Reflective Writing

What’s Reflective Writing?

Reflective writing differs from other types of academic writing because it doesn’t require (usually) that you simply cite sources. Rather, it calls for you to convey your personal thoughts about an event, while you might have experienced it just in publications or on screen. Reflective writing takes great shapereaction paper, journal, learning log, personal essayto mention a couple of.

Instead of ask, what’s reflective writing, you may better ask what’s reflective thinking ? Writing, in the end, is the procedure of creating your opinions visible in writing. Think about the root word reflect, meaning to provide back a picture. To consider reflectively way to provide a second (or third, or 4th. ) review your own experience to be able to evaluate and discover from what required place.

One reason for reflective writing is that will help you learn. The entire process of writing forces your mind to do this around the information, consolidating it and fixing it in lengthy term memory. That’s the reason note-taking while studying is suggested, and why journaling is frequently essential for any practicum or internship. Another purpose would be to communicate your insights to other people, with the idea to enlighten them in order to demonstrate your learning.

Reflective thinking fosters metacognition. that’s, the opportunity to analyse and understand your personal thoughts. Metacognition allows you to develop techniques for acting purposefully perfectly into a goal. It’s the complete opposite of unproductive random behaviorlearning from mistakesthat dooms you to definitely repeat mistakes and prevents you against applying effective strategies in the past.

Characteristics of Reflective Writing

Reflective writing to have an academic assignment, no matter its purpose or setting, could be recognized by these traits:

• It’s purposeful. Reflective writing does not necessarily mean jotting lower scraps of ideas because they pop to your mind. That may keep working for a personal diary, although not for reflective writing by having an academic purpose. Begin with an objective: Give me an idea to complete, to understand, to enhance, to show, to know better.

• It’s personal. It explores rapport between your author then one else. Here are a few sample reflective inquiries to illustrate the purpose:
  • That which was it enjoy being the only real American teacher inside a Japanese school?
  • What’s your response to the video No Country for Old Men?
  • What were two of the most influential courses you required attending college?
  • Why was your study group not able arrive at agreement?
  • How effective had you been at classroom management?
  • What’s your reaction to Gordon’s thesis that media stereotypes of nurses undermine patient care?

  In every question, the author is requested to think about their position with regards to another thing.

• It’s perceptive. Reflective writing isn’t just describing or telling a tale. It takes greater order thinking skills:
  • Analysis. Do you know the separate and underlying aspects of the problem, process, or argument you’re reflecting on? Do you know the causes and effects?
  • Synthesis. How can individuals components connect with or respond to each other? How could they be different when considered together instead of apart? What can happen should you introduced a big change? How will you summarize? Whoever else learned?
  • Evaluation. What’s your attitude for the subject? What’s your amount of subjectivity? How are you currently affected? What part are you going to accept or reject? How will you see or act differently later on?
  

• It’s polished. While you might not use research sources, reflective writing must satisfy the standards of precision, clearness, conciseness, and correctness associated with a other kinds of formal writing.

• Intend to write and revise. Don’t hands within the first draft.
• Follow APA style in most aspects possible: Use formal punctuation, use complete sentences, insert page figures and headings when appropriate, and keep margins and paragraph indents.
• Browse the paper to yourself, aloud. Whenever you write from the personal perspective, you can easily forget your audience. Look for obvious organization and elegant transitions.
• Run the spell check.

The sources below provide a lot of reflective writing.

Online Sources