In this video you'll be introduced to reflective writing and some techniques
to help you make the most of the reflection process. Throughout your
degree you'll be asked to reflect on theories you learn and experiences you
have. Reflection allows you to look back on something and think deeply about it.
By analyzing, questioning and evaluating the experience, you'll develop new
insights and perspectives. Often, this will in turn challenge your beliefs and
affect your future actions. Reflective writing is a chance to think critically
about how an experience made you feel and how this connects to your personal
beliefs. We all have our own perspectives that we bring to any situation, which in
turn affects how we see it. This process also gives you an opportunity to connect
these experiences, feelings and beliefs to theory and research. You can then use
these ideas in combination to inform how you might act or think differently in
the future. But be careful. One of the dangers when asked to write a reflective
piece is to dedicate too much of your word count to simply describing the
experience rather than dedicating effort towards interpreting and evaluating it.
The reflection then simply becomes a recount of what happened or a repeat of
what you've studied. To avoid this, remember: your personal perspective is
important. Unlike other types of writing, reflective writing is a chance for you
to write about your feelings and experiences in the first person. To be
sure your reflective writing piece goes deeper than simply describing the event,
try considering your experience in relation to this model: DIEP.
First, describe what happened. This could be a single incident or a highlight from that
week's lecture or reading. You don't need to recall the entire experience - just a
key aspect of the experience itself. Then, interpret the event. Consider what the
experience might mean. How did it make you feel? How does it relate to other
things you've learned? What new insights have you gained from it? Next, evaluate
how beneficial or useful the experience has been. Finally, outline a plan for
how the experience may impact on your thinking and behavior in the future.
Being able to write in this way takes time and practice. Start by brainstorming
aspects of your experience first, then any relevant theories you studied. Next,
add related past experiences or personal beliefs.
Once you've finished brainstorming, try making connections between the ideas.
This final step will help you identify a theme. Doing this first will give you the
best chance of producing a connected narrative where your experience,
interpretations, evaluations and plans are presented in a cohesive way. By
focusing on a theme, rather than the entire experience or entire reading or lecture,
you'll be able to go into more depth in your reflection and dedicate more word
count to your perspective and insights. If you have time and already have a
topic to write about, pause the video here to start your own brainstorm and
find a theme to focus on. Once you've identified your theme, you're ready to
write. We're going to look at two sample paragraphs and review them against the
DIEP reflective writing model. Pause the video here, read the two paragraphs and
ask yourself: is one more effective than the other? If so, how? Why?
Paragraph 2 is a much more in-depth reflection than the first. The sentences
highlighted in bold in the second paragraph are additional points that
were missing from the first. In the second paragraph, the author has
identified their focus or theme - in this case, their experience of writing their
first technical document in the workplace. They've written about how the
experience felt and connected this to theory. They've also identified an
opportunity to develop further. The student who wrote the second paragraph
will have a much deeper understanding of the experience and how they can use it
to shape their own development in the future. Now let's take a closer look at
the language they used to demonstrate this deeper reflection. They've shown how
the experience made them feel with language such as 'I found' and 'I felt', and
evaluated the experience with statements such as 'which gave me' and 'it reminded me'.
Furthermore, their plans for the future are highlighted using language such as 'I
need to', 'I'm very interested in developing' and 'I hope to'. To be sure you
have a balance of ideas and have not dedicated too much of your word count to
simply describing the experience, try color coding your description,
interpretation, evaluation and plan in four different colors. Here the
description is highlighted in blue, the interpretation in red, the evaluation in
green and the plan in yellow. This allows us to easily see the balance between
these four elements. This is a great technique to try while editing your
document. The example we've just analysed focuses on an experience, but the
technique is equally effective when reflecting on lectures, readings and
theories. Many students who've been asked to write reflectively for an assignment
have found it so beneficial that they've continued the practice even after the
subject has finished. So, we've looked at how to approach reflective writing through
an initial brainstorming phase. We've also applied the DIEP model to identify
new insights. You're now ready to begin the process
yourself. If you would like more detailed information on reflective writing style
and how to avoid common mistakes, go to the Reflective Writing module in the
Academic Skills Hub. You can access The Hub by logging into the LMS. For more
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