Writing is an essential tool in academic learning. It gives the teachers the chance to ask an entire class of unique individuals about their opinions and thoughts on a specific topic. It also allows the teacher to get to know each one of his students more intimately since writing is always going to be an unconscious expression of the values and beliefs that a person holds. In other words, reflective writing does not only meet the expectations of an academic crowd, it serves a purpose far greater than that.
Reflective writing is the most used type of university writing. As its name suggests, reflective writing encourages the writer, which in this case is the student, to conduct a thorough introspection. This way, the student can rigorously study his own thoughts and feelings and express them, on a more personal level, to the teacher. The good thing about reflective writing is that there is no absolute wrong and right way of executing it. You may also see reflective essay examples & samples.
However, instead of answering the question “What?” and “Who?” (What happened? Who were involved? What did the scene look like? Who started it?), which is how most people address writing, reflective writing enables the student to tackle the questions “How?” and “Why?” (How do you perceive a situation? Why do you think that way? How would you deal with this scenario?). You may also like tips in writing a reflective statement.
An experience, a thought, an opinion will not hold so much relevance if you don’t reflect on it because reflection allows you to take as much lesson and information as you can from it.
The things, the feelings, that these reflections can trigger are what makes the experience so special. Simply looking at something without taking the time to truly perceive it is a waste, which is why reflection, as incorporated in writing, is an integral part of an academic setting. You may also check out free writing examples.
Reflective Writing Inverted Pyramid Guide
Reflective Writing Example
Reflective Writing Illustrated
Reflection has a lot of benefits. Here are a few reasons why university personalities and even academic lecturers practice it:
1. Reflection encourages a person to become an active learner.
The act of merely listening to someone else’s ideas doesn’t do much in helping a person learn something. By reflecting, the listener can connect the ideas he will learn to those he already know. This can encourage questions and critical thinking which are both very important in a student’s academic growth, and which can force the student to engage in the discussion. You may also see writing examples in doc.
2. Reflection allows you to examine the things that you have learned and the ways in which you have learned them.
Learning, as you may already know, doesn’t only come from a classroom. It also comes from the way you view things, which, in turn, is influenced by how you were raised, the culture to which you live by, the people you are directly surrounded with, the television shows and books that have a major influence on you, a past experience, or an embarrassing situation. You may also like what do you mean by writing skills?
The only notable difference is the way you gathered the knowledge. This is something you can only realize if you take the time to reflect.
3. To connect different pieces of information.
The amazing thing about learning is that everything you already know is always, somehow, connected to what you are going to learn. However, this is a realization you can only come to if you take the time to reflect. For example, the things you learn from your course content may be things that you can apply to your everyday life and vice versa. You may also check out what is writing used for.
4. Reflection can help you recognize the level of understanding you have reached.
Because reflection encourages a deeper level of critical thinking, it can help you get a good grasp on things that you don’t fully understand yet.
5. Reflection allows you to acknowledge your mistakes.
Doing constant self-analysis gives you the chance to relive past experiences and lessons, and scrutinize the parts where you failed so you can identify what went wrong. You might be interested in script writing examples & samples.
6. Reflection is the key to lifelong growth.
The more you take the time to reflect, to look at things from a different point of view, the more you can learn from it.
The Structure of Reflective Writing
Types of Reflective Writing
Steps Involved in Reflective Writing
Writing Reflectively
What makes reflective writing easy is the fact that your content can be taken from the things you already know, the memories you presently hold, and the values you already possess. The only thing left for you to do is to incorporate them into your writing. However, if you find it difficult to take a little stroll down memory lane so you can pick up a few things to use for your writing, here are a few helpful tips:
1. Understand the activity that your professor or lecturer wants you to do and identify which form of reflection it will need.
You can’t simply take a memory from your childhood and use it on your formal writing. It is important that you first understand what it is that your professor wants you to accomplish. However, if you still find it difficult, you can ask your professor for a template or a guideline of what you should cover.
