How to Write a Reflection Paper When You’re Running Out of Time

You can find dozens of writing tips on dealing with a personal reflection paper. More of it, not all of them will be completely useless, some of them may even be very inspiring. As the time passes more and more websites present students with valid to-do lists related to the particular writing assignments, and we are not an exception. However, this time, we’ve decided to focus on the situation in which you find yourself pretty often — dealing with the reflection paper before the deadline. Due to this, we’ve decided to skip the general part of the similar manuals, and we will just remind you in short that normally you have to:

• make a plan;
• read the professor’s requirements for several times;
• write down the basic ideas you would like to elaborate on;
• pay attention to the formatting style required;
• use only original sources and relevant materials;
• submit your paper on time.

Was it helpful? We sincerely doubt that, because when you are short in time the last thing you think about is writing a precise plan, and you would like to submit the paper on time, but the submission date or even an hour is scarily close. So here is what you should do to boost your chances for a happy ending by following four simple rules:

Rule #1. A Decent Finished Paper is Better than a Brilliant Chapter

If you don’t have enough time, you still must submit the as good draft as you can, but the on-time submission is the major goal here. It means that you should keep writing even if you feel that the narration is not fully satisfying. When it comes to the reflection paper, it is a little more comfortable, because you can choose which sides of the issue to emphasize and which not to mention at all. Keep writing no matter what. Enjoy the writer’s block procrastination another time.

Rule #2. Identify Teams After You Finish the Body Part

Classic reflection paper manual requires identifying the major issues you would like to elaborate on in several precise summarized sentences. Typically you should start your introduction part with it, but with the deadline beaming in front of you, you might not be able to deal with all of the planned points. Write them down separately for yourself, write a body part and later write an introduction including only those issues you had time to cover. Students say it is easier just to adjust an introduction later, but the chances you forget to do it are rather high.

Rule #3. Draw Direct Line Between the Experience and Your Response

Basically, it is what reflection paper writing is all about. You analyze the experience or several experiences you had, define your response to them and decide the best way to share and explain it. To save time make it simple: one paragraph is dedicated to the particular experience, other two to your response. 1:2 ratio is the most classic in this case, and you may use it freely if you are writing about one event and need more than one paragraph to write about your experience.

Rule #4. Keep It Professional

Despite the fact that reflection paper mostly covers your personal experience it is not a reason to use slang or any other vocabulary rather than an academic one. Don’t try to save time shortening words, for example writing “cause” instead of “because”. It will save you several minutes at most, but will cost you lots of point.

We hope that the time you’ve spent on reading this article and following its steps didn’t go amiss. More of it, we would like to emphasize that we don’t consider writing a plan and proofreading your paper a loss of time. If you start working on your reflection essay right when you have to, you will have enough time and energy to take every needed step and make the final draft perfect. However, when it doesn’t seem possible it is better to concentrate on simple matters and come up with not a stellar, but a good paper ready to be submitted before the deadline.