A woman writing in a notepad next to a Mac

Reflective writing

Reflective writing

Reflective writing enables you to draw links between theory and practice and help you consider ways to improve or change in the future.

Reflective writing

Man working on laptop smiling

Reflective writing assignments

Reflective writing assignments are usually linked with an experience or event that you have encountered.

For example:

  • Your experience as a student.
  • Your experience during work experience (e.g. placement)
  • Your experience after an event (e.g. attending a museum)
  • Your experience of a situation (e.g. after working in a group)

 

Students completing their work in a booth in the library

Reflective models

For some reflective assignments, you may be asked to use reflective models to guide your response. Be sure to check your module study guide to see if you have been asked to do so.

  • Borton (1970) - What, So what, Now what.
  • Kolb (1984) - Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract conceptualisation, Active.Experimentation
  • Gibbs (1988) - Description, Feelings, Evaluate, Analyse, Conclusion and Action Plan.
  • Johns (1994) - Description, Reflection, Influencing factors, Could I have done it better, Learning.

  • How can reflective models help me?

    Reflective models can guide you through the reflective process, so it is important that you correctly interpret what each stage of a reflective model is asking you to do. Some of the questions that you should consider when you are writing a reflective assignment are:

    • What happened?
    • What were the circumstances?
    • What were you thinking about?
    • What went well?
    • What could you have done differently?
    • How can it be explained using theory?
    • What have you learnt from this experience?
    • How can you use this experience to improve for the future?
student at laptop

Apply theory to practice

Simply detailing your experience is not enough with reflective writing. It is important that you are integrating academic evidence within your reflective account.

You should use academic evidence to confirm and explain some of the observations that you have made during your experience. This academic evidence may support your actions or suggest alternative course of action.

  • Show me an example of the use of academic evidence

    A group of students working in a library booth

    Scenario

    You had to work in a group to deliver a presentation on how social media impacts mental health.

    Example

    One of the issues that arose within the group was poor communication. After several meetings before the presentation, it was still unclear what topics everyone had to report on. According to Cottrell (2008), in order to work effectively in a group environment, it is important that everyone is clear about what their role is and that tasks are allocated fairly.

Student on laptop in restaurant

Appropriate writing style

Whilst reflective writing is based on your experience, it is still important to remain as objective as possible and remember that it is still an academic piece of work that you are writing.

Unlike most academic essays, you may be able to write in the first person (e.g. I, my, me).

When you are writing about your own reflections, you should use past tense. When you are referring to the theory, you should use the present tense.

References

Cottrell, S., 2008. The study skills handbook. Macmillan International Higher Education.