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How To Write A Reflection Statement – A Step-By-Step Guide
- How To Write A Reflection Statement – A Step-By-Step Guide1111
Matrix Blog
Do you know how to write a reflection statement? In this post, we give you a clear process for writing reflection statements.

Do you know how to write a reflection statement? Reflection statements are tasks that will increasingly be part of your assessments. In the past, reflection statements were only set for Extension 2. Now they will be commonplace in Advanced English for both Year 11 and Year 12.
In this post, we will demystify reflection statements and give you a step-by-step guide to producing statements that will impress your teachers!
What is a Reflection Statement?
A reflection statement is a complementary task that will accompany other assessment types. A reflection statement requires students to discuss the process of producing the associated assessment task.
In a reflection statement, students need to explain why they made the decisions they did. The reflection statement also offers the student an opportunity to say what they think they did well, or did poorly. Students can reflect on what they would change if they could do it over.
If you want to learn more about why self-reflection is such an important skill for students, you should read this excellent article by Cathy Costello at Virtual library .
Why can’t you give a specific definition of what reflection tasks involve?
The exact nature of the reflection task will depend on the assessment task you’ve been asked to reflect on. To give you an idea of this, we’ll look at some examples of the tasks that reflection statements might accompany and what the reflection statements need to address.
As you can see, there are a wide variety of tasks where you could be asked to provide an accompanying reflection task.
How long is a reflection statement?
This will vary.
English Extension 2 reflection statements need to be 1500 words. If you’re not doing English Extension 2, it is unlikely that you will be required to produce something that long.
The tasks you will be set for English Advanced will range between 300 and 800 words. Most reflection tasks will be on the shorter side of things at around the 400-word mark.
Need help perfecting your reflections for Module C?
Learn how to write insightful and constructive reflections with our structured online video lessons, quality resources, and forums to ask your Matrix teachers questions and feedback! Learn more about Matrix+ Online Courses now.

Where will I encounter reflection statements?
You will be set reflective statements throughout Years 11 and 12. They can be attached to any assessment task for any Module.
However, due to the nature of the Common Module: Reading to Write it is likely you will be set one to accompany the main writing task for that Module.
Similarly, in Year 12, Common Module: Texts and Human Experience and Module C: The Craft of Writing are the most likely Modules where you will be asked to reflect on your process of composing.
Remember, there is no limit on how many reflections you will need to produce as they supplement a larger assessment task. You may need to write as many as two in both Year 11 and Year 12.
In the HSC English Advanced Paper 2 (from 2019) and HSC English Extension 1 Paper, you may be asked to write a composition and a reflection statement.
If you study English Extension 2, this is a mandatory accompaniment for your major work. (Please note, while the process discussed in this post is similar to the one for producing an Extension 2 reflection statement, it does not discuss the research and referencing components that you need to complete for an Extension 2 work).
Clearly, it is important to be confident writing reflection statements. Matrix students learn how to produce reflection statements and get help refining them.
The secret to producing killer reflection statements is to follow a process when writing them.
What we’ll do now is look at the process for how to produce ace your reflection statement.
How to write a Reflection Statement – a step-by-step guide
Like everything in English, there is a process you can follow to produce a reflection statement. Even though the specific task may vary. The process for writing the reflection will largely remain the same.
The process for writing reflection statements looks like this:

Flowchart: The Process for Writing a Reflection Statement
Step 1: Produce the main piece of work for the assessment
Reflection statements are never tasks in and of themselves, they supplement the main task. You will not be able to produce your reflection statement until you have completed and edited your main task.
If you are stuck on your main task and need help, you should read our Beginner’s Guide to Acing HSC English for detailed advice on all aspects of Year 11 and 12 English.
This can be useful. You may well discover that your reflection statement makes you reconsider some of your choices in your main task. In the process of writing your reflection statement, you may decide you need to redraft your main work.
This is one of the key purposes of writing a reflection statement. It forces you to consider what you have produced and the process of producing it. This is a key part of editing and improving your work.
Step 2: Read the assessment notification
Once you’ve produced your main piece of work, you need to revisit your assessment notification. A task that involves a reflection statement will come in two sections:
- Section 1 will be the instructions for the main task;
- Section 2 will be the instructions for the supplementary reflection task.
Rereading the notification is important as it will help you check that you have completed the main task correctly. It will also tell you exactly what you need to do for the second part of the task.
Step 3: Read the marking criteria
For every assessment task that you are given, you MUST be given accompanying marking criteria. Marking criteria are very important. They tell you explicitly what you need to do to get full marks for a specific task.
Reading through the marking criteria at this point serves two purposes:
- You can double check that you have addressed all the criteria for a Band 6 result for your main task.
- You can see what you need to do to achieve a Band 6 result for your reflection statement.
Your reflection statement may have very different requirements for a Band 6 mark than your main task. It is important that you are aware of the differences.
Step 4: Unpack what the reflection statement needs you to discuss for a Band 6 result
Now you’re familiar with the notification and marking criteria for the assessment task, you need to get these understandings down in writing.
To do this, you need to take a few steps:
- Read through the instructions for the task and highlight or underline the keywords (these will usually be the verbs and nouns in the instructions).
- Now you want to write these words down and define them. If you are unsure of a what a word means, that’s okay. Look it up. This is how you expand your vocabulary.
- Next, do the same for the marking criteria. Underline what you feel are the keywords and terms. Again, write them down and define them.
- Now you need to write down what you need to do for a Band 6 result. To do this, write down the instructions in your own words. Include what you need to do for a Band 6 mark in this instruction. Be sure to make note of whether this is meant to be written informally or formally, in the first or third person. You must follow the instruction regarding form for these tasks.
Now you’ve unpacked the question. This means you are now equipped to answer the question you’ve been set.
Next, you need to revisit your main task so you can see what you’ve done and evaluate how you’ve put it together.
Step 5: Reread what you have produced for your main task
Your reflection statement will require you to explain the choices you’ve made in your main composition.
You may not have thought too much about these things when you produced the work. And this is fine. It just doesn’t help you with the reflections statement.
If this is you, you need to read your work with an eye on how you have conveyed information. You must unpack how you have presented your ideas. Essentially, you need to reverse engineer your writing through textual analysis.
Some useful questions to ask yourself when doing this are:
- How does my work address the assessment instructions and marking criteria?
- What am I trying to convey here?
- How does this part of my work address the marking criteria?
- What technique have I used to convey meaning?
- Why have I used that technique?
- Could I have conveyed this idea differently? Would this have been more effective? Why?
Make notes while you do this. You want to be able to refer back to your findings in detail when you write the reflection statement.
Once you’ve finished this, you’re ready to start planning. By now you should have:
- A detailed breakdown of what your task requires you to discuss in your reflection statement and how to discuss it.
- A detailed set of notes about the piece you have produced for the main task.
Step 6: Plan your reflection statement
As with any task, you want to plan things before you get stuck in. Planning your work forces you to consider what information you must include and how you will structure that information in your response. This is an important part of the critical thinking process.
Reflection statements need to have structure, too.
You need to ensure that you introduce your ideas clearly, then expand on them, and, finally, summarise and conclude your statement. Even if you only need to produce a 250-word paragraph, you still need to ensure that it follows the conventions of composition structure. You will lose marks for presenting idea soup.
To plan your response, you’ll need to get your notes on the task and your notes on your response together. Then:
- Read through your notes on the question. Remind yourself what you need to discuss in your reflection statement.
- Write down what you will discuss in your reflection statement.
- Now you need to think about what parts of your main task you will discuss. To do this, refer to your notes about your main task. Ask yourself, “which parts of my task are most relevant to what the task is asking me to discuss?”
- Note down what you think will be the order for presenting your reflection. For example, you may want to start with your structural decisions before discussing your use of techniques or you may want to discuss your influences before discussing your ideas.
Once you’ve got your plan together, you’re ready to write. Matrix students get advice on their assessment tasks from their Matrix Tutors and Teachers. It might be helpful to ask a peer or parent for their thoughts if your school teacher can’t provide advice.
Step 7: Write your introductory statement
The length of your introduction will be contingent on the specifics of your task:
- If your reflection statement is less than 400 words, you will need to produce one or two sentences.
- If you are writing a longer reflection statement of more than 400 words, you will need to write a short introduction.
- If you are producing an Extension 2 reflection statement, this will need to be a longer and more detailed introductory paragraph.
When writing your introduction, you must:
- Introduce the topic you will discuss;
- Explain how this reflects on the work that you are discussing;
- Make reference to the Module you are studying.
Once you have produced your introduction, you are now ready to develop your discussion and discuss the specifics of your main piece of work.
Step 8: Write the body of your argument
Now you’ve introduced your subject matter you need to start presenting an argument. Even though you are reflecting on your own work, you still need to use examples to demonstrate how you’ve set about responding to the main task.
You will need to present several examples to support your argument, but the number of examples will vary depending on the length of the task you’ve been set.
For a shorter reflection, try to present two or three examples and discuss them in detail. If you need to produce several paragraphs, you should be aiming at around four per paragraph.
To do this:
- Introduce the idea you were trying to convey (this might be an influence on your work, a technique you’ve tried to use, or a theme you’ve tried to explore).
- Present an example of this idea.
- Explain how you have attempted to use or explore this idea.
- Explain how this addresses the instructions and marking criteria for the task.
- Explain how this is relevant to the Module you are studying.
- Comment on other choices you could have made and why you didn’t use the other option.
- Repeat this for each example that you need to support your point.
Once you’ve done this, you need to conclude your reflection.
Step 9: Write your concluding statement
Your final statement needs to address the broad idea you have discussed in your response. It will need to be at least two sentences. A longer reflection will require a longer concluding statement; if you had a separate introduction you will require a separate conclusion.
To write your concluding statement:
- Summarise the key ideas that you have discussed.
- Make a statement about what you have taken away from your study of the Module and the process of producing this task and reflecting on it.
Now you need to revise what you’ve written.
Step 10: Proof and edit your work
It is really important that you proof and edit your work before submitting. You don’t want to throw away marks on typos and unnecessary grammatical errors. Proofing your work is something you must do after you finish any task.
To proof your reflection statement:
- Reread your summary of the notification of the task and the marking criteria.
- Read your reflection statement aloud.
- Whenever you encounter a mistake or a sentence that sounds ungrammatical, correct it.
- Pay attention to the logic of your argument. Does it make sense?
- Ask yourself, have I addressed the instructions for the task?
- Ask yourself, have I addressed the marking criteria for a Band 6 response.
- Redraft your reflection statement in its entirety. Don’t submit your first draft. Your second draft will always be better.
If you would like to know more about the editing process, you should read Part 7 of our Beginner’s Guide to Acing HSC English: How to Edit Your Work .
Now you’ve finished a second draft you can submit. If you can, you should try and get some feedback. Matrix students get regular feedback from their Matrix Tutors and Teachers. Feedback on your work allows you to take somebody else’s perspective and use it to improve your marks.

Written by Patrick Condliffe

© Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au, 2018. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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How to Write a Reflection Paper
Last Updated: October 25, 2022 References Approved
This article was co-authored by Alicia Cook . Alicia Cook is a Professional Writer based in Newark, New Jersey. With over 12 years of experience, Alicia specializes in poetry and uses her platform to advocate for families affected by addiction and to fight for breaking the stigma against addiction and mental illness. She holds a BA in English and Journalism from Georgian Court University and an MBA from Saint Peter’s University. Alicia is a bestselling poet with Andrews McMeel Publishing and her work has been featured in numerous media outlets including the NY Post, CNN, USA Today, the HuffPost, the LA Times, American Songwriter Magazine, and Bustle. She was named by Teen Vogue as one of the 10 social media poets to know and her poetry mixtape, “Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately” was a finalist in the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 24 testimonials and 85% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 3,619,194 times.
Reflection papers allow you to communicate with your instructor about how a specific article, lesson, lecture, or experience shapes your understanding of class-related material. Reflection papers are personal and subjective [1] X Research source , but they must still maintain a somewhat academic tone and must still be thoroughly and cohesively organized. Here's what you need to know about writing an effective reflection.
Things You Should Know
- Write an introduction that outlines the expectations you had and provide a thesis statement in the last sentence.
- State your conclusions in the body paragraphs of the paper. Explain how you arrived at your conclusions using logic and concrete details.
- Conclude the paper with a concise summary of your overall experience.
Sample Outline and Paper

Brainstorming

- These sentences should be both descriptive yet straight to the point.

- For lectures or readings, you can write down specific quotations or summarize passages.
- For experiences, make a note of specific portions of your experience. You could even write a small summary or story of an event that happened during the experience that stands out. Images, sounds, or other sensory portions of your experience work, as well.

