Writing reflectively involves critically analysing an experience, recording how it has impacted how you now think or act and what you plan to do with what you have learned as a result of that experience. It can help you to reflect on a deeper level, as writing down your feelings and opinions can help you to think an experience through.
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Reflective writing involves reflective thinking. We cannot produce any reflective writing without undertaking some reflective thinking, and reflective thinking is often supported by reflective writing.
The terms critical thinking and reflective thinking (and therefore critical writing and reflective writing) are often used interchangeably. However, reflective thinking is a part of critical thinking. The main difference between them is that critical thinking is the ability to think in an organised and rational manner, understanding the logical connection between ideas or facts, whereas reflective thinking is the process of reflecting on your emotions, feelings, experiences, reactions and knowledge, and creating connections between them.
At university, you may be asked to produce a piece of reflective writing for an assignment, to demonstrate that you have reflected on what you did, what you thought, how you felt and consequently, what you have learned from a particular experience.
Reflective writing involves engaging in reflective practice. This is defined as “the ability to reflect on one’s actions so as to engage in a process of continuous learning” (Schon 1983). An easy way to get started with reflective practice is to follow a model of reflection and to start asking yourself questions about the experience you want to reflect on, for example:
See some more examples of reflective questions in Models of reflection. Once you have started to ask yourself these questions, you can write down the answers and use them to begin building a structured piece of reflective writing.
Schon, D. A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Basic Books, New York.
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