NARRATOR: An introduction to reflective writing. Reflective writing has become increasingly common in university courses. Yet we don't often think about it as being something we do for assessment. We often think of reflection as something we do in a diary entry or maybe even an email, instances where we're describing what we've been doing. 

But reflective writing is much more than this. It helps us to think about what we've experienced, why our experience unfolded in the way that it did, how we could do things differently, and how we can apply what we've learned to future experiences. 

At university, you might be asked to reflect on your past experience, or you might have to reflect on your learning, that is, the particular ideas and concepts from your units. While there isn't a correct structure to this kind of writing, a lot of students make the mistake of spending too much time describing and not enough time analyzing. 

That is, they spend too much time saying what happened or explaining what the idea or theory is and not enough time saying why the idea or the event is significant and how it might be applied in the future. Gibbs' Reflective Cycle is a model that can be used as a guide to reflective writing. It can help you move beyond simple descriptions. 

It breaks the process down into six steps. It begins with description-- so what happened-- but then it encourages you to ask more analytical questions to do with your feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, and an action plan. In cases where you're asked to reflect on your learning rather than an experience, Gibbs' Reflective Cycle might look a bit more like this, as indicated in blue. 

Generally speaking, all reflective writing tasks should include some of this but more of this. While reflective writing involves thinking about the past, the purpose of it is really to see what can be learned from the experience and to use that new insight to shape the experiences of your future. Applying the ideas and techniques outlined in this video will help you to successfully undertake reflective writing at university. We wish you every success.