- In the first column, list the main points or key experiences. These points can include anything that the author or speaker treated with importance as well as any specific details you found to be important. Divide each point into its own separate row.
- In the second column, list your personal response to the points you brought up in the first column. Mention how your subjective values, experiences, and beliefs influence your response.
- In the third and last column, describe how much of your personal response to share in your reflection paper.

- Does the reading, lecture, or experience challenge you socially, culturally, emotionally, or theologically? If so, where and how? Why does it bother you or catch your attention?
- Has the reading, lecture, or experience changed your way of thinking? Did it conflict with beliefs you held previously, and what evidence did it provide you with in order to change your thought process on the topic?
- Does the reading, lecture, or experience leave you with any questions? Were these questions ones you had previously or ones you developed only after finishing?
- Did the author, speaker, or those involved in the experience fail to address any important issues? Could a certain fact or idea have dramatically changed the impact or conclusion of the reading, lecture, or experience?
- How do the issues or ideas brought up in this reading, lecture, or experience mesh with past experiences or readings? Do the ideas contradict or support each other?
Organizing a Reflection Paper

- Verify whether or not your instructor specified a word count for the paper instead of merely following this average.
- If your instructor demands a word count outside of this range, meet your instructor's requirements.

- For a reading or lecture, indicate what you expected based on the title, abstract, or introduction.
- For an experience, indicate what you expected based on prior knowledge provided by similar experiences or information from others.

- This is essentially a brief explanation of whether or not your expectations were met.
- A thesis provides focus and cohesion for your reflection paper.
- You could structure a reflection thesis along the following lines: “From this reading/experience, I learned...”

- Your conclusions must be explained. You should provide details on how you arrived at those conclusions using logic and concrete details.
- The focus of the paper is not a summary of the text, but you still need to draw concrete, specific details from the text or experience in order to provide context for your conclusions.
- Write a separate paragraph for each conclusion or idea you developed.
- Each paragraph should have its own topic sentence. This topic sentence should clearly identify your major points, conclusions, or understandings.

- The conclusions or understandings explained in your body paragraphs should support your overall conclusion. One or two may conflict, but the majority should support your final conclusion.
As You Write

- If you feel uncomfortable about a personal issue that affects the conclusions you reached, it is wisest not to include personal details about it.
- If a certain issue is unavoidable but you feel uncomfortable revealing your personal experiences or feelings regarding it, write about the issue in more general terms. Identify the issue itself and indicate concerns you have professionally or academically.

- Avoid dragging someone else down in your writing. If a particular person made the experience you are reflecting on difficult, unpleasant, or uncomfortable, you must still maintain a level of detachment as you describe that person's influence. Instead of stating something like, “Bob was such a rude jerk,” say something more along the lines of, “One man was abrupt and spoke harshly, making me feel as though I was not welcome there.” Describe the actions, not the person, and frame those actions within the context of how they influenced your conclusions.
- A reflection paper is one of the few pieces of academic writing in which you can get away with using the first person pronoun “I.” That said, you should still relate your subjective feelings and opinions using specific evidence to explain them. [8] X Research source
- Avoid slang and always use correct spelling and grammar. Internet abbreviations like “LOL” or “OMG” are fine to use personally among friends and family, but this is still an academic paper, so you need to treat it with the grammatical respect it deserves. Do not treat it as a personal journal entry.
- Check and double-check your spelling and grammar after you finish your paper.

- Keep your sentences focused. Avoid squeezing multiple ideas into one sentence.
- Avoid sentence fragments. Make sure that each sentence has a subject and a verb.
- Vary your sentence length. Include both simple sentences with a single subject and verb and complex sentences with multiple clauses. Doing so makes your paper sound more conversational and natural, and prevents the writing from becoming too wooden. [9] X Research source

- Common transitional phrases include "for example," "for instance," "as a result," "an opposite view is," and "a different perspective is."

- For instance, if reflecting on a piece of literary criticism, you could mention how your beliefs and ideas about the literary theory addressed in the article relate to what your instructor taught you about it or how it applies to prose and poetry read in class.
- As another example, if reflecting on a new social experience for a sociology class, you could relate that experience to specific ideas or social patterns discussed in class.
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- ↑ https://www.aresearchguide.com/write-reflective-essay.html
- ↑ http://www.iirp.edu/pdf/IIRP-Reflection-Tip_Sheet.pdf
- ↑ Alicia Cook. Professional Writer. Expert Interview. 11 December 2020.
- ↑ http://www.csuohio.edu/writing-center/reflection-papers
- ↑ http://resources.cleary.edu/page/Reflection+Paper,+Tips+for+Writing
- ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/thesis-statements/
- ↑ http://condor.depaul.edu/writing/Types_of_Writing/reflectiveessay.html
- ↑ http://askus.baker.edu/faq/217324
- ↑ https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/scholarlyvoice/sentencestructure
About This Article

To write a reflection paper, start with an introduction where you state any expectations you had for the reading, lesson, or experience you're reflecting on. At the end of your intro, include a thesis statement that explains how your views have changed. In the body of your essay, explain the conclusions you reached after the reading, lesson, or experience and discuss how you arrived at them. Finally, finish your paper with a succinct conclusion that explains what you've learned. To learn how to brainstorm for your paper, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No
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10 Unique and Creative Reflection Techniques & Lessons for the Secondary Student

As educators, we know how critical reflection is to the learning process. Getting students to reflect- deeply and meaningfully- is often one of the most challenging lessons we teach. I have found that both my middle school and high school students will often scoff at these reflection activities, providing the least amount of effort possible to complete the task they see as meaningless. I have been searching for and creating lessons and activities that will bring interest and engagement to this task. The following is a list of 10 lessons and activities I use regularly in my classroom to create a class of reflective learners.

1. Growth Mindset and Goal Setting
The first step in developing a truly reflective learner is to develop the growth mindset within each and every student. Students do not naturally believe that reading and writing are skills that can be improved upon. We have all heard our students comment that they “just are not good at writing.” With this mindset, students are willing to accept poor scores, give less effort, and fain any reflection activity given. As we know, this mindset takes time to alter. I focus on these skills at the beginning of the year, but this concept can be taught at any time!

I love asking my students to create goals. We do this at the beginning of the year, the start of a new semester, a new unit, a new skill, etc. This is a great place to naturally build in those reflection conversations. As we close out that unit or semester, we can look back on these to reflect on our learning and set new goals. What a great life skill and habit to develop with our students! I use these engaging goal setting one pager activities to help my students craft these goals. They are guided and specific, but my students get a chance to be creative and have a little fun in the process! Click here to learn more about these goal setting one pagers!

Click here to download your own copy for free!
2. Asking students to reflect on a deeper level.
The first few times I asked students to reflect on their thinking, I received reflections that were basic at best. I have created this poster to encourage my students to reflect at a deeper level. Similar to Blooms Taxonomy, the lower the question- the deeper the thought. I keep this posted in my room, and use this as a guide for open reflections on activities, daily work, or projects.
3. Model your own reflection.
I take the opportunity to model my learning and my reflecting whenever possible. After an activity or lesson, I will model my own reflection for students. I will also let students see when I make a mistake, so I can express what I have learned from this. I reflect on these in the same way I would wish my students to do after their own mistakes/learning opportunity!

4. Reflect ‘n’ Sketch.

Click here for more information!
One of my favorite reflection lessons is the Reflect ‘n’ Sketch activity. When I began teaching, I only saw my students as readers and writers. I could see their struggles and successes within my subject alone. Then, after teaching tone and mood to a group of eighth graders, I asked students to draw a picture of the mood of a poem. Through this activity, I saw my struggling readers excel with beautiful artwork. I realized that my subject, English, is not the only skill to be had. Many of my students excelled in other areas, especially those who struggled in my class. This experience inspired my Reflect ‘n’ Sketch activity. This gives students the option to draw their reflections on a project or activity. Guiding questions guide their artwork, and students can still deliver deep reflections with a medium that inspires them.
5. Reflection Vlog
I tried this for the first time this past fall, and my students absolutely rave about the Reflection Vlog. I gave students the guiding questions found within the Reflect ‘n’ Sketch activity, and asked them to create a personal Vlog. After each major project or assessment, I asked students to add to their Vlog. Some students chose to upload their videos to YouTube, and others preferred the privacy of simply creating an iMovie or Windows Moviemaker video. With this medium of reflection, students were free to speak about their work, display their work, or add videos and pictures of the process of creating their work. Not only did students find this engaging, but they found that they were able speak freely about their learning. They have commented that they did not feel bound by words, grammar, structure, and organization within the reflection, so they felt that they were better able to express their truest feelings. I can attest to this as I watched their Vlog videos. They opened up more through this ‘on camera’ experience, than in any other reflection technique!
6. Analyze your work from the teacher’s perspective.
When introducing a writing assignment, I would often provide exemplars, or mentor texts, and ask students to assess these using the rubric that would assess their own work. Not only did students better understand the rubric, they better understood the expectations for the writing. This inspired me to have students assess their own work in a similar manner. I ask students to assess their own work from my perspective. This can be via rubric or by simply providing feedback that they believe I would give. Once students get to know me, this feedback can be eerily correct! This helps students to see their work from a new perspective, and often will encourage students to make revisions before they submit their final work!
7. Scrapbook
I have asked my students to create a scrapbook reflection on larger projects; this is especially effective for group work. Students take pictures of the process of their work, students working in their group roles, and of their final project. Each group member can showcase their own pictures or drawings of the groups work. Then students can reflect on their roles within the group, the process of collaboration, their impact on the groups success/failures, and on the learning that was derived from the project’s completion. Some students get very creative with this process, and truly enjoy this as much (or more) than the project itself!
8. The Cube of Reflection

I have use this Cube of Reflection after a group project. Students have a tangible cube that they roll to help them reflect together. The cube really helps them to think about their collective learning; they will use the reflection taxonomy to build their reflection to the deepest levels. Guiding questions help students with each level of this taxonomy. The fun cube fosters a collective reflection experience! Students will: -Remember it. -Understand it. -Apply it. -Analyze it. -Evaluate it. -Create it.
9. Social Media

I have created a Google site to mimic Facebook. Students can upload a picture of their project and reflect on their process or learning experience. I can also pose reflection questions and have students respond to these through this “Fake Facebook”. This can be equally effective on a class blog as well. For more details about setting up a class blog, check out this article on the left!

Click on the image to grab this free resource!
10. Semester Reflection
I always try to do a deeper reflection at the semester break. For most of my classes, I will retain the same set of students into second semester. This transition practically begs for a deep reflection on the previous work before we have a fresh new start in the new semester. I break down my semester reflection into three categories: academic, out-of-school, and personal. This has helped my students to write a guided reflection that covers all parts of their life as a learner.
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About the Author

Liz is a collaborator on teachwriting.org and the founder of Teach BeTween the Lines . She has been teaching for over ten years; she has loved growing young minds through literature and the art of crafting the written word. She is currently working on her doctorate in Education from the University of Minnesota, and holds an M.A. in Education from St. Mary’s University, Minnesota. She loves to write short stories in her free time, especially in those cold Minnesota winters. She is supported by a wonderful family made better by the addition of her two beautiful children.