2. Reflective writing is not simply describing an object or a situation.
Although you will have to describe a few things to make the image of the memory more vivid on your writing, you will have to do more than that. Reflective writing requires you to think about things and how they went, what went wrong, and what you could have done to change the outcome. In other words, reflective writing requires the writer to take a deeper look into his life. You may also see memo writing examples & samples.
3. Reflective writing will take all of your honesty.
Some students, probably including you, are hesitant to open up about such personal things, especially to a teacher! But without complete honesty, reflective writing will not be effective. You have to be honest about the positive and the negative, the strengths and weaknesses, the good and the bad. You may also like report writing examples.
4. When writing reflectively, you must look at your life and the things in it from a third person’s point of view.
Being objective can be difficult, especially with ourselves. However, to be able to truly study our patterns of behavior and our reaction, we need to take a step back and regard ourselves the way a stranger would.
5. Keep a journal.
If your professor loves assigning reflective writing activities and you have a little trouble with foggy memory, a journal is an effective way to make sure you don’t lose track of the things that shouldn’t be forgotten. Plus, keeping a journal is also highly recommended to maintain a sound emotional and mental health. You may also check out tips in poetry writing with examples.
6. It is important to remember that, in reflective writing, you will not be graded based on how right your answers are but on how honest you were.
So don’t worry about saying something your professor may not agree on. Reflective writing follows no textbook or grading system.
When you find yourself staring at a blank page with no idea what to write for your reflective paper, asking yourself questions may help prompt answers out of you. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:
- What happened?
- What caused the situation to happen?
- What did you contribute to the situation?
- How did you feel while it was happening?
- Why did you feel that way?
- What were your thoughts while it was happening?
- What elicited those thoughts?
- What do you think about the experience?
- How can you apply the situation to your course content?
- Are there any other theories or concepts you can apply to the situation?
- What can you learn from the experience?
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The Cycle of Reflective Writing
Reflective Writing Process
Reflective Writing and Learning
The Reflection Model
There are four R’s you can use as a guide to help you construct the content of your reflective writing paper. This model was created to encourage you to view your current learning from different directions so you can take the most out of it. You may also see professional email writing tips and examples.
1. Report
This is the part where you provide a thorough description of what you have learned or what you have experienced.
2. Relate
This is the part where you take your present personal understanding and somehow look for a relationship between that and your experiences and thoughts. You may also like narrative writing examples & samples.
3. Reason
For this part in the process, you start taking out all of your questions from all of your experiences and, using the prompt question provided above, somehow try to find answer to them.
4. Reconstruct
Once you have conducted a thorough reflection, try to think about possible alternative choices or reactions that can lead to better, more positive outcomes if ever you find yourself in the same situation in the future. This step will enable you to take everything you have learned through the whole model as an inspiration for new ideas or theories you can apply to your current course content. You may also check out application writing examples & samples.
Reflective Cycle According to Gibbs
Kolb’s Reflective Model
Benefits of Reflective Writing
1. It gives us time to reflect. Let us not underestimate the power that comes with contemplation. It offers a different voice to every story, even those we think we already memorize every aspect of. It helps us learn something even from the blandest experience. Reflection gives us fresh eyes. You may also see informative writing examples & samples.
2. It gives us chance to think more slowly, which is helpful in understanding the study material.
3. Reflective writing allows us to organize and clarify our thoughts which can make our writing better constructed.
4. It gives us better control to what we write since we choose the elements to incorporate it with.
5. Writing allows us to recognize what we understand and what we don’t understand. You may also like article writing examples & samples.
6. Reflective writing allows us to record a moment that gives us the chance to recall it more easily the next time we need to.
A reflective writing paper is all about you. Which means that you don’t have to conduct any research to be able to finish it. You just have to dip into your personal reservoir and open it up like a dam overfilling. You may also check out summary writing examples and samples.
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