CAW LibGuides: Reflective Writing

After reading this resource, you should be able to:

• Identify the key features of reflective writing.
• Demonstrate how to reflect using a common model of reflection.

Introduction

You may be worried that you do not know how to do reflective writing, but we all think reflectively much more often than we realise, every day in our personal, professional and academic lives.  Reflective writing assignments give you the opportunity to gain further insight from personal, professional and academic experiences by putting that thinking into writing.

Reflective thinking is the starting point.  We reflect by thinking back and recalling. Reflective writing is a way of documenting critical incidents.  However, making sense of these critical incidents through analysis and research is the most important part of the writing.  In other words, thinking forward to what you have learnt and how you will use or develop this learning is the most important part and should take up the most words.

How can you choose an event for reflection?

A critical event is one which causes you to stop, pause and think about it.  It can be a positive or negative event.  Examples of when you may be asked to reflect include:

• In an assignment, when you relate a topic to your real-life experiences.
• In an assignment, when you are asked for your reactions to texts.
• As a researcher, to indicate how you have followed the research process.

✏️ Task 1

Describe a recent event.

The following prompts should help you:

• What was the context?
• Where were you?
• What were you doing at the time?
• What have you learnt from the event?
• Why did you choose the incident?  What was significant about the incident?   
• Was it a positive or negative experience?
• Was it an experience you learned a lot from?

What Is Academic Reflective Writing?

Reflective writing assignments give you the opportunity to gain insights from personal and professional experiences.  It involves looking back and then looking forward to consider how the lessons learned could be applied.  Reflective writing involves backwards and forwards thinking.  The big focus should be on the analysis and planning than on simply describing past events.  In order to convey your conclusions, insights, and opinions, for most reflective writing assignments you may choose to use the first-person perspective or ‘I’ voice.

When reflecting on an experience, you do not merely see more – you think differently. Reading helps you achieve this different way of seeing, which should be reflected in statements that communicate a desire to change and develop.

Reflective writing draws on your knowledge and perspectives.  The following questions can help you develop your reflections:

• What experience do I want to discuss?
• How does this experience relate to my studies?
• What have I read on this subject already?
• How can I use my experience to support my insights?
• What are the limits of my experience?
• How can I use these limits as opportunities for personal and professional growth through reflective writing?

Models of Reflective Writing

There are many different models of reflection.  This resource focuses on Gibb’s (1988) reflective model however, alternative models include:

• The ERA model (Jasper, 2013)
• The Driscoll Model (Driscoll, 2007)
• The DIEP model (Boud et al., 1985)
• Kolb’s experiential learning cycle (Kolb, 1984)

The Gibbs Model (Gibbs, 1988)

The Gibbs’ model involves six stages: Description, Feelings and Thoughts, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion, and an Action Plan. These are shown in Figure 1.

The next section elaborates on these six stages.

Stage 1: Describing the event 

Describe in detail the event you are reflecting on. Include examples.

Stage 2: Feelings and Thoughts (Self awareness)

At this stage, try to recall and explore those things that were going on inside your head. Include:  

• How you were feeling when the event started.  
• How did other people make you feel?  
• How did you feel about the outcome of the event?  
• What do you think about it now? 

Stage 3: Evaluation

Try to evaluate what has happened.  Consider what was good about the experience and what was bad about the experience or what did or didn’t go so well. 

Stage 4: Analysis

Break the event down into parts so they can be explored separately.  You may need to ask more detailed questions about the answers to the last stage. Include: 

• What went well?  
• What did you do well?  
• What did others do well?  
• What went wrong or did not turn out how it should have done?  
• In what way did you or others contribute to this? 

Stage 5: Conclusion (Synthesis)

This is where you develop insight into your own and other people’s behaviour in terms of how they contributed to the outcome of the event.  Remember the purpose of reflection is to learn from an experience.  During this stage you should ask yourself what you could have been done differently. 

Stage 6: Action Plan

At this stage, you should think forward.  If faced with the same event, how would you plan what you would do?  Would you do the same again?  Or take a different action?  

Tips for Reflective Essays

• Reflection is an exploration and an explanation of events – not just a description of them. 
• Genuinely reflective writing often involves ‘revealing’ anxieties, errors and weaknesses, as well as strengths and successes. This is fine (in fact it is often essential!), as long as you show some understanding of possible causes, and explain how you plan to improve. 
• It is normally necessary to select just the most significant parts of the event or idea on which you’re reflecting. If you try to ‘tell the whole story’ you’re likely to use up your words on description rather than interpretation. 
• It is often useful to ‘reflect forward’ to the future as well as ‘reflecting back’ on the past. 

 

✏️ Task 2

Read this example of a student's reflective writing:

During an internship that I held over the summer holiday, several tasks were divided between members of my team. However, these tasks were not immediately understood as similarly difficult by everyone.  Our morale was at risk because of this perceived inequality.  Social interdependence theory distinguishes between a type of group interaction called ‘positive interdependence’, a form of successful collaboration (Johnson and Johnson 1993, cited by Maughan and Webb 2001), and many studies have demonstrated that ‘co-operative learning experiences encourage higher achievement’ (Maughan and Webb 2001).  In the end, our team did achieve a successful outcome.  To improve the process, though, we could have used a chairperson to encourage cooperation as the tasks were being distributed.  If it seems appropriate in future group work, I might suggest making this addition to the team.

This paragraph can be broken down into four components:

1. Description: During an internship ...
2. Theoretically informed interpretation: Social interdependence theory ...
3. Outcome: In the end, our group did achieve ...
4. Action: If it seems appropriate in future group work ...

✏️ Task 3

Write a paragraph based on an experience.  Include the above four basic components.

 

Follow-up reading

Bolton, G. (2010). Reflective practice: writing and professional development (3^rd edition). Sage.

Watson, J. and Wilcox, S. (2000) ‘Reading for Understanding: Methods of Reflecting on Practice‘. Reflective Practice 1(1), 25-42.

Williams, K., Woolliams, M., & Spiro, J. (2012). Reflective writing (Pocket study skills). Palgrave Macmillan.

 

References

Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (1985). Promoting reflection in learning: a model. reflection: turning reflection into learning. Routledge.

Driscoll, J. (ed.). (2007). Practicing clinical supervision: a reflective approach for healthcare professionals. Elsevier.

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit. Oxford Polytechnic.

Jasper, M. (2013). Beginning reflective practice. Cengage Learning

Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall

CAW offers writing development workshops across all genres of academic writing, including 'Reflective Writing' that can provide additional support and guidance during your writing process.  To view available workshops and book online, visit: https://libcal.coventry.ac.uk/calendar/caw