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My reflection waved back from lake.
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In my reflection is my soul and the truth of its condition.
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When I learn to reflect what is good in the world, I become better within.
My reflection I are made visible only by the light.
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Reflection About Creative Writing
Taking a creative writing class was a good way for me to express my thoughts and feelings onto paper, as well as read my other classmates stories. Reading stories created by other people lead me into their mind brain to experience what type of writer they were, it was an overall exquisite class. I believe that every person has a way of expressing who they are through writing stories of their own, fiction is the best way to express your creative imagination. This class that I took for two years helped me become a better writer and helped me understand the types of writers we have. The first book series I read that got me interested in creative writing was the Immortal Series, by Alyson Noel. I was never one for non-fiction, …show more content…
In this essay, the author
- Opines that taking a creative writing class helped them express their thoughts and feelings onto paper, as well as read other classmates' stories, which led them into their mind brain to experience what type of writer they were.
- Narrates how alyson noel's immortal series got them interested in creative writing. the cover was beautiful and mysterious, and the back was intriguing to set back down.
- Explains that ever can see auras, hear people's thoughts, and know a person’s entire life story by touch. she avoids human contact and suppresses her abilities. damen auguste is gorgeous, exotic and wealthy.
- Analyzes how ever is drawn deeper into his enticing world of secrets and mystery, leaving her with more questions than answers. she is falling deeply and helplessly in love with him.
- Opines that alyson noel's "what if" writing is like getting a taste of the unknown and how one would handle it.
- Recommends high school students attend such a class because it's interesting and educational, learns from other writers, and enjoys reading translated versions of stories from different countries.
- Analyzes how amy tan's chapter "the language of discretion" reminded them of an animal character who traveled to the "island of the free".
- Opines that writing stories gives one an appreciation and understanding for a good book. they believe that one's mind creates characters and scenes from their imagination, turning them into real possibilities.
- Explains that they didn't enjoy writing essays before entering high school, since they did not find it necessary to write a 5-page essay on 'to kill a mockingbird'
- Opines that books are fun for them to read if they can do it on their own time, not forced.
- Opines that writing as you wish, like creative writing, is enjoyable and can improve writing skills in a fun way.
- States l lennie ivrin's essay "what is academic writing?" that there is a myth that some assume they can't write because they have problems with grammatical correctness. good writing is about achieving your desired effect upon an intended audience.
- Explains how they started writing creatively when they were in fifth grade, when their teacher wanted them to write a journal entry every day, which helped them become creative writers.
I believe that writing stories gives you more of an appreciation and understanding for a good book. All of the ideas that make a book come alive is from one author with an amazing imagination, who can captivate someone’s mind and tuck them into their world for a few hours. Every day in class I was allowed one hour to dedicate my time into a story, it is almost like entering your main character’s mind and acting as if it was you. I never had any interest in writing before entering high school, I never enjoyed writing essays. I believe the reason was I did not find it necessary to write a 5-page essay on 'To Kill a Mockingbird '. In the real world we will write a page or two for job opportunities and some for the job itself, but hardly ever will you need to write an essay on some book or event in time; unless you went to college to become an English teacher, history teacher, lawyer, journalist, etc. Even though writing these essays were to help your "writing skills" why not write papers to help your future, such as; cover letters for future jobs, interview speeches, life goals, creative writing, or arguments for court cases if you wanted to be a lawyer? Books are only fun for me to read if I can do it on my own time with my own book, not
- explanatory
- comparative
- Describes how middle school aided them in understanding letter writer and furthered their understanding of the essay.
- Explains that high school furthered their studies in reading and writing. they also learned how to write stories and write essays.
- Explains that they started to learn how to read and write in elementary school. as they got older and further in their education, they became better at reading and writing.
- Explains their favorite form of writing is creative writing, while their least favorite is writing a letter. they read the odyssey and macbeth for inspiration.
- Explains that they started to learn how to read and write in elementary school. as they grew older and further in their education, they got better at reading and writing.
- Describes how they started learning how to read and write during elementary school. elementary school taught them the basic understanding of writing an essay.
- Explains that they prefer creative writing over letter writing because they have freedom to make up anything. they prefer writing essays, though they may find it a chore.
- Explains that writing is one of their favorite things to do in their life. they love it when their awesome teacher gives them a writing assignment.
- Explains that in this class, we wrote more than 3 essays, but i should choose 3 of them, which i get a nice score and discuss about.
- Opines that people who are bilingual have a better ability to think because they can think in two languages that help them with career.
- Opines that cell phones should be allowed in schools because they increase safety, build on the learning process and school management. we need to save ourselves from old teaching ways and embrace the new technology.
- Concludes that they feel like they have accomplished a great idea about writing essays. after all the hours of writing, and putting effort into the papers, they will become better writers.
- Describes what coates said on page 51, "the craft of poetry...what my mother taught me all those years ago – the writing as the art of thinking."
- Explains that writing is a type of art because it requires you to think and be creative in the way you want it to be.
- Analyzes what coates meant when he said, "hate gives identity" on page 60. he meant people who are secretly hating you have an identity of you inside their head.
- Opines that love is an act of heroism. we roll our windows down and hand them a few dollars because of the loving heart of us.
- Analyzes how coates says that the god of history is an atheist. people in the history didn't believe in god. they had no one to rely on.
- Explains that having a black body can be disadvantaging, because you have to live like society want you to be, wear certain clothes, walk certain way, and know your place.
- Explains that critical thinking involves putting your mind to the ultimate test and testing the boundaries of your way of thinking.
- Explains that solving math problems can be tricky because if a person messes up on numbers, they could have an incorrect outcome. math and even writing forces people to think in depth and focus.
- Opines that overthinking could be a disadvantage in some instances. the gulliver's travels gives many examples of people who thought they were extremely knowledgeable because they meditated for as long as they could.
- Explains that the way a person thinks is the most important aspect to living. the medicine field is one of the more affective things that is result of critical thinking.
- Opines that critical thinking isn't necessary in today's technology-based world, citing the greenville news editor, elizabeth, who believes that a sloppy formatted news article would be horrifying.
- Explains that most people in today's society do not even know that they exist because no one ever gives good light to an editor doing good work.
- Explains that writing is key to a person's mind and how that individual thinks. our choices are what decides our future and what we will be doing in life.
- Opines that if we were in a world without thinking critically, where would we be? if no one cared to think and learn new things, we would not have cars, phones, or computers.
- Explains why critical thinking is absolutely necessary because employers are always wanted critical thinkers. employers need someone to trust with their company and the money that they have invested into it.
- Explains that critical thinking helps a person be open minded to the world around them. franklin college wants students to be accepting of others ideas or opinions, but also to stand or be able to help others understand why they would feel that way.
- Concludes that critically thinking is a part of life which is necessary and will help any person succeed in life.
- Explains that writing is universally known and used as a primary source of communication. it is taught, practiced, and perfected throughout the course of one's life.
- Explains that writing in college is assigned to teach you the skills necessary to appropriately communicate in the workplace and in classrooms by using critical thinking.
- Explains that the objective of academic writing is to communicate ideas. references and sources can be used to support ideas, which is why it is important to make connections between reading and writing.
- Opines that college writing differs from high school writing in terms of depth and analysis.
- Explains that college writing provides the opportunity to learn how to effectively express your knowledge and understanding about a subject to an audience, typically your teacher or peers.
- Explains that an essay is a continuous piece of writing ranging in length from at least 500 words to about 5,000 words for special or extended essays.
- Advises students to check out their course or department's requirements for their essay. knowing the answers to these questions will help them feel more confident about the task.
- Explains the general framework in which they approach their essay. now we'll examine the task.
- Explains that one needs to examine the precise wording of the question, and the assumptions behind it. does the topic require general treatment or specific reference to certain aspects?
- Explains the importance of highlighting the key words in the way the question is worded. they also suggest a list of key directive words commonly found in essay titles.
- Describes the merits of theories or opinions or the truth of facts; back their judgement by a discussion of evidence or reasoning involved.
- Opines that it is important to be selective in your approach to collecting material and writing up - choosing only material relevant to the answer of this question.
- Advises that if you're still unsure, ask your tutor. the tutor sets the question and won't be keen to see you waste valuable time.
- Explains the value of writing an essay. it helps you organize your thinking and develop your own point of view on issues.
- Opines that the ability to write a good essay isn't easy to learn. talented writers have the capability to reach into their soul and write from the heart.
- Explains that titles play an important role in the writing process. the title of an essay should not be the assignment given, or to restate the thesis, but it should attract the reader.
- Explains that an introduction is one of the most important parts of an essay because it keeps the reader's interest of what they are about.
- Explains the importance of details in an essay. they can range from speciflc facts to numerical figures.
- Explains that strong structure defines a clearly stated thesis that is supported by many specific details, examples, and facts. a structurally sound essay has no grammatical errors and proper spelling and punctuation.
- Opines that writing good essays will enable future students to present a clear and descriptive idea of the topic.
- Explains that writing is like showing magic tricks to them because the audiences don't know what will happen. writing essays is not something that you can do in one day.
- Explains that they chose "take the first step" and "the one who cares" as their first and last essays for the class.
- Explains that they are ready for ewrt 1a because they learned how to create a good attention grabber.
- Explains that writing a thesis is not as easy as people think. the main point is included in the thesis statement with your opinion and the reason for that opinion.
- Explains that they are still working on their grammar because they made a lot of mistakes while writing.
- Explains how unit 2 helped them strengthen their summary and response skills. they also learned how to effectively quote and paraphrase a text.
- Explains that they were asked to identify an issue in the umass community and conduct research to better understand the issue. they used library databases and the site's search narrowing tools to find articles related to their topic.
- Explains that unit 4 presented a unique challenge. students were asked to utilize photographs, and their ability to illustrate meaning without the use of words, to execute the assignment. the peer revision activities in class assisted them in shortening the writing.
- Explains how they learned about themselves as a writer by taking this class. they hoped to improve their writing and prepare themselves for college writing.
- Explains that the structure of the class was key to the organization of their ideas and helped them to organize their thoughts.
- Explains how unit 1 taught them to focus on each step in the writing process and how to think about each piece of the whole.
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What Is Reflective Writing?

- DESCRIPTION student working on reflective writing
- SOURCE Klaus Vedfelt / DigitalVision / Getty
Writers use reflective writing to analyze and examine an event, memory, or observation . In reflective writing, the writer reflects on the meaning and impact of the occasion.
Defining Reflective Writing
Most writing is creative writing, where you describe something that happened or you make up a story. However, reflective writing gives the writer insights and can lead to further learning. It is like rewinding your life to a past event and then thinking about how it affected your life, what you could have done differently to change the outcome, or what came out of the event.
Reflective writing isn’t just personal, however. Reflective writing is used in an academic setting to examine your response to a new experience or piece of writing. Reflective writing can also be analytical when applied to critical thinking or processing used in research. To begin reflective writing, start with reflection .
Reflection in Reflective Writing
Reflection is a mental process. It is contemplation or a long consideration. Thoughts or opinions that come to you while you are reflecting are called reflections. Unlike a reflection in a mirror, it is an interpretation of what is going on between learning and thinking.
Factors to Consider in Reflection
When you are writing about a reflection, there are factors that can affect how you express it. These are:
- Why you are writing
- Whether others will read it
- How you feel about your writing
- Your emotions at the time of writing
- How capable you are at writing reflectively
The Process of Reflection
When it comes to reflective writing, there are three important areas that you’ll want to be sure to focus on.
Description
Description provides a short description of what you’ll be reflecting on, whether it’s a personal experience, academic subject, or research. Questions you might ask include:
- What are you going to reflect on?
- Why are you reflecting?
Interpretation
In interpretation , you’ll focus on the area of the event, idea, or analysis that you feel is the most important. For example, if you’re doing a reflective writing of the birth of your brother, you’ll want to think about:
- What did you think and feel and what were your reactions?
- What was good and bad?
- What was really going on?
For the good or the bad, you learn something from every piece of literature you read or every experiment you do. Therefore, the outcome of reflective writing is going to focus on what you learned. Questions to help with reflection in this area might include:
- What are the general and specific conclusions you have made?
- What could have been done differently?
- What will be affected by what you have learned?

Examples of Reflection in Reflective Writing
Reflective writing isn’t as easy as you might think it would be. Since you are reflecting on yourself or your thoughts or feelings about something, this might look like:
As I lay in bed, I often find myself wondering about this new world we live in. In one small second, my normal has drastically changed. Even leaving the house can fill me with fear. And I begin to explore all the different ways the world and I have changed.
You can also explore additional examples of reflection used in reflective essays.
Topics and Prompts for Reflective Writing
Here are a list of analytical topics for reflective writing:
- How well did you write an assignment?
- What is the quality of your relationship with someone?
- What are some experiences you gained in your job?
- How do you want to behave differently?
- What is your process for problem solving?
- How well did you do in school last year?
Here are writing prompts to get you started on personal and creative reflective writing :
- If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?
- Describe your room and what you feel about it and your possessions.
- I am comfortable when…
- I feel angry when…
- I feel frustrated when…
- The most interesting story my family ever told was...
- What do you want to do before you turn 30? (or any age or date)
- What are some things you are grateful for and why?
Reflective writing is an observation of something. The topic you explore might be academic, a past experience, or personal. Now that you’ve delved into reflective writing, explore what expository writing is.
Daily Writing Tips
36 adjectives describing light.

