Best Guide to Reflective Writing

Introduction:

Reflective writing can describe as the diagnostic writing which demands the writer to think. In reflective writing, the writer is expected to describe any situation or circumstances by relating the writing in any form with his personal examples. The writer may not even mention any incident and can just pen down his thoughts or experience about any topic. The reflective writing is the answer to the thoughts of writers about any incident or event. The writers answer to the questions; why I am writing, what has happened, the thoughts or the emotions for writing, the effect of writing.

In simply the reflective writing is the reflection of the writer's thinking, it could be about a situation, event, interaction, thought or a memory.

In academics, the reflective writing assignments are often given to the students as it is said that the reflection is a very important activity which will help the students to analyze their experience and will help them to learn and improve.

The students should have the complete knowledge about the features, characteristics and do's and don'ts of reflective writing.

Below is the full guide to the reflective writing.

Guide to Reflective writing

There are some characteristics of reflective writing which one has to follow.

Characteristics of reflective writing:

• When the writer is writing the reflective writing he or she should represent himself as I, me or we depending on the situation.
• While representing the thought of any other person in the reflective writing, the writer should represent that person by name, to avoid any confusion.
• The writers should include the words which express his or her experience to the readers, and he can be clear about his thoughts.
• The writer when is not sure about any of his thoughts should mention that by using words may, perhaps or so on.

The reflective writing can be written in following ways:

1) A writer first mentions his or her views and then supports it by an incident or theory.

2) A writer can first mention the incident or event followed by his or her thoughts.

3) The writer just expresses his or her opinion without any theory.

Dos and Don'ts of reflective writing:

• The writer should be well aware that his writing should be formatted so that it becomes readable. The reflective writing should not be merely the writing which has the bundle of writer's thoughts. Instead, it should be a string which has beads of writer's thoughts well supported by incidents or examples. The readers should be able to understand clearly the feelings or emotions of a writer.
• The writer should represent himself as the well-read person who has the knowledge and can express his thoughts.
• The writer should develop a line of reasoning.
• The writer should be able to link the incident or example well with his ideas.
• The reflective writing should be purely on the thoughts of a writer so that he or she can reason well and write from his or her personal experience.

An example of reflective writing:

A student is given an incident where an individual strives to find the solution to his problems and how he succeeds in it. A student will now analyze the situation of the individual and then will start reasoning with him. The student will remember the past cases in which he was stuck up in a problem, his frustrations and finally what he did to solve the problem. The student will have a clear picture of what he did right or wrong in that particular situation. His writing will inspire him to be a better person and strong in case he is in that problematic situation again. It will help the readers to understand the emotions and temperament of the writer.

The students are often given the reflective articles which help them to perform well in academics like how to write the assignment or about the performance of last class. These topics help the students to evaluate themselves. The reflective writing on these subjects will motivate the students to perform well and assist them to find the right path themselves. The students progress from their past experiences.

Conclusion:

The reflective writing makes the writer to reason, share his experience and learn from it. It helps them to make a better person. As it is said that self-reflection is a very modest move, it allow the writer to find out the what do they think, why do they think so that it gives them the option to do anything in a better manner. Hence it is important to have the full knowledge about reflective writing before proceeding.