Reflective writing

We reflect naturally in our day to day lives, thinking about things that have happened, why they happened and whether we handled them well. While at university, you may be asked to formalise your reflections to show that learning is taking place. Reflective writing can help you to develop academic skills, better understand a topic you are studying, and enable you to review your progress at university.

This may involve:
 

• Reflecting on your own professional or academic practice 
• Thinking back to an experience and the way you dealt with it 
• Evaluating a project or experiment and considering how to do it better next time 
• Reflecting on things you have read and linking theory with practice or reality

You might carry out reflective writing for: 

• internship or placement reports 
• module assignments 
• job applications and interviews 
• group work 
• practical work 
• dissertations and research

Adapted from UNSW Sydney. (2021). Examples of Reflective Writing. www.student.unsw.edu.au/examples-reflective-writing 

Extract from a Reflective Commentary for a Geography module

Perhaps the biggest change instigated by the module has been the shift on my opinion of the controversial HS2 (de Castella, 2013) railway. I had always slammed the development as overpriced (Overman, 2013) and unrealistic (Pratley, 2017). This was compounded by my grandmother’s house being left unsaleable with the announcement of the railway passing within several hundred meters. I can now appreciate the benefits of the scheme and have come to accept its construction. The primary reason for HS2’s construction is economic, with projected economic gains of ‘£15 billion a year in productivity gains for the GB economy in 2037’ (Dudley and Banister, 2014:5). The scheme will bring ‘equity across the nation’ in keeping with European national policy (Hetherington, 2013:70). Sustainable transport and individual economic situation is inherently interlinked (Giddens, 2008), and the economic gains enabled by HS2 mirror the potential advances in sustainable commuting. The reduced transit times enabled by HS2 devalue car travel along the route and ‘compress’ the pre-existing spatial distances between infrastructure (Harvey, 1989). HS2 stands as a ‘great unifier’ therefore, a project attempting to overhaul the inadequate spatial planning of the UK and bring employment closer to denizens’ dwellings (Hetherington, 2013:71). This module has shown me that the need to minimise the segmentation of daily life is central to sustainable transport (Owens and Driffill, 2008), forcing me to evaluate the benefits of the HS2 rail link and acknowledge it can be a successful project.

Look at the style of the Reflective Commentary.

• The use of the first person, "I" and "my".
• It's analytical.
• It includes references and citations.

Look at the structure.

• It has a logical structure.
• It includes a description, interpretation or analysis, and an outcome.

Look at the language.

• ​​​​It includes phrases that introduce opinion and critical analysis:
  "I had always slammed the development...",
  "I can now appreciate...",
  "The primary reason for...",
  "This module has shown me...",
  "...forcing me to evaluate..."