A bright constellation of adjectives referring to various qualities of light, or other phenomena related to light, is brought to light in the list below. Quite a few of them, from lucent to lustrous (and even illuminating ), stem from the Latin word lucere , meaning “to shine,” while many others begin with the consonant gl-, betraying their descent from a proto-Germanic word with the same meaning.
1. Aureate : brilliantly golden; also, grandiloquent 2. Blinding : so bright as to obscure vision 3. Coruscating : flashing, or sparkling; also, brilliant or showy 4. Crepuscular : dim, or resembling twilight; also, said of animals active during twilight 5. Dappled : marked by spotted or patchy light; also, marks of this kind on a surface 6. Fluorescent : giving off light produced by another source of illumination 7. Glancing : intermittently flashing or gleaming 8. Gleaming : shining, radiant 9. Glimmering : faintly or unsteadily shining 10. Glinting : see gleaming ; also, appearing briefly, or glancing briefly 11. Glistening : see lustrous 12. Glistering : see glittering 13. Glittering : flashing or sparkling; also brilliantly and/or superficially attractive or appealing 14. Glossy : bright on the surface; also, artificially opulent or sophisticated 15. Illuminating : bright or shining; also, highlighted or made clear 16. Incandescent : warm, glowing 17. Iridescent : rainbow colored 18. Lucent : bright, clear, or shining 19. Lucid : see lucent ; also, easy to understand 20. Lucifugal : shunning light, as in the case of nocturnal animals 21. Lucifugous : see lucifugal 22. Luminescent : shining by chemical or physiological means 23. Luminous : full of light 24. Lustrous : smooth, evenly lit; also, brilliant or eminent 25. Opaque : blocking light; also, obtuse, or difficult to understand 26. Opalescent : see iridescent 27. Penumbral : partially shaded 28. Phosphorescent : continuing to glow after removal of a light source 29. Prismatic : brilliant, or resembling colors formed by passing light through a prism 30. Radiant : glowing, or radiating light 31. Resplendent : brilliant or glowing 32. Scintillating : sparking, or sparkling; also, brilliant, as said of personality 33. Shimmering : soft or wavering light or reflection 34. Spangling : see glittering 35. Spectral : made by a range of colors of the spectrum; also, ghostly 36. Translucent : diffused, or transparent
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4 thoughts on “36 Adjectives Describing Light”
This was en-‘light’-ening!
There is a difference between transparent and translucent ,at least as we use it in laboratory situations. Something that is transparent allows the image on the other side of the observer to be seen plainly, even if only darkly or with enhanced light. Something that is translucent allows light to pass through but blurs or obscures the image on the other side.
When the particles that a material is made of are smaller than the wavelength of visible light, the material is transparent. When particles are suspended in an otherwise transparent medium are larger, they impede transmission and the material becomes translucent.
It seems there are many more that could be added to this list such a efulgent, vivid, brilliant . There are words that reflect light such as reflective, shiny, burnished, etc.
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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Assignments
- Annotated Bibliography
- Analyzing a Scholarly Journal Article
- Group Presentations
- Dealing with Nervousness
- Using Visual Aids
- Grading Someone Else's Paper
- Types of Structured Group Activities
- Group Project Survival Skills
- Leading a Class Discussion
- Multiple Book Review Essay
- Reviewing Collected Works
- Writing a Case Analysis Paper
- Writing a Case Study
- About Informed Consent
- Writing Field Notes
- Writing a Policy Memo
- Writing a Reflective Paper
- Writing a Research Proposal
- Acknowledgments
Reflective writing is a process of identifying, questioning, and critically evaluating course-based learning opportunities, integrated with your own observations, experiences, impressions, beliefs, assumptions, or biases, and which describes how this process stimulated new or creative understanding about the content of the course. A reflective paper describes and explains in an introspective, first person narrative, your reactions and feelings about either a specific element of the class [e.g., a required reading; a film shown in class] or more generally how you experienced learning throughout the course. Reflective writing assignments can be in the form of a single paper, essays, portfolios, journals, diaries, or blogs.
How to Write a Reflection Paper . Academic Skills, Trent University; Writing a Reflection Paper . Writing Center, Lewis University; Critical Reflection . Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo; Tsingos-Lucas et al. "Using Reflective Writing as a Predictor of Academic Success in Different Assessment Formats." American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 81 (2017): Article 8.
Benefits of Reflective Writing Assignments
As the term implies, a reflective paper involves looking inward at oneself in contemplating and bringing meaning to the relationship between course content and the acquisition of new knowledge . Educational research [Bolton, 2010; Ryan, 2011; Tsingos-Lucas et al., 2017] demonstrates that assigning reflective writing tasks enhances learning because it challenges students to confront their own assumptions, biases, and belief systems around what is being taught in class and, in so doing, stimulate student’s decisions, actions, attitudes, and understanding about themselves as learners and in relation to having mastery over their learning. Reflection assignments are also an opportunity to write in a first person narrative about elements of the course, such as the required readings, separate from the exegetic and analytical prose of academic research papers.
Reflection writing often serves multiple purposes simultaneously. In no particular order, here are some of reasons why professors assign reflection papers:
- Enhances learning from previous knowledge and experience in order to improve future decision-making and reasoning in practice . Reflective writing in the applied social sciences enhances decision-making skills and academic performance in ways that can inform professional practice. The act of reflective writing creates self-awareness and understanding of others. This is particularly important in clinical and service-oriented professional settings.
- Allows students to make sense of classroom content and overall learning experiences in relation to oneself, others, and the conditions that shaped the content and classroom experiences . Reflective writing places you within the course content in ways that can deepen your understanding of the material. Because reflective thinking can help reveal hidden biases, it can help you critically interrogate moments when you do not like or agree with discussions, readings, or other aspects of the course.
- Increases awareness of one’s cognitive abilities and the evidence for these attributes . Reflective writing can break down personal doubts about yourself as a learner and highlight specific abilities that may have been hidden or suppressed due to prior assumptions about the strength of your academic abilities [e.g., reading comprehension; problem-solving skills]. Reflective writing, therefore, can have a positive affective [i.e., emotional] impact on your sense of self-worth.
- Applying theoretical knowledge and frameworks to real experiences . Reflective writing can help build a bridge of relevancy between theoretical knowledge and the real world. In so doing, this form of writing can lead to a better understanding of underlying theories and their analytical properties applied to professional practice.
- Reveals shortcomings that the reader will identify . Evidence suggests that reflective writing can uncover your own shortcomings as a learner, thereby, creating opportunities to anticipate the responses of your professor may have about the quality of your coursework. This can be particularly productive if the reflective paper is written before final submission of an assignment.
- Helps students identify their tacit [a.k.a., implicit] knowledge and possible gaps in that knowledge . Tacit knowledge refers to ways of knowing rooted in lived experience, insight, and intuition rather than formal, codified, categorical, or explicit knowledge. In so doing, reflective writing can stimulate students to question their beliefs about a research problem or an element of the course content beyond positivist modes of understanding and representation.
- Encourages students to actively monitor their learning processes over a period of time . On-going reflective writing in journals or blogs, for example, can help you maintain or adapt learning strategies in other contexts. The regular, purposeful act of reflection can facilitate continuous deep thinking about the course content as it evolves and changes throughout the term. This, in turn, can increase your overall confidence as a learner.
- Relates a student’s personal experience to a wider perspective . Reflection papers can help you see the big picture associated with the content of a course by forcing you to think about the connections between scholarly content and your lived experiences outside of school. It can provide a macro-level understanding of one’s own experiences in relation to the specifics of what is being taught.
- If reflective writing is shared, students can exchange stories about their learning experiences, thereby, creating an opportunity to reevaluate their original assumptions or perspectives . In most cases, reflective writing is only viewed by your professor in order to ensure candid feedback from students. However, occasionally, reflective writing is shared and openly discussed in class. During these discussions, new or different perspectives and alternative approaches to solving problems can be generated that would otherwise be hidden. Sharing student's reflections can also reveal collective patterns of thought and emotions about a particular element of the course.
Bolton, Gillie. Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development . London: Sage, 2010; Chang, Bo. "Reflection in Learning." Online Learning 23 (2019), 95-110; Cavilla, Derek. "The Effects of Student Reflection on Academic Performance and Motivation." Sage Open 7 (July-September 2017): 1–13; Culbert, Patrick. “Better Teaching? You Can Write On It “ Liberal Education (February 2022); McCabe, Gavin and Tobias Thejll-Madsen. The Reflection Toolkit . University of Edinburgh; The Purpose of Reflection . Introductory Composition at Purdue University; Practice-based and Reflective Learning . Study Advice Study Guides, University of Reading; Ryan, Mary. "Improving Reflective Writing in Higher Education: A Social Semiotic Perspective." Teaching in Higher Education 16 (2011): 99-111; Tsingos-Lucas et al. "Using Reflective Writing as a Predictor of Academic Success in Different Assessment Formats." American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 81 (2017): Article 8; What Benefits Might Reflective Writing Have for My Students? Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse; Rykkje, Linda. "The Tacit Care Knowledge in Reflective Writing: A Practical Wisdom." International Practice Development Journal 7 (September 2017): Article 5; Using Reflective Writing to Deepen Student Learning . Center for Writing, University of Minnesota.
How to Approach Writing a Reflection Paper
Thinking About Reflective Thinking
Educational theorists have developed numerous models of reflective thinking that your professor may use to frame a reflective writing assignment. These models can help you systematically interpret your learning experiences, thereby ensuring that you ask the right questions and have a clear understanding of what should be covered. A model can also represent the overall structure of a reflective paper. Each model establishes a different approach to reflection and will require you to think about your writing differently. If you are unclear how to fit your writing within a particular reflective model, seek clarification from your professor. There are generally two types of reflective writing assignments, each approached in slightly different ways.
1. Reflective Thinking about Course Readings
This type of reflective writing focuses on thoughtfully thinking about the course readings that underpin how most students acquire new knowledge and understanding about the subject of a course. Reflecting on course readings is often assigned in freshmen-level, interdisciplinary courses where the required readings examine topics viewed from multiple perspectives and, as such, provide different ways of analyzing a topic, issue, event, or phenomenon. The purpose of reflective thinking about course readings in the social and behavioral sciences is to elicit your opinions, beliefs, and feelings about the research and its significance. This type of writing can provide an opportunity to break down key assumptions you may have and, in so doing, reveal potential biases in how you interpret the scholarship.
If you are assigned to reflect on course readings, consider the following methods of analysis as prompts that can help you get started :
- Examine carefully the main introductory elements of the reading, including the purpose of the study, the theoretical framework being used to test assumptions, and the research questions being addressed. Think about what ideas stood out to you. Why did they? Were these ideas new to you or familiar in some way based on your own lived experiences or prior knowledge?
- Develop your ideas around the readings by asking yourself, what do I know about this topic? Where does my existing knowledge about this topic come from? What are the observations or experiences in my life that influence my understanding of the topic? Do I agree or disagree with the main arguments, recommended course of actions, or conclusions made by the author(s)? Why do I feel this way and what is the basis of these feelings?
- Make connections between the text and your own beliefs, opinions, or feelings by considering questions like, how do the readings reinforce my existing ideas or assumptions? How the readings challenge these ideas or assumptions? How does this text help me to better understand this topic or research in ways that motivate me to learn more about this area of study?
2. Reflective Thinking about Course Experiences
This type of reflective writing asks you to critically reflect on locating yourself at the conceptual intersection of theory and practice. The purpose of experiential reflection is to evaluate theories or disciplinary-based analytical models based on your introspective assessment of the relationship between hypothetical thinking and practical reality; it offers a way to consider how your own knowledge and skills fit within professional practice. This type of writing also provides an opportunity to evaluate your decisions and actions, as well as how you managed your subsequent successes and failures, within a specific theoretical framework. As a result, abstract concepts can crystallize and become more relevant to you when considered within your own experiences. This can help you formulate plans for self-improvement as you learn.
If you are assigned to reflect on your experiences, consider the following questions as prompts to help you get started :
- Contextualize your reflection in relation to the overarching purpose of the course by asking yourself, what did you hope to learn from this course? What were the learning objectives for the course and how did I fit within each of them? How did these goals relate to the main themes or concepts of the course?
- Analyze how you experienced the course by asking yourself, what did I learn from this experience? What did I learn about myself? About working in this area of research and study? About how the course relates to my place in society? What assumptions about the course were supported or refuted?
- Think introspectively about the ways you experienced learning during the course by asking yourself, did your learning experiences align with the goals or concepts of the course? Why or why do you not feel this way? What was successful and why do you believe this? What would you do differently and why is this important? How will you prepare for a future experience in this area of study?
NOTE: If you are assigned to write a journal or other type of on-going reflection exercise, a helpful approach is to reflect on your reflections by re-reading what you have already written. In other words, review your previous entries as a way to contextualize your feelings, opinions, or beliefs regarding your overall learning experiences. Over time, this can also help reveal hidden patterns or themes related to how you processed your learning experiences. Consider concluding your reflective journal with a summary of how you felt about your learning experiences at critical junctures throughout the course, then use these to write about how you grew as a student learner and how the act of reflecting helped you gain new understanding about the subject of the course and its content.
ANOTHER NOTE: Regardless of whether you write a reflection paper or a journal, do not focus your writing on the past. The act of reflection is intended to think introspectively about previous learning experiences. However, reflective thinking should document the ways in which you progressed in obtaining new insights and understandings about your growth as a learner that can be carried forward in subsequent coursework or in future professional practice. Your writing should reflect a furtherance of increasing personal autonomy and confidence gained from understanding more about yourself as a learner.
Structure and Writing Style
There are no strict academic rules for writing a reflective paper. Reflective writing may be assigned in any class taught in the social and behavioral sciences and, therefore, requirements for the assignment can vary depending on disciplinary-based models of inquiry and learning. The organization of content can also depend on what your professor wants you to write about or based on the type of reflective model used to frame the writing assignment. Despite these possible variations, below is a basic approach to organizing and writing a good reflective paper, followed by a list of problems to avoid.
Pre-flection
In most cases, it's helpful to begin by thinking about your learning experiences and outline what you want to focus on before you begin to write the paper. This can help you organize your thoughts around what was most important to you and what experiences [good or bad] had the most impact on your learning. As described by the University of Waterloo Writing and Communication Centre, preparing to write a reflective paper involves a process of self-analysis that can help organize your thoughts around significant moments of in-class knowledge discovery.
- Using a thesis statement as a guide, note what experiences or course content stood out to you , then place these within the context of your observations, reactions, feelings, and opinions. This will help you develop a rough outline of key moments during the course that reflect your growth as a learner. To identify these moments, pose these questions to yourself: What happened? What was my reaction? What were my expectations and how were they different from what transpired? What did I learn?
- Critically think about your learning experiences and the course content . This will help you develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding about why these moments were significant or relevant to you. Use the ideas you formulated during the first stage of reflecting to help you think through these moments from both an academic and personal perspective. From an academic perspective, contemplate how the experience enhanced your understanding of a concept, theory, or skill. Ask yourself, did the experience confirm my previous understanding or challenge it in some way. As a result, did this highlight strengths or gaps in your current knowledge? From a personal perspective, think introspectively about why these experiences mattered, if previous expectations or assumptions were confirmed or refuted, and if this surprised, confused, or unnerved you in some way.
- Analyze how these experiences and your reactions to them will shape your future thinking and behavior . Reflection implies looking back, but the most important act of reflective writing is considering how beliefs, assumptions, opinions, and feelings were transformed in ways that better prepare you as a learner in the future. Note how this reflective analysis can lead to actions you will take as a result of your experiences, what you will do differently, and how you will apply what you learned in other courses or in professional practice.
Basic Structure and Writing Style
Reflective Background and Context
The first part of your reflection paper should briefly provide background and context in relation to the content or experiences that stood out to you. Highlight the settings, summarize the key readings, or narrate the experiences in relation to the course objectives. Provide background that sets the stage for your reflection. You do not need to go into great detail, but you should provide enough information for the reader to understand what sources of learning you are writing about [e.g., course readings, field experience, guest lecture, class discussions] and why they were important. This section should end with an explanatory thesis statement that expresses the central ideas of your paper and what you want the readers to know, believe, or understand after they finish reading your paper.
Reflective Interpretation
Drawing from your reflective analysis, this is where you can be personal, critical, and creative in expressing how you felt about the course content and learning experiences and how they influenced or altered your feelings, beliefs, assumptions, or biases about the subject of the course. This section is also where you explore the meaning of these experiences in the context of the course and how you gained an awareness of the connections between these moments and your own prior knowledge.
Guided by your thesis statement, a helpful approach is to interpret your learning throughout the course with a series of specific examples drawn from the course content and your learning experiences. These examples should be arranged in sequential order that illustrate your growth as a learner. Reflecting on each example can be done by: 1) introducing a theme or moment that was meaningful to you, 2) describing your previous position about the learning moment and what you thought about it, 3) explaining how your perspective was challenged and/or changed and why, and 4) introspectively stating your current or new feelings, opinions, or beliefs about that experience in class.
It is important to include specific examples drawn from the course and placed within the context of your assumptions, thoughts, opinions, and feelings. A reflective narrative without specific examples does not provide an effective way for the reader to understand the relationship between the course content and how you grew as a learner.
Reflective Conclusions
The conclusion of your reflective paper should provide a summary of your thoughts, feelings, or opinions regarding what you learned about yourself as a result of taking the course. Here are several ways you can frame your conclusions based on the examples you interpreted and reflected on what they meant to you. Each example would need to be tied to the basic theme [thesis statement] of your reflective background section.
- Your reflective conclusions can be described in relation to any expectations you had before taking the class [e.g., “I expected the readings to not be relevant to my own experiences growing up in a rural community, but the research actually helped me see that the challenges of developing my identity as a child of immigrants was not that unusual...”].
- Your reflective conclusions can explain how what you learned about yourself will change your actions in the future [e.g., “During a discussion in class about the challenges of helping homeless people, I realized that many of these people hate living on the street but lack the ability to see a way out. This made me realize that I wanted to take more classes in psychology...”].
- Your reflective conclusions can describe major insights you experienced a critical junctures during the course and how these moments enhanced how you see yourself as a student learner [e.g., "The guest speaker from the Head Start program made me realize why I wanted to pursue a career in elementary education..."].
- Your reflective conclusions can reconfigure or reframe how you will approach professional practice and your understanding of your future career aspirations [e.g.,, "The course changed my perceptions about seeking a career in business finance because it made me realize I want to be more engaged in customer service..."]
- Your reflective conclusions can explore any learning you derived from the act of reflecting itself [e.g., “Reflecting on the course readings that described how minority students perceive campus activities helped me identify my own biases about the benefits of those activities in acclimating to campus life...”].
NOTE: The length of a reflective paper in the social sciences is usually less than a traditional research paper. However, don’t assume that writing a reflective paper is easier than writing a research paper. A well-conceived critical reflection paper often requires as much time and effort as a research paper because you must purposeful engage in thinking about your learning in ways that you may not comfortable with or used to. This is particular true while preparing to write because reflective papers are not as structured as a traditional research paper and, therefore, you have to think deliberately about how you want to organize the paper and what elements of the course you want to reflect upon.
ANOTHER NOTE: Do not limit yourself to using only text in reflecting on your learning. If you believe it would be helpful, consider using creative modes of thought or expression such as, illustrations, photographs, or material objects that reflects an experience related to the subject of the course that was important to you [e.g., like a ticket stub to a renowned speaker on campus]. Whatever non-textual element you include, be sure to describe the object's relevance to your personal relationship to the course content.
Problems to Avoid
A reflective paper is not a “mind dump” . Reflective papers document your personal and emotional experiences and, therefore, they do not conform to rigid structures, or schema, to organize information. However, the paper should not be a disjointed, stream-of-consciousness narrative. Reflective papers are still academic pieces of writing that require organized thought, that use academic language and tone , and that apply intellectually-driven critical thinking to the course content and your learning experiences and their significance.
A reflective paper is not a research paper . If you are asked to reflect on a course reading, the reflection will obviously include some description of the research. However, the goal of reflective writing is not to present extraneous ideas to the reader or to "educate" them about the course. The goal is to share a story about your relationship with the learning objectives of the course. Therefore, unlike research papers, you are expected to write from a first person point of view which includes an introspective examination of your own opinions, feelings, and personal assumptions.
A reflection paper is not a book review . Descriptions of the course readings using your own words is not a reflective paper. Reflective writing should focus on how you understood the implications of and were challenged by the course in relation to your own lived experiences or personal assumptions, combined with explanations of how you grew as a student learner based on this internal dialogue. Remember that you are the central object of the paper, not the research materials.
A reflective paper is not an all-inclusive meditation. Do not try to cover everything. The scope of your paper should be well-defined and limited to your specific opinions, feelings, and beliefs about what you determine to be the most significant content of the course and in relation to the learning that took place. Reflections should be detailed enough to covey what you think is important, but your thoughts should be expressed concisely and coherently [as is true for any academic writing assignment].
Critical Reflection . Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo; Critical Reflection: Journals, Opinions, & Reactions . University Writing Center, Texas A&M University; Connor-Greene, Patricia A. “Making Connections: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Journal Writing in Enhancing Student Learning.” Teaching of Psychology 27 (2000): 44-46; Good vs. Bad Reflection Papers , Franklin University; Dyment, Janet E. and Timothy S. O’Connell. "The Quality of Reflection in Student Journals: A Review of Limiting and Enabling Factors." Innovative Higher Education 35 (2010): 233-244: How to Write a Reflection Paper . Academic Skills, Trent University; Amelia TaraJane House. Reflection Paper . Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence, University of Arkansas; Ramlal, Alana, and Désirée S. Augustin. “Engaging Students in Reflective Writing: An Action Research Project.” Educational Action Research 28 (2020): 518-533; Writing a Reflection Paper . Writing Center, Lewis University; McGuire, Lisa, Kathy Lay, and Jon Peters. “Pedagogy of Reflective Writing in Professional Education.” Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2009): 93-107; Critical Reflection . Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo; How Do I Write Reflectively? Academic Skills Toolkit, University of New South Wales Sydney; Reflective Writing . [email protected] University of Leeds; Walling, Anne, Johanna Shapiro, and Terry Ast. “What Makes a Good Reflective Paper?” Family Medicine 45 (2013): 7-12; Williams, Kate, Mary Woolliams, and Jane Spiro. Reflective Writing . 2nd edition. London: Red Globe Press, 2020; Yeh, Hui-Chin, Shih-hsien Yang, Jo Shan Fu, and Yen-Chen Shih. “Developing College Students’ Critical Thinking through Reflective Writing.” Higher Education Research and Development (2022): 1-16.
Writing Tip
Focus on Reflecting, Not on Describing
Minimal time and effort should be spent describing the course content you are asked to reflect upon. The purpose of a reflection assignment is to introspectively contemplate your reactions to and feeling about an element of the course. D eflecting the focus away from your own feelings by concentrating on describing the course content can happen particularly if "talking about yourself" [i.e., reflecting] makes you uncomfortable or it is intimidating. However, the intent of reflective writing is to overcome these inhibitions so as to maximize the benefits of introspectively assessing your learning experiences. Keep in mind that, if it is relevant, your feelings of discomfort could be a part of how you critically reflect on any challenges you had during the course [e.g., you realize this discomfort inhibited your willingness to ask questions during class, it fed into your propensity to procrastinate, or it made it difficult participating in groups].
Writing a Reflection Paper . Writing Center, Lewis University; Reflection Paper . Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence, University of Arkansas.
Another Writing Tip
Helpful Videos about Reflective Writing
These two short videos succinctly describe how to approach a reflective writing assignment. They are produced by the Academic Skills department at the University of Melbourne and the Skills Team of the University of Hull, respectively.
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Reflective writing

