didn’t know anyone with a pickup truck. I had had my
heart broken, but I didn’t cry any tears into my beer. Adding to the misery was the fact that I had
a part-time college job at a radio station that played nothing but country music. Fast forward 20
years, and country music didn’t sound so bad any more. Did I change, or did the music change?
The answer was both: the music improved, and I gained some life experience.
As a college student, I had only lived in the Northeast, spending my entire life in Connecticut. As
a bedroom community of New York City, my hometown was quiet yet somewhat sophisticated.
There were small boutiques, family-owned seafood restaurants, and a couple of good
community theaters that attracted some top-flight talent in the region. Everyone looked to
Manhattan for their cultural inspiration, and ranchers, cowboy hats, and open spaces were
absent from the music and general lifestyle. Western life was a continent away, and I didn’t think
I could stand being a part of it.
Following college, I had the opportunity to move to San Francisco, still a sophisticated city that
had no open spaces or ranches. Once I crossed the Bay Bridge and started exploring the East
Bay, I discovered a bit of ranch life. Just a few miles away from my son’s school were several
ranches, their locations made even more obvious by the ranchers who strode into the town’s
smoothie store, wearing their 10-gallon hats, well-worn cowboy boots, and spurs. They were
real spurs and a necessary part of their job. Surely, I thought, he was lacking in sophistication. I
was wrong again. In talking with him, I learned he had a graduate degree in animal husbandry
from a major university and ran his ranch at a profit, using as much technology to manage it as
he needed. Myth number two was busted. Western life was not a bucolic way to hide from the
real world. It was at the core of our world. This quiet rancher provided a good portion of the local
meat for the region, a complex and ongoing responsibility.
The last barrier to fall was revisiting country music itself. Granted, the genre had fused with rock
and pop quite a bit, which made the transition a bit easier for me. The lyrics were modern, the
rhythm was more infectious, and the singers were my age or younger. My journey to musical
Damascus was completed when stuck in a traffic jam in Berkeley. I wanted out. I wanted some
fresh air, and I switched from the news station to the country station. I even opened my driver’s
window, unashamed to share my musical choice with the hipsters of the college town.
I became curious about the roots of country music and started exploring the legacy singers:
Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, June Carter, Merle Haggard. Their songs, which I had spurned
and muted while I worked at that country station in the late 1970s, had new meaning. I had met
the people they sang about, saw the land, and had gained a new perspective and respect for
the people who live in that wonderful, vast portion of the United States that stretches under the
big skies of the West. Not only did they sing about Western life, but they also sang about
everyone: people who hurt, loved, lost, and exulted in their lives. While the music had changed,
I had changed more.
In re-examining my view of country music, I had to take the long road. A change in residence,
new experiences with people who represented the core of country music’s meaning and
message and reopening my mind all played a part in awakening a true appreciation for the
genre. It was no longer corny; it was real. More than simply allowing me to add to my musical
repertoire, it allowed me to be unafraid to take a second look at other preconceptions I carried.
Remember – if you use someone else’s thoughts or words, you must properly cite your
sources!
