Reflective writing combines theory and personal experience to analyze strengths and weaknesses from an event by learning from mistakes and considering how to improve for the future. It uses evidence to back up reflections on lessons learned rather than just describing an event, and examines practice honestly rather than making oneself look good. Reflective writing promotes deep learning by connecting theory to practice and thinking about the learning process through examples like journal entries, reports, diaries or portfolios.

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