Skills for Learning

Skills for Learning

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Reflective Writing

Contents

Introduction 3
What sort of reflective essay might I have to do? ............................................................................ 4 Writing style 6
Gibbs’ model of reflection 7
Description 8
Feelings 8
Evaluation 9
Analysis 9
Conclusion 10
Action plan 10
An example of a short reflective assignment 11
References 17

Introduction

During your time at University, it is likely that you will be asked to write at least one reflective essay. Many students find this difficult, because reflective writing is quite different from other assignments and discussing your own feelings and performance in academic work can be tricky at first. By reflecting, you will be looking back at something which has happened in order to show what you have learned from it. You’ll need to explain what happened, how you felt about it, what you learned, whether you could have handled things differently and what you need to learn or do differently in the future. This help guide will take you through the process of producing a reflective essay.

What sort of reflective essay might I have to do?

You’re most likely to be asked to write reflectively about an incident which has happened on your placement. You might also have to write reflectively about the process you went through in order to carry out a project or to produce another assignment. This kind of assignment feels strange at first to many students, and you might be wondering where to start with your essay. Before you start, check the following:

1. 
   What have you been asked to write about?
   

For example, if you have to reflect on an incident which occurred during your placement, can you think of a suitable incident? Have you been given guidelines about what kind of incident to use? It doesn’t necessarily have to be something negative, and you could choose to write about something which went really well.

2. 
   Have you been told to use a certain ‘model of reflection’? There are many different models which help to guide you through the process of reflecting, and while they all help you to reach the same end result, they may have different headings and sections. Make sure you know which model you have to use. The most commonly-used model is by Gibbs (1988), which is the model we will look at in most detail here. If you are asked to use another model such as Johns (1995) or ‘What? So What? Now What?’ (Borton, 1970, updated by Driscoll, 1994), you will structure the assignment slightly differently but the purpose and content will still be the same.
   

3. 
   Have you been given any instructions about how to present your assignment? You may have been asked to use headings to separate the different sections of your assignment, so make sure that you check the requirements so that you set out your assignment correctly.
   

Writing style

Reflective writing is different from most other assignments because it is probably the only time you will be required to use “I” and “me” in an essay. You will be writing about your own personal experience and feelings, and in reflective writing it is important to tell the reader what you think and feel about things. Many students find this difficult to get used to, as they have always been told to avoid the use of “I” in assignments, and to avoid giving their own opinion.