Reflective writing as an assessment is a great way for your marker to see your thoughts progress. You can ask questions, add suggestions, argue with the material and question your own experiences or previous understanding. It demonstrates you’re taking your understanding of your subject deeper.
—Ari Moore, Senior Student Writing Mentor
Reflective writing tasks at university are a way of asking you to critically evaluate and make connections between the theories and practice you are engaging with in your unit. They can also guide you to become more aware of your personal thoughts about your life experiences in relation to those theories. In some disciplines, for example, education, reflection is often used to build upon existing knowledge and to help improve professional practice.
Reflective writing is not just a description or summary of something that you have observed. Instead, reflective writing requires you to describe, analyse and evaluate. Describing, analysing and evaluating experiences enables you to develop new insights and perspectives. The quality of your analysis is improved by reading widely and thinking critically about what you are learning in your course.
Some examples of reflective writing assignments include:
- Analysing your experience of working on a group task.
- Critiquing a teaching or learning activity (self-review or peer review activities).
- Critiquing your experiences on a placement or internship.
- Describing a critical experience in your life that has shaped your view of the world.
- Keeping a reflective journal or log on a work placement.
There are various reflective writing models and this guide will discuss two used at Deakin. However, you should always check your unit assessment instructions for specific directions or preferred reflection models.
