This document provides guidance on reflective writing for postgraduate students. It explains that reflective writing involves both describing experiences and critically analyzing them using relevant theories and frameworks. Examples of student reflections are provided to demonstrate strong reflective writing. The document emphasizes that reflective writing requires interpreting experiences at both a deeper personal level and a broader contextual level. It also stresses the importance of asking critical questions to analyze situations from different perspectives rather than taking information at face value. Various reflective models are presented to help structure reflective thinking and writing, including Driscoll's "What? So what? Now what?" approach and Gibbs' reflective cycle. The document concludes by outlining linguistic features commonly used in reflective writing, such as using first person and action verbs.

1. Reflective Writing for
Postgraduates
• Explain what reflective writing is
• Evaluate examples of reflective writing
• Synthesise your experiences and
theory to write reflectively
Rhian Wyn-Williams
Skills@ljmu.ac.uk

2. Reflect on your reflections….
Think back to your previous reflective assignments.
What went well and what aspect of your reflective
writing do you want to improve?
Note this down.

3. What does good reflective
writing look like?
• You have extracts from previous
students’ reflections.
• Which one is better? A or B?
• Based on your evaluation of them, what
do you think good reflective writing
looks like? Write your comments in the
chat box.

4. So, what is academic reflection?
Think about the
literature, policy and
professional
frameworks from your
subject area
For example,
think about how
you are working
on your
placement or in
your
employment. You
may need to
think about your
experiences in
university too.

5. Description is needed as context but go deeper.
Zoom in to examine yourself, the perspectives of
others and immediate significance.
Zoom out to see the broader significance and
context.
Theory and policy to help make sense of it all – our
experiences are not isolated ones.
Above all, you need to ask questions to critically
analyse the situation.
How do you achieve academic and professional
reflection?

6. This means that reflective writing requires both descriptive and
analytical writing styles:
Would A or B show a critical writing style?
A
• What happened
• Where something takes place
• Who was involved
• When it occurred
B
• Examines how and why something takes place
• Considers alternatives
• Evaluates importance
• Offers possible implications

7. So, as a form of academic writing, reflective writing requires both
descriptive and analytical writing styles:
Would A or B show a critical writing style?
Descriptive
• What happened
• Where something takes place
• Who was involved
• When it occurred
Analytical
• Examines how and why something takes place
• Considers alternatives
• Evaluates importance
• Offers possible implications

8. So, what is critical
analysis?
• Standing back and thinking about all the
elements of a topic
• Not taking information at face-value
• Thinking about context
• Considering an issue from different
perspectives
• Analysing and evaluating information, ideas
and perspectives before making a
judgement
• Asking and answering questions

9. Analyse your
experience/incident
Interrogate yourself – keep pushing! Imagine
you have someone with you asking more and
more questions.
• What happened?
• Why did this happen?
• How did/do they feel about the incident? Why?
• What and how can you learn from theory and practice about your
experience?
• What is its significance?​ Why?
• How valuable was the experience?​ Why? How will you use it?
• What exactly did/would they do differently next time?

10. Use a reflective
model
• Models can help you structure
your reflective thinking and writing.
• However, the basic structure of any
reflective writing is Description,
Interpretation and Outcome.
• Driscoll’s reflective model (2007)
follows a similar simple pattern:
What? So what? Now what?
Gibbs’s Reflective Cycle (1988)

11. Cooperation between group members was at risk because of
this perception of unfairness. Social interdependence theory
recognises a type of group interaction called ‘positive
interdependence’, meaning cooperation (Johnson & Johnson,
1993, cited by Maughan & Webb, 2001), and many studies have
demonstrated that “cooperative learning experiences
encourage higher achievement” (Maughan & Webb, 2001).
Ultimately, our group achieved a successful outcome, but to
improve the process, we perhaps needed a chairperson to help
encourage cooperation when tasks were being shared out. In
future group work, on the course and at work, I would probably
suggest this.
Specific tasks were shared out amongst members of my team.
Initially, however, the tasks were not seen as equally difficult by
all team members.
For each section:
A =
Description
B =
Interpretation
C =
Outcome
Description, Interpretation, Outcome: which section is which?

12. Specific tasks were shared out amongst members of my
team. Initially, however, the tasks were not seen as equally
difficult by all team members. Cooperation between group
members was at risk because of this perception of
unfairness. Social interdependence theory recognises a
type of group interaction called ‘positive interdependence’,
meaning cooperation (Johnson & Johnson, 1993, cited by
Maughan & Webb, 2001), and many studies have
demonstrated that “cooperative learning experiences
encourage higher achievement” (Maughan & Webb, 2001).
Ultimately, our group achieved a successful outcome, but
to improve the process, we perhaps needed a chairperson
to help encourage cooperation when tasks were being
shared out. In future group work, on the course and at
work, I would probably suggest this.
Description
Interpretation
Outcome

13. Features of the language of
reflective writing:
• First person-when expressing personal experiences,
observations or opinions.
• Third person-when referring to theory or other
writers, write in the third person. Refer to other
writers by name.
• Actions (verbs)-usually those of feeling and thinking,
e.g. feeling, felt, considered, experienced, wondered,
remembered, discovered, learned.
• Hedging- using words like ‘may’, ‘perhaps’ or ‘might’
help demonstrate that you are aware that you are
considering different perspectives, experiences,
lenses, and that critical analysis does not make
something 100% certain.

14. Reflect on your
reflections….
Go back to you what has gone well and
what you would like to improve.
What will you now do to make that
improvement?
Note this down as a reminder for when
you are next writing a piece of reflection.

15. Next steps: postgraduate webinars to come
Next week:
Editing and Proofreading
Dissertations: Question Time
Academic Writing: case studies
Week starting 6th April:
Editing and Proofreading
Dissertations: Question Time
Look out for further webinars to be
announced.