Learn how to write a reflective text about a learning experience.
Instructions
Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.
Preparation
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In January I spent three weeks volunteering as an English teacher in my town. I've been thinking about becoming an English teacher for a while so it was a good opportunity to see what it's like. The students had all just arrived to start a new life in the UK and they had a range of levels from beginner to intermediate. They came from a variety of countries and had very different backgrounds and experiences.
For me, the most important thing was the relationship with the students. I was nervous at first and did not feel confident about speaking in front of people. However, I found it easy to build good relationships with the students as a class and as individuals and I soon relaxed with them. It was a challenge to encourage the lower-level students to speak in English, but at least they understood a lot more at the end of the course.
At first, planning lessons took a really long time and I was not happy with the results. Classes seemed to be too difficult for some students and too easy for others, who finished quickly and got bored. I found it was better to teach without a course book, adapting materials I found online to suit their needs. I learned to take extra activities for students who finished early and that was much better.
I still need to continue improving my lesson planning. I would like more ideas for teaching mixed-ability groups and I want to plan the whole course better next time. That way students have a focus for each lesson and a sense of progress and of what they've covered. I'm also going to put more confident students with beginners when they work in pairs so conversation activities give everyone more chance to speak and students can help each other.
Overall, it was a really positive experience and I learned a lot. I've decided that I would like to become an English teacher in the future.
- Reflective writing is more personal than other types of academic writing. You can use the first person ( I ... , My ... , etc.) and explain how you felt.
- Think about the experience in detail. Explain what went well and what was challenging, and say what you learned in the process.
- Short introduction to the situation
- Evaluate the most important things about the experience, including solutions to problems
- Say what you would do differently next time
- Say what you learned overall.
- Keep the focus on your learning process and what you will do better in future.
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What was your last challenging learning experience?
Language level
My last challenging experience was working az a Turkish<>Arabic translator in a factory which working in textile field, So I have to tranlate some phrases which I didn't before in this field. I tried to learn more about textile field and how they making this process of pants production.
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When I started learning Spanish, honestly pronunciation was bit easy but verb conjugation was a total struggle for me since I studied on my own. I had gotten pretty good at some grammar points in Spanish but still couldn't speak, I was so overwhelmed and frustrated. It was really challenging to learn another language.
my last challenging learning experience (which even now lasts) concerns learning a Turkish and English, which are a very complex languages, also for people who, as me, has study with his mother language. especially when you study in a spicific major at university and you need onather language as module different of your mother language but you haven't it.
My last learning challenging experience was English and still. I'm trying to improve my speaking and listening skills and it's hardly being improved. I have tried many places but they were overrated and not good enough, but I don't give up and I won't stop until I'm fluent.
During the last two months, I started using online course platforms, namely Coursera and Linkedin Learning. I had been thinking about using them for a while but I'd postponed several times. Then I found a great online Academic Writing in English course and became a keen user of these services.
To follow a course on one of these platforms, you only need a computer -even a cheap one would be fine- and an internet connection. The quality of the contents was really high. Some courses ask you to upload a project at the end, and some do not. Each group has a mini forum for students to ask questions either to tutors or students and do peer review. So, you are on yourself since everything is online and there is usually no one couraging you to practise regularly, unlike a regular course. Moreover, other participants were not keen on doing peer review.
First, I found it a little bit hard to encourage myself to practise every day. Luckily, I got accustomed to this new way of learning quickly. I believe that the instructors designed the course in a way that helps students to study every day. Regarding the lack of peer review, I couldn't find a solution to this. I offered discussing each other's papers, works etc. to my friends -the ones I know in person- and they refused. So I imagined like I was a stranger reading my own paper. Although it sounds strange, as if playing chess alone, it surprisingly worked. The next time I use these platforms, I think that it would be better to ask a friend to start together, rather than to enrol alone. Or I can make research about which courses have an active community.
Overall, online courses are a great opportunity nowadays. They are beneficial since I only have to pay to get a certificate but it is free to watch the lessons and access materials. Some platforms offer high-quality courses and these certificates could make a difference on CVs.
My first job was very specific. It had a connection with my graphic design studies but it was completely new to me. We scanned images on a scanner and we flashed the texts on a printer. We created films that were sent to the printer. Then the computers arrived. The films have been replaced by digital files. I had to learn how to use the computer and the layout programs. This saved us twice as much time when we started working on the computer. Currently, we are going ten times faster than 30 years ago.
I have last challenging experience was about I was too sleepy but now I'm a hard working and non lazy person who do work hard on study.
Module 1: Success Skills
Reflective writing, learning objectives.
- Examine the components of reflective writing
Reflective writing includes several different components: description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and future application. Reflective writers must weave their personal perspectives with evidence of deep, critical thought as they make connections between theory, practice, and learning. The steps below should help you find the appropriate balance among all these factors.
1st Step: Review the assignment
As with any writing situation, the first step in writing a reflective piece is to clarify the task. Reflective assignments can take many forms, so you need to understand exactly what your instructor is asking you to do. Some reflective assignments are short, just a paragraph or two of unpolished writing. Usually the purpose of these reflective pieces is to capture your immediate impressions or perceptions. For example, your instructor might ask you at the end of a class to write quickly about a concept from that day’s lesson. That type of reflection helps you and your instructor gauge your understanding of the concept.
Other reflections are academic essays that can range in length from several paragraphs to several pages. The purpose of these essays is to critically reflect on and support an original claim(s) about a larger experience, such as an event you attended, a project you worked on, or your writing development. These essays require polished writing that conforms to academic conventions, such as articulation of a claim and substantive revision. They might address a larger audience than you and your instructor, including, for example, your classmates, your family, a scholarship committee, etc. It’s important before you begin writing, that you can identify the assignment’s purpose, audience, intended message or content, and requirements.
2nd Step: Generate ideas for content
As you generate ideas for your reflection, you might consider things like:
- Recollections of an experience, assignment, or course
- Ideas or observations made during that event
- Questions, challenges, or areas of doubt
- Strategies employed to solve problems
- A-ha moments linking theory to practice or learning something new
- Connections between this learning and prior learning
- New questions that arise as a result of the learning or experience
- New actions taken as a result of the learning or experience
3rd Step: Organize content
Researchers have developed several different frameworks or models for how reflective writing can be structured. For example, one method has you consider the “What?” “So what?” and “Now what?” of a situation in order to become more reflective. First, you assess what happened and describe the event, then you explain why it was significant, and then you use that information to inform your future practice. [1] [2] Similarly, the DIEP framework can help you consider how to organize your content when writing a reflective piece. Using this method, you describe what happened or what you did, interpret what it means, evaluate its value or impact, and plan steps for improving or changing for the future.
The DIEP Model of reflective writing
The DIEP model (Boud, Keogh & Walker, 1985) organizes the reflection into four different components:

