Reflective writing involves critically examining a personal experience and learning from it. It combines both theory and evidence from other sources to analyze strengths and weaknesses, not to simply describe an event or make oneself look good. Reflective writing promotes deep learning by helping make connections between experiences and concepts, and allows one to consider how to improve for the future by learning from mistakes. It is structured with an introduction, body, and conclusion and focuses on important issues with descriptions and links to literature.

1. Reflective Writing is:
a combination of theory and practice
based on personal experience but is backed up with
evidence from other sources
about what you have learnt from an event or
experience and how you would do things differently
next time

2. Reflective writing is not:
a long and detailed description of an event
an impersonal text (It’s ok to use “I”)
about making yourself look good but honestly
examining the strengths and weaknesses of your
practice

3. Why write reflectively?
To think about how you learn
To promote deep learning
To make connections between theory and practice
To learn from your mistakes
To think about what you want to do differently in the
future

4. Structure
Usually written in paragraphs and has an introduction, body and conclusion
There is not one structure for reflective writing but it will probably include:
An introduction which identifies the key focus and the context including a
description of the event/practice/experience
Subsequent paragraphs each focus on an important issue, add more
description, link issue to theory/literature
A conclusion summarises the key learnings/personal strengths/areas for
improvement or different practice with reference to literature

5. Examples of reflective writing
Journal entries
Reflective reports
Diaries
Reflective portfolios
Reflective essays