Figure 1 . The DIEP model for reflective thinking and writing has you first describe the situation, interpret it, evaluate it, then plan what to do with that new information.
Remember, your goal is to make an interpretive or evaluative claim, or series of claims, that moves beyond obvious statements (such as, “I really enjoyed this project”) and demonstrates you have come to a deeper understanding of what you have learned and how you will use that learning.
In the example below, notice how the writer reflects on her initial ambitions and planning, the a-ha! moment, and then her decision to limit the scope of a project. She was assigned a multimodal (more than just writing) project, in which she made a video, and then reflected on the experience:
Student Example
Keeping a central focus in mind applies to multimodal compositions as well as written essays. A prime example of this was in my remix. When storyboarding for the video, I wanted to appeal to all college students in general. Within my compressed time limit of three minutes, I had planned to showcase numerous large points. It was too much. I decided to limit the scope of the topic to emphasize how digitally “addicted” college students are, and that really changed the project in significant ways.
4th Step: Draft, Revise, Edit, Repeat
A single, unpolished draft may suffice for short, in-the-moment reflections, but you may be asked to produce a longer academic reflection essay. This longer reflection will require significant drafting, revising, and editing. Whatever the length of the assignment, keep this reflective cycle in mind:
- briefly describe the event or action;
- analyze and interpret events and actions, using evidence for support;
- demonstrate relevance in the present and the future.
The following video, produced by the Hull University Skills Team, provides a great overview of reflective writing. Even if you aren’t assigned a specific reflection writing task in your classes, it’s a good idea to reflect anyway, as reflection results in better learning.
You can view the transcript for “Reflective Writing” here (opens in new window) .
Check your understanding of reflective writing and the things you learned in the video with these quick practice questions:
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- Driscoll J (1994) Reflective practice for practise - a framework of structured reflection for clinical areas. Senior Nurse 14 (1):47–50 ↵
- Ash, S.L, Clayton, P.H., & Moses, M.G. (2009). Learning through critical reflection: A tutorial for service-learning students (instructor version). Raleigh, NC. ↵
- Process of Reflective Writing. Authored by : Karen Forgette. Provided by : University of Mississippi. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Reflective Writing. Provided by : SkillsTeamHullUni. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoI67VeE3ds&feature=emb_logo . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License
- Frameworks for Reflective Writing. Authored by : Karen Forgette. Provided by : University of Mississippi. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

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Reflective Writing
A great deal of your time at university will be spent thinking; thinking about what people have said, what you have read, what you yourself are thinking and how your thinking has changed. It is generally believed that the thinking process involves two aspects: reflective thinking and critical thinking. They are not separate processes; rather, they are closely connected (Brookfield 1987).

Figure 1: The Thinking Process (adapted from Mezirow 1990, Schon 1987, Brookfield 1987)
Reflective thinking
Reflection is:
- a form of personal response to experiences, situations, events or new information.
- a 'processing' phase where thinking and learning take place.
There is neither a right nor a wrong way of reflective thinking, there are just questions to explore.
Figure 1 shows that the reflective thinking process starts with you. Before you can begin to assess the words and ideas of others, you need to pause and identify and examine your own thoughts.
Doing this involves revisiting your prior experience and knowledge of the topic you are exploring. It also involves considering how and why you think the way you do. The examination of your beliefs, values, attitudes and assumptions forms the foundation of your understanding.
Reflective thinking demands that you recognise that you bring valuable knowledge to every experience. It helps you therefore to recognise and clarify the important connections between what you already know and what you are learning. It is a way of helping you to become an active, aware and critical learner.
What is reflective writing?
Reflective writing is:.
- documenting your response to experiences, opinions, events or new information
- communicating your response to thoughts and feelings
- a way of exploring your learning
- an opportunity to gain self-knowledge
- a way to achieve clarity and better understanding of what you are learning
- a chance to develop and reinforce writing skills
- a way of making meaning out of what you study
Reflective writing is not:
- just conveying information, instruction or argument
- pure description, though there may be descriptive elements
- straightforward decision or judgement, e.g. about whether something is right or wrong, good or bad
- simple problem-solving
- a summary of course notes
- a standard university essay.
See next: How do I write reflectively?
Essay and assignment writing guide.
- Essay writing basics
- Essay and assignment planning
- Answering assignment questions
- Editing checklist
- Writing a critical review
- Annotated bibliography
- How do I write reflectively?
- Examples of reflective writing
- ^ More support
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Written reflections
Putting pen to paper or typing out your thoughts can help you slow down and identify the most essential aspects of your thought processes for reflection.
There are a range of benefits that can come from writing that might help you with your reflection. While it might seem effortful to either put pen to paper or to type your reflection up on a phone or computer, there are distinct differences between speaking and writing that can make writing a great tool for reflection.
The act of writing will slow down your mind and help you focus
When writing purposely, we tend to become more conscious of our words compared to speaking. It takes longer to write a sentence than it does to say it, and therefore we slow down our thinking. By forcing us to stay with each sentence longer, writing allows us more time to think about the particular sentence we are writing.
Moreover, when thinking we sometimes get carried away with random thoughts, but by writing down our thoughts we are given something tangible to focus on, and if we ever lose the thread we can read the last sentences and pick up the thought again. This can help you focus on the meaning of what you are writing and support the conscious examination of thoughts in general or around an experience.
This also means that you might be more careful in the way you select what is essential as you can more easily weigh up each sentence before putting it in writing, compared to when speaking.
You can examine your thoughts and revisit them
When writing reflections it allows us to take a bird’s-eye view. You can take a step back and revisit thoughts by re-reading what you wrote.
Moreover it works as a thoughts record. Your thoughts and feelings about an event will change over time, and therefore being able to read these and your learning outcomes can support you in maintaining the learning.
A few other benefits
It is challenging to capture all the ways in which writing may benefit reflection, but below are a few other benefits of writing down your reflection:
- Writing on your phone or in a journal that you keep in your pocket or bag makes it always available.
- If you are writing personal reflections – it’s private (unless a nosy sibling steals it!)
- It allows for a continuous relationship with self, where you can write and revisit as you please.
- It provides a record of learning and development.
Typical types of reflective writing
How to improve your reflective writing.
As with anything, practice makes you better and makes the process feel more natural. Moreover, seeking feedback from others will help you. So whatever way you choose to write down your reflections, you can always hone your skills and develop your reflections by sharing them with other people.
Back to ‘Ways of reflecting’
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A complete guide to writing a reflective essay
(Last updated: 11 November 2021)
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“The overwhelming burden of writing my first ever reflective essay loomed over me as I sat as still as a statue, as my fingers nervously poised over the intimidating buttons on my laptop keyboard. Where would I begin? Where would I end? Nerve wracking thoughts filled my mind as I fretted over the seemingly impossible journey on which I was about to embark.”
Reflective essays may seem simple on the surface, but they can be a real stumbling block if you're not quite sure how to go about them. In simple terms, reflective essays constitute a critical examination of a life experience and, with the right guidance, they're not too challenging to put together. A reflective essay is similar to other essays in that it needs to be easily understood and well structured, but the content is more akin to something personal like a diary entry.
In this guide, we explore in detail how to write a great reflective essay , including what makes a good structure and some advice on the writing process. We’ve even thrown in an example reflective essay to inspire you too, making this the ultimate guide for anyone needing reflective essay help.
In a reflective essay, a writer primarily examines his or her life experiences, hence the term ‘reflective’. The purpose of writing a reflective essay is to provide a platform for the author to not only recount a particular life experience, but to also explore how he or she has changed or learned from those experiences. Reflective writing can be presented in various formats, but you’ll most often see it in a learning log format or diary entry. Diary entries in particular are used to convey how the author’s thoughts have developed and evolved over the course of a particular period.
The format of a reflective essay may change depending on the target audience. Reflective essays can be academic, or may feature more broadly as a part of a general piece of writing for a magazine, for instance. For class assignments, while the presentation format can vary, the purpose generally remains the same: tutors aim to inspire students to think deeply and critically about a particular learning experience or set of experiences. Here are some typical examples of reflective essay formats that you may have to write:
A focus on personal growth: A type of reflective essay often used by tutors as a strategy for helping students to learn how to analyse their personal life experiences to promote emotional growth and development. The essay gives the student a better understanding of both themselves and their behaviours.
A focus on the literature: This kind of essay requires students to provide a summary of the literature, after which it is applied to the student’s own life experiences.
What do I write about?
As you go about deciding on the content of your essay, you need to keep in mind that a reflective essay is highly personal and aimed at engaging the reader or target audience. And there’s much more to a reflective essay than just recounting a story. You need to be able to reflect (more on this later) on your experience by showing how it influenced your subsequent behaviours and how your life has been particularly changed as a result.
As a starting point, you might want to think about some important experiences in your life that have really impacted you, either positively, negatively, or both. Some typical reflection essay topics include: a real-life experience, an imagined experience, a special object or place, a person who had an influence on you, or something you have watched or read. If you are writing a reflective essay as part of an academic exercise, chances are your tutor will ask you to focus on a particular episode – such as a time when you had to make an important decision – and reflect on what the outcomes were. Note also, that the aftermath of the experience is especially important in a reflective essay; miss this out and you will simply be storytelling.

It sounds obvious, but the reflective process forms the core of writing this type of essay, so it’s important you get it right from the outset. You need to really think about how the personal experience you have chosen to focus on impacted or changed you. Use your memories and feelings of the experience to determine the implications for you on a personal level.
Once you’ve chosen the topic of your essay, it’s really important you study it thoroughly and spend a lot of time trying to think about it vividly. Write down everything you can remember about it, describing it as clearly and fully as you can. Keep your five senses in mind as you do this, and be sure to use adjectives to describe your experience. At this stage, you can simply make notes using short phrases, but you need to ensure that you’re recording your responses, perceptions, and your experience of the event(s).
Once you’ve successfully emptied the contents of your memory, you need to start reflecting. A great way to do this is to pick out some reflection questions which will help you think deeper about the impact and lasting effects of your experience. Here are some useful questions that you can consider:
– What have you learned about yourself as a result of the experience?
– Have you developed because of it? How?
– Did it have any positive or negative bearing on your life?
– Looking back, what would you have done differently?
– Why do you think you made the particular choices that you did? Do you think these were the right choices?
– What are your thoughts on the experience in general? Was it a useful learning experience? What specific skills or perspectives did you acquire as a result?
These signpost questions should help kick-start your reflective process. Remember, asking yourself lots of questions is key to ensuring that you think deeply and critically about your experiences – a skill that is at the heart of writing a great reflective essay.
Consider using models of reflection (like the Gibbs or Kolb cycles) before, during, and after the learning process to ensure that you maintain a high standard of analysis. For example, before you really get stuck into the process, consider questions such as: what might happen (regarding the experience)? Are there any possible challenges to keep in mind? What knowledge is needed to be best prepared to approach the experience? Then, as you’re planning and writing, these questions may be useful: what is happening within the learning process? Is the process working out as expected? Am I dealing with the accompanying challenges successfully? Is there anything that needs to be done additionally to ensure that the learning process is successful? What am I learning from this? By adopting such a framework, you’ll be ensuring that you are keeping tabs on the reflective process that should underpin your work.
Here’s a very useful tip: although you may feel well prepared with all that time spent reflecting in your arsenal, do not, start writing your essay until you have worked out a comprehensive, well-rounded plan . Your writing will be so much more coherent, your ideas conveyed with structure and clarity, and your essay will likely achieve higher marks.
This is an especially important step when you’re tackling a reflective essay – there can be a tendency for people to get a little ‘lost’ or disorganised as they recount their life experiences in an erratic and often unsystematic manner as it is a topic so close to their hearts. But if you develop a thorough outline (this is the same as a ‘plan’) and ensure you stick to it like Christopher Columbus to a map, you should do just fine as you embark on the ultimate step of writing your essay. If you need further convincing on how important planning is, we’ve summarised the key benefits of creating a detailed essay outline below:
Now you’re familiar with the benefits of using an outline for your reflective essay, it is essential that you know how to craft one. It can be considerably different from other typical essay outlines, mostly because of the varying subjects. But what remains the same, is that you need to start your outline by drafting the introduction, body and conclusion. More on this below.
Introduction As is the case with all essays, your reflective essay must begin within an introduction that contains both a hook and a thesis statement. The point of having a ‘hook’ is to grab the attention of your audience or reader from the very beginning. You must portray the exciting aspects of your story in the initial paragraph so that you stand the best chances of holding your reader’s interest. Refer back to the opening quote of this article – did it grab your attention and encourage you to read more? The thesis statement is a brief summary of the focus of the essay, which in this case is a particular experience that influenced you significantly. Remember to give a quick overview of your experience – don’t give too much information away or you risk your reader becoming disinterested.
Body Next up is planning the body of your essay. This can be the hardest part of the entire paper; it’s easy to waffle and repeat yourself both in the plan and in the actual writing. Have you ever tried recounting a story to a friend only for them to tell you to ‘cut the long story short’? They key here is to put plenty of time and effort into planning the body, and you can draw on the following tips to help you do this well:
Try adopting a chronological approach. This means working through everything you want to touch upon as it happened in time. This kind of approach will ensure that your work is systematic and coherent. Keep in mind that a reflective essay doesn’t necessarily have to be linear, but working chronologically will prevent you from providing a haphazard recollection of your experience. Lay out the important elements of your experience in a timeline – this will then help you clearly see how to piece your narrative together.
Ensure the body of your reflective essay is well focused and contains appropriate critique and reflection. The body should not only summarise your experience, it should explore the impact that the experience has had on your life, as well as the lessons that you have learned as a result. The emphasis should generally be on reflection as opposed to summation. A reflective posture will not only provide readers with insight on your experience, it’ll highlight your personality and your ability to deal with or adapt to particular situations.
Conclusion In the conclusion of your reflective essay, you should focus on bringing your piece together by providing a summary of both the points made throughout, and what you have learned as a result. Try to include a few points on why and how your attitudes and behaviours have been changed. Consider also how your character and skills have been affected, for example: what conclusions can be drawn about your problem-solving skills? What can be concluded about your approach to specific situations? What might you do differently in similar situations in the future? What steps have you taken to consolidate everything that you have learned from your experience? Keep in mind that your tutor will be looking out for evidence of reflection at a very high standard.
Congratulations – you now have the tools to create a thorough and accurate plan which should put you in good stead for the ultimate phase indeed of any essay, the writing process.

Writing your essay
As with all written assignments, sitting down to put pen to paper (or more likely fingers to keyboard) can be daunting. But if you have put in the time and effort fleshing out a thorough plan, you should be well prepared, which will make the writing process as smooth as possible. The following points should also help ease the writing process:
– To get a feel for the tone and format in which your writing should be, read other typically reflective pieces in magazines and newspapers, for instance.
– Don’t think too much about how to start your first sentence or paragraph; just start writing and you can always come back later to edit anything you’re not keen on. Your first draft won’t necessarily be your best essay writing work but it’s important to remember that the earlier you start writing, the more time you will have to keep reworking your paper until it’s perfect. Don’t shy away from using a free-flow method, writing and recording your thoughts and feelings on your experiences as and when they come to mind. But make sure you stick to your plan. Your plan is your roadmap which will ensure your writing doesn’t meander too far off course.
– For every point you make about an experience or event, support it by describing how you were directly impacted, using specific as opposed to vague words to convey exactly how you felt.
– Write using the first-person narrative, ensuring that the tone of your essay is very personal and reflective of your character.
– If you need to, refer back to our notes earlier on creating an outline. As you work through your essay, present your thoughts systematically, remembering to focus on your key learning outcomes.
– Consider starting your introduction with a short anecdote or quote to grasp your readers’ attention, or other engaging techniques such as flashbacks.
– Choose your vocabulary carefully to properly convey your feelings and emotions. Remember that reflective writing has a descriptive component and so must have a wide range of adjectives to draw from. Avoid vague adjectives such as ‘okay’ or ‘nice’ as they don’t really offer much insight into your feelings and personality. Be more specific – this will make your writing more engaging.
– Be honest with your feelings and opinions. Remember that this is a reflective task, and is the one place you can freely admit – without any repercussions – that you failed at a particular task. When assessing your essay, your tutor will expect a deep level of reflection, not a simple review of your experiences and emotion. Showing deep reflection requires you to move beyond the descriptive. Be extremely critical about your experience and your response to it. In your evaluation and analysis, ensure that you make value judgements, incorporating ideas from outside the experience you had to guide your analysis. Remember that you can be honest about your feelings without writing in a direct way. Use words that work for you and are aligned with your personality.
– Once you’ve finished learning about and reflecting on your experience, consider asking yourself these questions: what did I particularly value from the experience and why? Looking back, how successful has the process been? Think about your opinions immediately after the experience and how they differ now, so that you can evaluate the difference between your immediate and current perceptions. Asking yourself such questions will help you achieve reflective writing effectively and efficiently.
– Don’t shy away from using a variety of punctuation. It helps keeps your writing dynamic! Doesn’t it?
– If you really want to awaken your reader’s imagination, you can use imagery to create a vivid picture of your experiences.
– Ensure that you highlight your turning point, or what we like to call your “Aha!” moment. Without this moment, your resulting feelings and thoughts aren’t as valid and your argument not as strong.
– Don’t forget to keep reiterating the lessons you have learned from your experience.
A further tip – using wider sources
Although a reflective piece of writing is focused on personal experience, it’s important you draw on other sources to demonstrate your understanding of your experience from a theoretical perspective. It’ll show a level of analysis – and a standard of reliability in what you’re claiming – if you’re also able to validate your work against other perspectives that you find. Think about possible sources, like newspapers, surveys, books and even journal articles. Generally, the additional sources you decide to include in your work are highly dependent on your field of study. Analysing a wide range of sources, will show that you have read widely on your subject area, that you have nuanced insight into the available literature on the subject of your essay, and that you have considered the broader implications of the literature for your essay. The incorporation of other sources into your essay also helps to show that you are aware of the multi-dimensional nature of both the learning and problem-solving process.
Example reflective essay
If you want some inspiration for writing, take a look at our example of a short reflective essay , which can serve as a useful starting point for you when you set out to write your own.
Some final notes to remember
To recap, the key to writing a reflective essay is demonstrating what lessons you have taken away from your experiences, and why and how you have been shaped by these lessons.
The reflective thinking process begins with you – you must consciously make an effort to identify and examine your own thoughts in relation to a particular experience. Don’t hesitate to explore any prior knowledge or experience of the topic, which will help you identify why you have formed certain opinions on the subject. Remember that central to reflective essay writing is the examination of your attitudes, assumptions and values, so be upfront about how you feel. Reflective writing can be quite therapeutic, helping you identify and clarify your strengths and weaknesses, particularly in terms of any knowledge gaps that you may have. It’s a pretty good way of improving your critical thinking skills, too. It enables you to adopt an introspective posture in analysing your experiences and how you learn/make sense of them.
If you are still having difficulties with starting the writing process, why not try mind-mapping which will help you to structure your thinking and ideas, enabling you to produce a coherent piece. Creating a mind map will ensure that your argument is written in a very systematic way that will be easy for your tutor to follow. Here’s a recap of the contents of this article, which also serves as a way to create a mind map:
1. Identify the topic you will be writing on.
2. Note down any ideas that are related to the topic and if you want to, try drawing a diagram to link together any topics, theories, and ideas.
3. Allow your ideas to flow freely, knowing that you will always have time to edit your work.
4. Consider how your ideas are connected to each other, then begin the writing process.
And finally, keep in mind that although there are descriptive elements in a reflective essay, we can’t emphasise enough how crucial it is that your work is critical, analytical, and adopts a reflective posture in terms of your experience and the lessons you have learned from it.

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Academic & reflective writing
Reflective writing.
The following guide has been created for you by the Student Learning Advisory Service , for more detailed guidance and to speak to one of our advisers, please book an appointment or join one of our online workshops .
What is reflective writing?
We all reflect naturally from time to time on things that happen to us in order to improve our performance. However, at university, students are often required to write their reflections in the form of a blog, journal or reflective report. This encourages a habit in students which is deemed to be useful in becoming a more reflective learner.
At university , reflective writing is a technique that allows you to consider any experience associated with your studies – everything from a work placement to a group presentation – in order to learn from it. You may choose to keep a private learning journal in which to reflect informally on such experiences during your course. Alternatively, you may be given a specific reflective writing assignment. In both cases, the process involved is the same.
The reflective process
Reflective learning is based on the idea that we can improve our ability to learn by recording and thinking about the experiences we have.
In higher education and graduate employment high value is placed on the skill of being a reflective learner. This means that students can:
- critically evaluate their learning
- identify areas of their learning that require further development
- make themselves more independent learners
There are various ‘models’ of how the ‘reflective cycle’ works, however the basic stages are as follows:
- The experience: the activity or event you wish to reflect upon
- Reflection/observation: what went well, what didn’t, how you felt about the outcome? Had you done this activity before? What struck you most about the experience
- Analysis/evaluation: why didn’t everything go as expected? What could you have done differently? What did you learn about yourself, the activity, or the associated theory?
- Action plan/improvement: based on this knowledge, what will you do to improve the outcome in a similar situation in the future?
This process can be repeated in a constant cycle of improvement and increased self-knowledge, especially if you keep a learning journal, whether privately or as part of your course.
Private learning journals
As reflective writing begins with ‘the experience’ a learning journal entry (for example, exploring your concern over how you allocate your time) may begin with ‘I ran out of time today…’ You may then consider what parts of your course are worrying you, what study methods are (or are not) working for you and whether there are any learning issues you feel you need to address. The results of your reflections may be a to-do list of learning priorities – ‘get organised with folders’, ‘join reading group’ etc. In a private journal the style and content of what you write is, of course, entirely up to you. By contrast, formal reflective assignments, set as part of your course, will have specific requirements.
Reflective writing assignments
Whether the assignment comprises of an ongoing reflective journal charting your progress across a module, or a single piece of work reflecting on a specific experience, such as a work placement or group presentation, common principles apply.
Reflective writing assignments are designed to help you develop, and demonstrate, your ability to:
- Think critically about your own skills and practice
- Analyse rather than just describe
- Use evidence to illustrate your reflections
- Apply what you have learned
If you know reflective writing will be required on a specific event or experience, make a log (journal type entry) of the event to capture your early reflections, ready to explore in more detail afterwards.
As reflective writing is a technique to help you learn and improve it can be helpful to reflect on pivotal decisions, or aspects of an experience that you found difficult or challenging – or in which you made mistakes. This will provide good raw material for you to demonstrate your use of this technique to turn negative experience into a positive plan for the future. Additionally, you may reflect on why something went particularly well, so that the positive outcome may be duplicated in future.
Basic principles
Reflective writing assignments are different from standard essays in that, for example, parts of them may be written in the first person, ‘I felt that I should have…’. However, despite this element of informality, common academic practices apply, including the need to:
- Follow the guidelines
- Answer the question
- Present your work within an organised structure
- Use clear, coherent prose
- Support your observations with reference to academic literature and evidence
- Demonstrate critical analysis (see ‘Critical thinking’ study guide)
Linking theory and practice
Critically exploring the link between what should have happened in a given situation (according to the relevant theory), and what actually did happen, offers a level of practical insight into a topic that a standard essay cannot. Accordingly, it is a key requirement of a reflective writing assignment. You need to ask:
- Did the experience help me understand the theory?
‘It helped me understand why best practice guidelines suggest that…’
- Did the theory prepare me well for the experience?
‘According to theory xxxx I was expecting the parent to…. But instead…’
- Did the experience and the theory match up?
‘The theory didn’t allow for the eventuality of… In practice…’
- Were there conflicts between the experience and the theory? What were they?
Reflective writing, therefore, allows you more fully to assess and evaluate the theories you have learned about in lectures/seminars.
Although you should always follow instructions provided by your school or lecturer, the main components of a reflective writing assignment may be as follows:
Introduction: briefly describing the experience on which you will be reflecting (such as a work placement, a presentation you made, an article you read). What was the event? Where? When? Who was involved?
Main body: comprising a series of well-structured paragraphs.
- For a short assignment, these may comprise the four stages of the reflective process (experience, reflection, analysis, action plan) for a single experience or aspect of it.
- For longer assignments the paragraphs might each address a different aspect of the experience (reflecting on a group presentation it could be your planning process, your team dynamics, your own performance) each containing the reflective process within it.
In both cases, your analysis and ideas should be backed up with reference to relevant theories, case studies and other academic evidence, all of which should be accurately referenced.
Conclusion: summarising what happened, how you felt about it, the key things you learned and how you will use this knowledge to move forward.
Remember: reflective writing is a tool that you can use to enhance your learning.

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Reflective practice toolkit, introduction.
- What is reflective practice?
- Everyday reflection
- Models of reflection
- Barriers to reflection
- Free writing
- Reflective writing exercise
- Bibliography

Hopefully the exercise on the last page gave you some ideas for how to get started with reflective writing but where do you go next? When writing reflectively many people fall into the trap of describing the thing they are writing about. Often the person reading the reflective piece will have no direct experience of the subject and it's natural to make sure they understand exactly what happened! Although it can be tempting it's important to get the balance right. You need to offer a brief description of the experience to set the scene but then you should move on to the reflection.
The exercises below will guide you through writing a short reflective piece on an experience. The more practice you have at this, the easier it will become for you to write reflectively.
Writing about an experience
Ultimately how you choose to reflect will be up to you. You may find that you can just start writing reflections or you may need some prompts. Think back to the reflective practice models highlighted and use any which appeal to you to as a way to get started. If you are new to reflective writing you might find it useful to start with something simple like Driscoll's What Model . It is also a good idea to limit the amount you write about each area until you have had some practice. Try the formula below to write a short reflective piece using the three what's and a two, three, four sentence structure:
- Brief description (What?) - write a maximum of two sentences which describe the experience.
- What you thought about the experience (So what?) - write a maximum of three sentences which outline your feelings on the experience and anything you learnt from it.
- What happens next (Now what?) - write a maximum of four sentences on what you are going to do as a result of the experience.
Try this with two or three different experiences until you are able to write short reflective pieces. When you feel ready you can try writing something longer using the activity and prompts below.
Activity: Reflective writing
Think about an experience that you could learn from. It doesn't matter if it went well or if it went badly. Use the prompts below to write a longer reflective piece on the experience.

- Your expectations before the experience
- How you approached it
- Which parts you found easy/hard
Think about what you learned as a result:
- How did your knowledge and understanding change?
- What would you do differently if faced with a similar situation?
Consider how you might use your learning in the future:
- How might you put into practice what you have learnt?
- What challenges might you face?
- How would you deal with these?
Tower building reflection by LaLouBlue via Pixabay licenced under CC0 .
For many people reflective writing is not something which comes naturally. It takes the most experienced writers a lot of practice to be able to write something truly reflective, especially if they have a strict word limit! Don't be discouraged if things go wrong the first time you try to write reflectively - it's a process which can take a few drafts.
By completing the exercises on these pages you can get some experience at reflective writing and gradually push yourself to produce longer and more complicated pieces. The more you reflect, both in your writing and your practice, the easier the process will become.
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UCD Writing Centre: Creative Writing . 1. WRITING YOUR CRITICAL REFLECTION . Priscilla Morris . Writing reflectively develops your awareness of how you created a poem, story, script or piece of creative non-fiction. It deepens your understanding of your writing process and acknowledges the literary influences that fed into and shaped your writing.
Reflective writing can take a number of forms: it can be a letter to the professor, an essay about one's writing, or a formal artist's statement. In most creative writing classes, the purpose of reflective writing is to assess your growth as a writer by documenting your writing and revision process, your struggles and successes as a writer ...
A reflection statement requires students to discuss the process of producing the associated assessment task. In a reflection statement, students need to explain why they made the decisions they did. The reflection statement also offers the student an opportunity to say what they think they did well, or did poorly.
A reflection paper is one of the few pieces of academic writing in which you can get away with using the first person pronoun "I." That said, you should still relate your subjective feelings and opinions using specific evidence to explain them. [8] Avoid slang and always use correct spelling and grammar.
Keeping reflection papers between 300 and 750 words is a good rule to follow. Be clear and concise: As noted above, it's important to use your words efficiently in a reflection paper. Convey your thoughts on the experience or topic clearly and keep your writing concise to avoid meandering.
This transition practically begs for a deep reflection on the previous work before we have a fresh new start in the new semester. I break down my semester reflection into three categories: academic, out-of-school, and personal. This has helped my students to write a guided reflection that covers all parts of their life as a learner.
As I watched my reflection with a strange mixture of curiosity and fear, a delightful idea suddenly occurred to me. This would explain everything, I thought in both relief and excitement, for the topic had interested me for some time. "Are you in a parallel universe?" I asked.
reflection - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing Search entire site for reflection My reflection waved back from lake. By Angela Abraham, @daisydescriptionari, December 24, 2020 . I am reflected in my words better than in any mirror. By Angela Abraham, @daisydescriptionari, December 24, 2020 .
Explains that writing is a type of art because it requires you to think and be creative in the way you want it to be. Analyzes what coates meant when he said, "hate gives identity" on page 60. he meant people who are secretly hating you have an identity of you inside their head.
Reflection is a mental process. It is contemplation or a long consideration. Thoughts or opinions that come to you while you are reflecting are called reflections. Unlike a reflection in a mirror, it is an interpretation of what is going on between learning and thinking. Factors to Consider in Reflection
A reflection paper is an academic work that can express your thoughts and observations on a particular subject. This type of document can communicate your ideas and emotions linked to an experience or a text. Typically, it's more formal than a journal article and less than a business report.
There are words that reflect light such as reflective, shiny, burnished, etc. Antony John. March 5, 2016 at 10:50 am There is a difference between transparent and translucent ,at least as we use it in laboratory situations. Something that is transparent allows the image on the other side of the observer to be seen plainly, even if only darkly ...
Reflective writing is a process of identifying, questioning, and critically evaluating course-based learning opportunities, integrated with your own observations, experiences, impressions, beliefs, assumptions, or biases, and which describes how this process stimulated new or creative understanding about the content of the course.
Reflective analysis is a style of writing that allows you to process your personal experiences. When performing reflective analysis, you may discuss a particular problem or event, thinking critically about what happened, why and what you learned from it. Reflective analysis can help you understand your successes and shortcomings and develop a ...
Reflective writing. Learn how to write a reflective text about a learning experience. Instructions. Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises. Preparation. Matching_MjMwMzk= Reading text. In January I spent three weeks volunteering as an English teacher in my town. I've been thinking about becoming an ...
1st Step: Review the assignment. As with any writing situation, the first step in writing a reflective piece is to clarify the task. Reflective assignments can take many forms, so you need to understand exactly what your instructor is asking you to do. Some reflective assignments are short, just a paragraph or two of unpolished writing.
Reflection is: a form of personal response to experiences, situations, events or new information. a 'processing' phase where thinking and learning take place. There is neither a right nor a wrong way of reflective thinking, there are just questions to explore. Figure 1 shows that the reflective thinking process starts with you.
Written reflections. Putting pen to paper or typing out your thoughts can help you slow down and identify the most essential aspects of your thought processes for reflection. There are a range of benefits that can come from writing that might help you with your reflection. While it might seem effortful to either put pen to paper or to type your ...
Here's a recap of the contents of this article, which also serves as a way to create a mind map: 1. Identify the topic you will be writing on. 2. Note down any ideas that are related to the topic and if you want to, try drawing a diagram to link together any topics, theories, and ideas. 3.
Whether the assignment comprises of an ongoing reflective journal charting your progress across a module, or a single piece of work reflecting on a specific experience, such as a work placement or group presentation, common principles apply.. Purpose. Reflective writing assignments are designed to help you develop, and demonstrate, your ability to: ...
Writing reflectively involves critically analysing an experience, recording how it has impacted you and what you plan to do with your new knowledge. It can help you to reflect on a deeper level as the act of getting something down on paper often helps people to think an experience through.
Writing about an experience. Ultimately how you choose to reflect will be up to you. You may find that you can just start writing reflections or you may need some prompts. Think back to the reflective practice models highlighted and use any which appeal to you to as a way to get started.
writing. This type of writing is less formal than academic writing used in argumentative or research papers. If asked to write a reflective paper for a formal assignment, include a thesis statement, or statement of purpose. If your reflective writing is for a more informal assignment, such as a discussion post, you won't need to